Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?

Album: Special Delivery (1902)
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  • On one summer's day the sun was shining fine
    The lady love of old Bill Bailey was hanging clothes on the line
    In her back yard and weeping hard
    She married a B & O brakeman that took and throw'd her down
    Bellering like a prune-fed calf with a big gang hanging 'round
    And to that crowd she yelled out loud

    Won't you come home Bill Bailey won't you come home?
    She moans the whole day long
    I'll do the cooking darling I'll pay the rent
    I knows I've done you wrong
    Member that rainy eve that I drove you out
    With nothing but a fine tooth comb?
    I know I'se 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 big wench squeal
    "He's all alone" I heard her groan
    She hollered through that door "Bill Bailey is you sore?
    Stop a minute won't you listen to me? Won't I see you no more?"
    Bill winked his eye as he heard her cry:

    Won't you come home Bill Bailey won't you come home?
    She moans the whole day long
    I'll do the cooking darling I'll pay the rent
    I knows I've done you wrong
    Member that rainy eve that I drove you out
    With nothing but a fine tooth comb?
    I know I'se to blame well ain't that a shame?
    Bill Bailey won't you please come home? Lyrics from a song in Public Domain

Comments: 3

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyPer: http://www.oldiesmusic.com/news.htm
    Actress/singer Della Reese, best remembered for her 1959 hit “Don’t You Know” (#2), died Sunday (November 19th, 2017) at her California home at the age of 86.
    Born Delloreese Patricia Early in Detroit, she started out in gospel music, singing in the ‘40s with Mahalia Jackson and later with Erskine Hawkins. As a solo R&B artist she broke out in 1957 with “And That Reminds Me” (#12) in 1957 but was soon signed by RCA Records. She appeared in the 1958 film, “Let’s Rock” but is better known for “Harlem Nights” in 1989 and the TV shows “Touched By An Angel”, “Chicao And The Man” and her own 1969 talk show, “Della.” She retired from acting three years ago. She was nominated for four Grammies and two Emmy Awards.
    May she R.I.P.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 7th 1960, Bobby Darin performed "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" on the NBC-TV program 'The George Burns Show'...
    At the time the song was at #43 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; a little under four weeks later on July 4th, 1960 it would peak at #19 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 11 weeks...
    The record's B-side, "I'll Be There", also made the Top 100; it reached #79 on the chart...
    Between 1958 and 1973 he had forty Top 100 records; ten made the Top 10 with one reaching #1, "Mack the Knife" for 9 weeks in 1959...
    He just missed having a second #1 record when "Dream Lover" peaked at #2* {for 1 week} in 1959...
    Mr. Darin, born Walden Robert Cassotto, passed away on December 20th, 1973 at the young age of 37...
    May he R.I.P.
    * The week "Dream Love" it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 31st 1963, Ella Fitzgerald's covered version of "Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home" entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #83, the following week it peaked at #75, then on its third and final week on the chart it was at #79...
    Between 1936 and 1963 she had fifty-seven hits on the Billboard charts; twenty made the Top 10 with three reaching #1, they were "Goodnight, My Love" {1937}, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" {1938}, and "I'm Making Believe" b/w "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" with the Ink-Spots {1944}...
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald passed away on June 15th, 1996 at the age of 79...
    May she R.I.P.
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