One of the most enduring pieces of music from the 1920s has just now entered the public domain (Duke Law). Watch as Internet Archive’s Sean Dudley, a researcher specializing in the public domain, highlights the song’s iconic origins. Access the original sheet music from 1929 on Archive!

Transcript

Hi, my name is Sean.

I’m a researcher at the Internet Archive.

One of my favorite pieces of music is Singin’ in the Rain.

Of course, I know it best from the 1952 film, but it’s actually from a 1929 film that just entered public domain called The Hollywood Review.

The songs featured a couple of times, being sung by Cliff Edwards, who would later go on to be Jiminy Cricket, and then later on by this giant chorus of stars who are from the silent era and the early talky era, all singing in raincoats in two-strip Technicolor, so some really early color in film.

Now when we think about Singing of the Rain, we think about how many half-lives it’s already had under copyright.

The 1952 film, it’s reuse later on in A Clockwork Orange, and so many countless other moments.

So now that it’s in the public domain and it belongs to all of us, we can remix Singing in the Rain however we want.

So we’ll be “Singin’ in the Rain!”

See ya.