"My Greatest Mistake" is a popular song written in 1940 by

Jack Fulton John Collins Fulton (June 13, 1903 – November 13, 1993) was an American composer, trombonist, and vocalist. At the age of 17, he started playing the trombone for small-town dances. He sang with the Mason-Dixon Orchestra. He also played the tro ...

and Jack "Bones" O'Brien.

Comments

The original piano and vocal score is in E major. The song was

's first hit. Bregman, Vocco & Conn, Inc., of New York was the publisher. J. R. Lafleur & Son, Ltd. (

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British Music publisher (sheet music), music publisher, purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass instrument, brass, string instru ...

), of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

was the sole selling agent for the

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, except

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, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. J. Albert & Son of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

was the selling agent for

ASCAP boycott

"My Greatest Mistake" was one of some 1,250,000 songs under an

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

license. In 1940,

attempted to double its fees to broadcasters for the airing of licensed songs. For ten months – January 1, 1941, to October 29, 1941 – radio broadcasters, namely

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, banned all music licensed by ASCAP. Given the timing of the launch of "My Greatest Mistake," the

ASCAP boycott The ASCAP boycott was a 1941 boycott of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) by radio broadcasters, due to license fees. From another perspective, it was a boycott of radio broadcasters by ASCAP, "concerned about the un ...

, according to O'Brien, stunted the momentum of the song's rise in popularity for 13 recordings that were released before the boycott.

Selected discography

Pre-ASCAP ban

Post-ASCAP ban

Copyrights

Library holdings

Publisher plates

* H. 15250

Arrangements

* Arrangement by Charles E. Hathaway, Jr. (1901–1966)
George Manning Swing Band Collection
br />Box 5/55; No. 353 A, page 13, year 1940

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

Lyrics

Notes and references

Notes

Recording personnel

Copyrights

References

{{authority control 1940 songs American songs Pop ballads 1940s jazz standards Pop standards Jazz compositions in E-flat major Songs written by Jack Fulton