The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

By Ballard MacDonald and Harry Carroll
1913

Having now seen the excellent Stan and Ollie for the second time, I'm in a Laurel and Hardy frame of mind, which brings me to this old chestnut identified closely with the boys thanks to the unforgettable performance of it in their 1937 classic Way Out West. By that point, however, the tune was already an oldie, having been inspired by the 1908 novel of the same name. The favorite song of poet Gertrude Stein, it was first recorded by Albert Campbell and Henry Burr. Thanks to an upsurge in Laurel and Hardy popularity in Britain during the 1970s, Stan and Ollie's version rocketed all the way to the #2 position on the UK singles chart in 1975.

Lyrics:

On a mountain in Virginia stands a lonesome pine
Just below is the cabin home of a little girl of mine
Her name is June and very, very soon she'll belong to me
For I know she's waiting there for me neath that lone pine tree.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome pine
In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine
Where you carved your name and I carved mine.

Oh, June - like the mountains, I'm blue
Like the pine - I am lonesome for you
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome pine.

Recorded By:

Manuel Romain
Edna Brown and James F. Harrison
The Dinning Sisters
Rex Allen
The Diamonds

They Didn't Believe Me

By Jerome Kern and Herbert Reynolds

1914

One of the most influential songs in the history of popular music, "They Didn't Believe Me" helped usher in a new era in musical comedy, and marked a significant break from the classical European songwriting tradition, making way for what became known as the Great American Songbook. When producer Charles Frohman was importing the successful London musical The Girl from Utah to the Broadway stage, he brought in the unknown Kern and Reynolds to punch it up with a few distinctly American numbers. This particular song helped make Kern into the first breakout star songwriter of the modern era. The composition, introduced on stage by Julia Sanderson and Donald Brian (pictured), featured plain, everyday language, as opposed to the flowery prose of previous love ballads; it also departed from the European waltz style, embracing the syncopation and ragtime flavor that was all the rage in American dance halls. It would have a profound impact on Broadway love ballads for the next half-century.

Lyrics:

Got the cutest little way
Like to watch you all the day
And it certainly seems fine
Just to think that you'll be mine
When I see your pretty smile
Makes the living worth the while
So I've got to run around
Telling people what I've found

And when I told them how beautiful you are
They didn't believe me, they didn't believe me
Your lips, your eyes, your cheeks, your hair
Are in a class beyond compare
You're the loveliest girl that one could see
And when I tell them
And I certainly am goin' to tell them
That I'm the man whose wife one day you'll be
They'll never believe me, they'll never believe me
That from this great big world you've chosen me

Don't know how it happened quite
May have been the summer night
May have been; well, who can say?
Things just happen any way
All I know is I said "yes"
Hesitating more or less
And you kissed me where I stood
Just like any fellow would

And when I told them how wonderful you are
They didn't believe me, they didn't believe me
Your lips, your eyes, your curly hair
Are in a class beyond compare
You're the loveliest thing that one could see
And when I tell them
And I certainly am goin' to tell them
That I'm the girl whose boy one day you'll be
They'll never believe me, they'll never believe me
That from this great big world you've chosen me

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Johnny Hartman
Bing Crosby
George Sanders
Harry Belafonte

Swanee

By George Gershwin & Irving Caesar
1919

Despite all his later accomplishments, this career-making hit for Gershwin would remain the biggest hit of his entire life. Written on a train ride with Caesar one New York afternoon as a parody of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home", it was introduced in the Broadway revue Demi-Tasse. But it wasn't until the legendary Al Jolson heard it played by Gershwin at a party and incorporated it into his show Sinbad that it really took off. The song wound up selling over a million copies of sheet music, and Jolson's recording was number one for nine weeks. The money Gershwin made from it allowed him to leave Tin Pan Alley and focus on an illustrious Broadway career.

Lyrics:

I've been away from you a long time
I never thought I'd miss 'ya so
Somehow I feel, your love is real
Near you I wanna be.

