Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?

Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?

ARTIST: Arthur Collins 1902 Recording; Listed as fiddle tune in Ceolas.

Listen: Arthur Collins 1902 Recording

CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Published in 1902;

RECORDING INFO: Broonzy, Big Bill. Sings Folk Songs, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40023, LP (1989), cut# 6; Grossman, Stefan. How to Play Ragtime Guitar, Kicking Mule KM-115, LP (1975), cut#A.08; Hill, Hank; and the Tennessee Folk Trio. Folk Song Hall of Fame, Palace M-716, LP (196?), cut# 11; Pendleton, Buddy. Union Grove 50. Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Union Grove SS-9, LP (1974), cut#A.07; Roberts, Cotton. Washington Traditional Fiddlers Project. Vol. 1, Northwest Folklife, Cas (1993), cut# 20; Weavers. Weavers at Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2, Vanguard VRS-9075, LP (1960), cut#A.03 (Bill Bailey Come Home); Whisnant, Johnny. Johnny Whisnant, Rounder 0038, LP (1974), cut# 11;

OTHER NAMES: Bill Bailey;

SOURCES: Recorded by Chattanooga, Tenn., fiddler Jesse Young for Columbia in the late 1920's.

NOTES: This song was an instant hit when first introduced by John Queen, a minstrel. Another song in the coon song genre that has been in constant use since introduction, most of us are only familiar with the chorus. Often recorded and in recent years most often associated with the great Louis Armstrong, the song has been somewhat "sanitized" as have other lasting hits from the coon song era. A number of musical luminaries besides Armstrong kept this work vibrant and alive over the last century. Among them are Ella Fitzgerald and Della Reese, Jimmy Durante and Bobby Darin whose version was a million seller. The 1959 film, The Five Pennies, featured Armstrong and Danny Kaye performing the song. Though the chorus we are used to stands well alone, the verses before the chorus are very unfamiliar but add a dimension that makes the song make more sense overall. After all, with this additional information (get the scorch player to see the full lyrics and music) we can finally learn why Bill Bailey was gone and why he needs to come home. Supposedly, the song is based on a "real" Bill Bailey who was a black vaudeville performer, member of the team of Bailey and Cowan. One night he was locked out of his house by a wife who had reached her limit of tolerance for his late night revelry with friends. It is said that Cannon (the composer) was one of his friends who partook of these nocturnal pleasures with him and Cannon paid for a room for Bailey at a local hotel and assured him that a night away from home would surely cause his wife to plead for his return. The song was so popular it inspired a number of spin-off tunes including I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Won't Come Home and Since Bill Bailey Came Back Home. Hughie Cannon, an American composer from Detroit (b. Detroit, 1877 - d. Toledo, OH, 1912) was a pianist for many vaudeville performers. Next to "Bill Baily", his other greatest hit was He Done Me Wrong, written in 1904 for the musical Frankie and Johnny. Cannon also wrote Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes with John Queen in 1900 and I Hates To Get Up Early In The Morning in 1901 also in collaboration with Queen.

BILL BAILEY WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME
Listen: Arthur Collins 1902 Recording
 
One one summer's day, Sun was shinin' fine,
The lady love of old Bill Bailey
Was hangin' clothes on the line
In her back yard, and weepin' hard.
She married a B&O brakeman
That took and throwed her down,
Bellerin' like a prune-fed calf
With a big gang hanging round
And to that crowd, she hollered loud:

Chorus: Won't you come home, Bill Bailey
Won't you come home?
She moans the whole day long.
I'll do the cookin', darling
I'll pay the rent,
I know I've done you wrong;
'Member that rainy evening that
I threw you out,
With nothing but a fine-tooth comb?
I know I'm to blame,
Well, ain't that a shame
Bill Bailey won't you please come home.

Bill drove by that door
In an automobile,
A great big diamond, coach and footman
Hear that lady squeal.
He's all alone I heard her groan.
She hollered through the door
Bill Bailey, is you sore?
Stop a minute, listen to me
Won't I see you no more?
Bill winks his eye
As he heard her cry:  (Chorus)