Songfacts®:

• The title of this song has no question mark, and its punchline is that it is anything but a simple melody. When Barry Manilow presented a programme about Irving Berlin for BBC Radio in 2011 - part of a series on American songwriters - he said this piece, which Berlin wrote in 1914, was the first of his famous double songs, i.e. it is in counterpoint like "You're Just In Love," which he wrote three-and-a-half decades later.
• Also known as "Play A Simple Melody," the song was written in 4/4 time, was published by Berlin himself, and appeared in Watch Your Step, Berlin's first musical. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• Walter Van Brunt and Mary Carson recorded a popular version in 1915, followed by Elsie Baker (aka Edna Brown) and Billy Murray the following year.
• This was resurrected in 1950 with a string of hit covers. Gary Crosby peaked at #2 when he recorded a version with his dad, Bing. Jo Stafford landed at #18, followed by Georgia Gibbs & Bob Crosby at #25, and Phil Harris at #30.
• Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey sang this in the 1954 tribute film to Irving Berlin, There's No Business Like Show Business.