The Birds are singing it is songtime
The banjos strumming soft and low
I know that you yearn for me too, Swanee you're calling me

Swanee - how I love ya, how I love ya 
My dear old Swanee. 
I'd give the world to be 
Among the folks in D-I-X-I-E-ven though my mammy's waiting for me,
Praying for me down by the Swanee. 
The folks up north will see me no more, when I get to that Swanee shore!

Recorded By:

Al Jolson
Judy Garland
Rufus Wainwright
The Muppets
The Temptations

Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning

By Irving Berlin
1918

Perhaps the song most associated with Berlin as a performer. He composed this strictly for his own amusement, after being drafted into the Army near the end of World War I. The song was so popular with the men, however, that his commanding officer used it for fundraising purposes, and before the end of the year, it appeared in the Zeigfeld Follies. Berlin himself performed it during the next World War, in the 1943 film This Is the Army.

Lyrics:

Oh! How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning,
Oh! How I'd love to remain in bed
For the hardest blow of all is to hear the bugler call:
'You've got to get up, you've got to get up,
You've got to get up this morning!'

Someday I'm going to murder the bugler
Someday they're going to find him dead
I'll amputate his reveille and stomp upon it heavily
And spend the rest of my life in bed!

A bugler in the army is the luckiest of men
He wakes the boys at five and then goes back to bed again
He doesn't have to blow again until the afternoon
If ev'rything goes well with me I'll be a bugler soon!

Oh! How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning,
Oh! How I'd love to remain in bed
For the hardest blow of all is to hear the bugler call:
'You've got to get up, you've got to get up,
You've got to get up this morning!'

Oh, boy! The minute the battle is over
Oh, boy! The minute the foe is dead
I'll put my uniform away and move to Philadelphia
And spend the rest of my life in bed!

Recorded By:

Arthur Fields
Alice Faye & Ethel Merman
Dick Robertson
Irving Berlin
Jessica Molaskey

Look for the Silver Lining

By Jerome Kern & B.G DeSylva
1919

Although originally written for the failed musical Zip Goes a Million, this charming early Jazz Age gem was revived in 1920 for the show Sally, in which it was properly introduced by Marilyn Miller. With a lilting melody and an uplifting lyric, it was a natural hit. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union would use it as the basis of their theme song, and it would later be embraced by modern TV viewers thanks to Chet Baker's rendition, which was often used as a theme on Turner Classic Movies.

Lyrics:

As I wash my dishes, I'll be following a plan
Til I see the brightness in every pot and pan
I am sure this point of view will ease the daily grind
So I'll keep repeating in my mind:

Look for the silver lining
Whenever a cloud appears in the blue
Remember, somewhere the sun is shining
And so the right thing to do is make it shine for you

A heart, full of joy and gladness
Will always banish sadness and strife
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life

Recorded By:

Chet Baker
Aretha Franklin
Susannah McCorkle
Margaret Whiting
Judy Garland

America the Beautiful

By Samuel A. Ward & Katharine Lee Bates

1910

An extremely popular song of American patriotism--so much so that it has often been suggested as a replacement for the more cumbersome "Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of the U.S.A. It began life as a poem called "Pike's Peak", written by Bates and published on July 4, 1895 in the periodical The Congregationalist (it was published under the title "America"). The poem became quite popular, and in 1910 was combined with a melody written by church organist Ward--written in 1882 and published in 1892 as "Materna", part of the hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem". It was introduced on record in 1910 by Louise Homer, and by far the most popular and inspirational version of modern times would have to be the amazing rendition of Ray Charles.

With words specifically written to commemorate the Fourth of July, this is the perfect tune for enjoying this blessed holiday. Happy Independence Day from Standard of the Day!

Lyrics:

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Recorded By:

Ray Charles
Elvis Presley
Whitney Houston
Barbra Streisand
Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Curse of an Aching Heart

By Henry Fink & Al Piantadosi

1913

A dusty old chestnut from the pre-World War I era, this is a melancholy, sentimental tear-jerker of the variety that was popular at the time. It was introduced by superstar opera singer Will Oakland, and later became a standard cliche of the woeful love song. This can be seen in its hilarious inclusion in the 1930 Laurel & Hardy short Blotto. It was also resurrected as a swingin' tune by Frank Sinatra for his 1961 album, Sinatra Swings.

