Best Seller

Ninety-eight per cent of the tunes published by Tin Pan Alley (Manhattan's sheet-music publishing industry) are in 2/4 or 4/4 time. But when, once in a blue moon, a waltz (3/4 time) catches on, it usually leaves the best selling of its rivals trailing by laps. Most sensational Spanish-style waltz hit was a tune by Tunesmith Mabel Wayne called Ramona (1928). One of the biggest sellers in Tin Pan Alley's history, Ramona ended by piling up sales of two million copies.

Last December a plump, middle-aged Mexican song writer, Maria Grever, lay bedridden with a serious face infection. Hypodermic injections by an attending physician made her feel as if her bed were tipping. Forced to meditate on this seasick idea, Tunesmith Grever evolved the title Ti-Pi-Tin, composed a tune to go with it.

Bright-eyed Tunesmith Grever never expected her Spanish-style Ti-Pi-Tin to rival the Spanish-style waltz Ramona in popularity. She had long been known as a composer of some 450 Spanish ditties and more or less serious concert songs, had reached grandmotherhood without seeing any of them create a furor. But last week, as Ti-Pi-Tin reached its fourth consecutive week as Tin Pan Alley's top seller, Grandmother Grever began to challenge Tunesmith Wayne's record.

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