In the final scenes of the ...
Question: In the final scenes of the 1931 James Cagney film The Public Enemy, there's a song playing on the phonograph. What's the name of the song and who's performing it?
Answer: The song used in The Public Enemy (1931) is "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," which was written in 1919 by James Kendis, James Brockman, Nat Vincent (they're credited collectively as "Jaan Kenbrovin," a pseudonym they made up by combining all of their names; the reason has something to do with individual contractual obligations to different publishers) and John William Kellette. It's been recorded repeatedly ever since, both as an instrumental piece and as a song; there's even a punk version by the Cockney Rejects. The song seems to have been strongly associated with Selvin's Novelty Orchestra, led by violinist Ben Selvin; the only Selvin recording I could locate was an instrumental, but there may well have been others. Selvin is apparently notorious for the sheer volume of recordings he made under various names and with various musicians. In any event, the lyrics — "I'm forever blowing bubbles/Pretty bubbles in the air/They fly so high/nearly reach the sky/Then like my dreams they fade and die" — work as a none-too-subtle ironic counterpoint to Irish immigrant Tom Powers' (James Cagney) brutal, relentless pursuit of money and influence in gangland Chicago.