Lyrics:

You made me think you cared for me

And I believed in you
You told me things you never meant
And made me think them true

I gambled in the game of life
I played my heart and lost
I'm now a wreck upon life's sea
Alone I pay the cost

You made me what I am today
I hope you're satisfied
You dragged and dragged me down until
The soul within me died

You shattered each and ev'ry dream
Fooled me right from the start
And though you're not true, may God bless you
That's the curse of an aching heart.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Fats Waller
Monty Sunshine
Manuel Romain
Jimmie Davis

After You've Gone

By Turner Layton & Henry Creamer
1918

A major hit of the World War I era, this tune would eventually become enormously popular with jazz musicians, due to the ease upon which it can be improvised. It was first recorded by Marion Harris, and would also be used as the theme song a BBC TV series of the same name. It remains one of the most familiar standards prior to the 1920s.

Lyrics:

Now won't you listen dearie while I say,
how could you tell me that you're goin' away?
Don't say that we must part, don't break my aching heart
You know I've loved you truly many years, loved you night and day
How can you leave me, can't you see my tears?
Listen while I say

After you've gone, and left me crying
After you've gone, there's no denying
You'll feel blue, you'll feel sad
You'll miss the dearest pal you've ever had.

There'll come a time, now don't forget it
There'll come a time, when you'll regret it
Some day, when you grow lonely
You heart will break like mine and you'll want me only
After you've gone, after you've gone away.

After I'm gone, after we break up
After I'm gone, you're gonna wake up
You will find, you were blind
To let somebody come and change your mind.

After the years, we've been together
Their joy and tears all kinds of weather
Someday, blue and downhearted
You'll long to be with me right back where you started
After I'm gone, after I'm gone away.

Recorded By:

Ella Fitzgerald
Frankie Laine
Bessie Smith
Fiona Apple
Nina Simone

Pretty Baby

By Tony Jackson, Gus Kahn & Egbert Van Alstyne
1916

A gem of a tune from the height of the ragtime era, this song originated in Jackson's stage repertoire as early as 1912. It was rumored to have actually been written as a tribute to a male lover, certainly a rarity for a pop song of the time. Later, when the song was published, Tin Pan Alley stalwarts Kahn and Van Alstyne made some alterations, including a bridge and less risque lyrics. Among American standards, it is one of those most strongly associated with the World War I/Ragtime years...

Lyrics:

You ask me why I'm always teasing you,
You hate to have me call you Pretty Baby;
I really thought that I was pleasing you,
For you're just a baby to me.
Your cunning little dimples and your baby stare,
Your baby talk and baby walk and curly hair;
Your baby smile makes life worth while,
You're just as sweet as you can be.

Your mother says you were the cutest kid;
No wonder, dearie, that I'm wild about you,
And all the cunning things you said and did.
Why, I love to fondly recall,
Ann just like Peter Pan, it seems you'll always be
The same sweet, cunning, Little Baby dear to me.
And that is why I'm sure that I will always love you best of all.

Everybody loves a baby that's why I'm in love with you,
Pretty Baby, Pretty Baby;
And I'd to be your sister, brother, dad and mother too,
Pretty Baby, Pretty Baby.
Won't you come and let me rock you in my cradle of love,
And we'll cuddle all the time.
Oh! I want a Lovin' Baby and it might as well be you,
Pretty Baby of mine.

Recorded By:

Al Jolson
Leon Redbone
Dean Martin
Bing Crosby
Billy Murray

The Darktown Strutters' Ball

By Shelton Brooks
1917

Another infectious and marvelous old tune that may not perfectly jibe with our modern politically correct sensibilities, but should never be forgotten. Introduced by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, it was one of the earliest traditional jazz songs to become a standard. It's believed to have been inspired by the 1915 Pacific-Panama Expo in San Francisco. I have a personal fondness for it, as my great-aunt (born 1920) used to sing it to me when I was a small child as I danced around her living room. This jumping dance composition will always be a favorite of mine.

