Neither Ivanovici’s first name nor details of his life are known. He was
born in Banat, Rumania, in 1848, distinguished himself as a bandleader
in his native country, and died in Bucharest on April 1, 1905. For his
band concerts he wrote many popular concert numbers. One of these is the
concert waltz, _The Waves of the Danube_ (_Donauwellen_), written in
1880, and achieving from the first phenomenal popularity throughout
Europe. The main waltz melody of this set of waltzes was expropriated by
Al Dubin and Dave Franklin for the American popular song “The
Anniversary Song,” (lyrics by Saul Chaplin), which was effectively used
in the motion picture _The Jolson Story_ in 1946, sung on the sound
track by Jolson himself.