Lyrics:

I'll be down to get you in a taxi, Honey,
You better be ready about half past eight,
Now dearie, don't be late,
I want to be there when the band starts playing.

Remember when we get there, Honey,
The two-steps, I'm goin' to have 'em all,
Goin' to dance out both my shoes,
When they play the "Jelly Roll Blues,"
Tomorrow night at the Darktown Strutters' Ball.

Recorded By:

Ella Fitzgerald
Dean Martin
Jimmy Dorsey
Fats Waller
Lou Monte

Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?

By Charles Warfield & Clarence Williams
1919

This blues and jazz classic was not officially introduced until 1922, when it was first recorded by Eva Taylor wife of co-composer Williams. Ironically, Warfield would later dispute Williams' authorship, claiming to have written the song alone. It would be made a smash hit in 1923 by the Empress of the Blues herself, Bessie Smith. Truly evocative of an era.

Lyrics:

I've got the blues, I feel so lonely
I'll give the world if I could only
Make you understand
It surely would be grand
I'm gonna telephone my baby
Ask him won't you please come home
'Cause when you're gone, I'm worried all day long

Baby won't you please come home
Baby won't you please come home
I have tried in vain
Ever more to call your name

When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Every hour in the day
You will hear me say
Baby won't you please come home?

Baby won't you please come home
Baby won't you please come home
Cause your mama's all alone
I have tried in vain
Never more to call your name

When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Landlord gettin' worse, I've got to move May the first
Baby won't you please come home, I need money
Baby won't you please come home?

Recorded By:

Django Reinhardt
Louis Armstrong
Lionel Hampton
Sidney Bechet
Ray Charles

The Japanese Sandman

By Richard A. Whiting & Raymond B. Egan
1919

Did you know that this song single-handedly kicked off the modern phenomenon of popular music recording? It's true, and I only discovered it after researching the song, which I recently came across in the new Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Apparently, prior to Paul Whiteman's introduction of the tune, basically only classical music and some local folk material was deemed worthy of recording for posterity. But this pop song became the first platinum record, and in so doing ushered in the notion that there was a viable market for recorded performances of pop songs. Prior to that, the main market for pop was in the sale of sheet music.

Lyrics:

Won't you stretch imagination for the moment and come with me
Let us hasten to a nation lying over the western sea
Hide behind the cherry blossoms here's a sight that will please your eyes
There's a baby with a lady of Japan singing lullabies
Night winds breath her sighs here's the Japanese

Just as silent as we came we'll leave the land of the painted fan
Wander lightly or you'll wake the little people of old Japan
May repose and pleasant dreaming be their share while the hours are small
Like an echo of the song I hear the Japanese Sandman
call new days near for all here's the Japanese

Sandman sneaking on with the dew just an old second hand man
He'll buy your old day from you
he will take every sorrow of the day that is through
and he'll give you tomorrow just to start a life anew
then you'll be a bit older in the dawn when you wake
and you'll be a bit bolder with the new day you make
here's the Japanese Sandman trade him silver for gold
just an old second hand man trading new days for old.

Recorded By:

The Andrew Sisters
Artie Shaw
Bix Beiderbecke
Django Reinhardt
Mandy Patinkin

You Made Me Love You

By James V. Monaco & Joseph McCarthy
1913

This tune was originally composed for the stage revue The Honeymoon Express, and was immortalized that same year by a famous recording by Al Jolson. Yet it achieved arguably even greater heights in 1938 when a teenaged Judy Garland sang a modified version for Clark Gable at a birthday party for the actor. The rendition was added into the movie Broadway Melody of 1938, and Judy was on her way to being a mega-star.

Lyrics:

You made me love you,
I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it.
You made me love you,
And all the time you knew it,
I guess you always knew it.

You made me happy sometimes, you made me glad.
But there were times, Dear, you made me feel so bad.

You made me sigh for,
I didn't want to tell you, I didn't want to tell you.
I want some love that's true,
Yes I do, deed I do, you know I do.

Give me, give me, give me what I cry for,
You know you got the brand of kisses that I'd die for.
You know you made me love you.

Recorded By:

Doris Day
Harry James
Glenn Miller
Rufus Wainwright
Harry Nilsson

When I Lost You

By Irving Berlin
1912

A truly heartbreaking song, and one of the most personal of standards. Berlin wrote it following the typhoid fever death of his wife of five months, a singer named Dorothy Goetz. Berlin himself made the first recording of it, and it soon became his first hit ballad. A simple waltz with bittersweet harmony and diminished seventh chords, it was the only song born so directly of the composer's personal pain.

Lyrics:

I lost the sunshine and roses,
I lost the heavens of blue.
I lost the beautiful rainbow,
I lost the morning dew.

I lost the angel who gave me
Summer the whole winter through.
I lost the gladness that turned into sadness,
When I lost you.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Bing Crosby
Tony Bennett
Jessica Molaskey
Maude Maggart

Alexander's Ragtime Band

By Irving Berlin
1911

This was the first hit song for Berlin, and is even cited by some as the official beginning of the era of the Great American Songbook. Although it borrows from the African-American idioms of ragtime, it is not itself a rag tune. It does, however, hold the distinction of charting in five different decades, from the 1910s through the 1950s. It was introduced in Chicago by vaudeville singer Emma Carus.

Lyrics:

Oh, ma hon-ey, oh, ma hon-ey, bet-ter hur-ry and let's me-an-der
Ain't you go-in'? Ain't you go-in'? To the lea-der-man, rag-ged me-ter man?
Oh, ma hon-ey, oh, ma hon-ey, Let me take you to Al-ex-an-der's
Grand stand brass band, ain't you com-in' a-long?

CHORUS:
Come on and hear! Come on and hear! Al-ex-an-der's rag-time band!
Come on and hear! Come on and hear! It's the best band in the land!
They can play a bu-gle call like you nev-er heard be-fore
So nat-u-ral that you want to go to war
That's just the best-est band what am, ma hon-ey lamb
Come on a-long, come on a-long, let me take you by the hand
Up to the man, up to the man, who's the lead-er of the band
And if you care to hear the Swa-nee Riv-er played in rag-time
Come on and hear, come on and hear,
Al-ex-an-der's Rag-Time Band.

VERSE 2:
Come and listen to the wonderful sound, hear the music that is sweapin the town, You'll soon be tappin your feet to a new kind of beat that keeps u happy all day long i love to her that banjo strimmin eith to that bar, ragtime music is the greatest by far, so come and see, you'll soon agree they are best in the land. Come on lets give em a hand

CHORUS:
Come on and hear! Come on and hear! Al-ex-an-der's rag-time band!
Come on and hear! Come on and hear! It's the best band in the land!
They can play a bu-gle call like you nev-er heard be-fore
So nat-u-ral that you want to go to war
That's just the best-est band what am, oh, ma hon-ey lamb
Come on a-long, come on a-long, let me take you by the hand
Up to the man, up to the man, who's the lead-er of the band
And if you care to hear the Swa-nee Riv-er played in rag-time
Come on and hear, come on and hear,
Al-ex-an-der's Rag-Time Band

Recorded By:

Al Jolson
Julie Andrews
Ray Charles
The Andrew Sisters
Bessie Smith

God Bless America

By Irving Berlin
1918

A patriotic ballad taking the form of a prayer, this classic by Berlin is more popular with many than the more musically complex "Star-Spangled Banner". It was written at the end of World War I, and has become one of the nation's most beloved "modern anthems". Kate Smith's 1930s version will forever resonate with Americans.

Lyrics:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam--
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Recorded By:

Ray Charles
Leontyne Price
Connie Francis
Celine Dion
Ronan Tynan

Poor Butterfly

By Raymond Hubbell & John Golden
1916

A popular standard of the late Gilded Age, the tune was composed by Hubbell & Golden as a pop take on the immensely popular Puccini opera Madame Butterfly, which had premiered in the U.S. a decade earlier. In fact, the verse even contains a fragment from the opera's second act. It was originally written for the New York Hippodrome musical revue The Big Show, in which it was introduced by Sophie Bernard.

Lyrics:

There's a story told of a little Japanese,
Sitting demurely 'neath the cherry blossom trees.
Miss Butterfly's her name.
A sweet little innocent child was she,
'Till a fine young American from the sea
To her garden came.
They met 'neath the cherry blossoms everyday,
And he taught her how to love the American way.
To love with her soul t'was easy to learn.
Then he sailed away with a promise to return.

Poor Butterfly,
'Neath the blossoms waiting.
Poor Butterfly,
For she loved him so.
The moments pass into hours.
The hours pass into years.
And as she smiles through her tears,
She murmurs low:

"The moon and I
Know that he'll be faithful.
I'm sure he'll come
To me by and by.
But if he won't come back,
Then I'll never sigh or cry,
I just must die."

Poor Butterfly.

Recorded By:

Sarah Vaughan
Benny Goodman
Frank Sinatra
Deanna Durbin
Red Nichols & His Five Pennies

Chinatown, My Chinatown

By Jean Schwartz & William Jerome
1910

A very early standard that would become especially popular later on in jazz circles, this song's melody incorporates Chinese musical styles. The lyrics play off a Western fascination and romanticizing of the Chinatown neighborhoods that had sprung up in places like New York and San Francisco. That said, it is considered soundly racist by modern standards.

Lyrics:

When the town is fast a sleep, and it's midnight in the sky,
That's the time the festive Chink starts to wink his other eye,
Starts to wink his dreamy eye, lazily you hear him sigh.

Chinatown, my Chinatown,
Where the lights are low.
Hearts that know no other land,
Drifting to and fro.

Dreamy, dreamy Chinatown,
Almond eyes of brown,
Hearts seem light and life seems bright
In dreamy Chinatown.

Recorded By:

Al Jolson
Louis Armstrong
Jimmy Roselli
Art Tatum
Sidney Bechet

My Melancholy Baby

By Ernie Burnett & George A. Norton
1912

In one of the most bizarre bits of trivia I've ever come across, it might interest you to know that it was William "Fred Mertz" Frawley who introduced this song at the Mozart Cafe in Denver, Colorado. The sentimental favorite was a major theme in the Cagney pic The Roaring Twenties, in which it was sung by his co-star Priscilla Lane.

Lyrics:

Come sweetheart mine,
Don't sit and pine.
Tell me of the cares that make you feel so blue.
What have I done?
Answer me, hon.
Have I ever said an unkind word to you?
My love is true,
And just for you.
I'd do almost anything at any time.
Dear when you sigh,
Or when you cry,
Something seems to grip this very heart of mine.

So come to me, my melancholy baby,
Cuddle up and don't feel blue.
All your fears are foolish fancy, maybe.
You know, dear, that I'm in love with you.

Every cloud must have a silver lining.
Wait until that sun shines through.
Smile, my honey dear,
While I kiss away each tear,
Or else I shall be melancholy, too.

Recorded By:

Barbra Streisand
Al Bowlly
Coleman Hawkins
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie & Thelonious Monk
Leon Redbone

Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?

By Clarence Williams & Charles Warfield
1919

It's believed that pianist Warfield was in actuality this song's sole composer, and Williams--as song publishers sometimes did--took partial credit in exchange for promoting the song. Although written in 1919, the earliest recorded version, to my knowledge, is the 1922 version by Williams' wife Eva Taylor. Bessie Smith, "Empress of the Blues", would make a hit of it the following year. It has since become a signature tune of the Roaring '20s.

Lyrics:

I've got the blues, I feel so lonely.
I'll give the world if I could only
Make you understand
It surely would be grand.
I'm gonna telephone my baby,
Ask him won't you please come home,
'Cause when you're gone, I'm worried all day long.

Baby, won't you please come home?
Baby, won't you please come home?
I have tried in vain
Nevermore to call your name.

When you left you broke my heart,
That will never make us part.
Every hour in the day,
You will hear me say,
Baby won't you please come home.

Recorded By:

The Mills Brothers
Wynton Marsalis
Stan Kenton
Frank Sinatra
Ray Charles