(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey

Has any song been more enjoyable than "Bill Bailey"? Originally titled "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home," it was written in 1902 by Hughie Cannon,  a tavern piano player in Jackson, Michigan. As the story goes, Cannon was inspired by the carousing of his friend and fellow musician Willard "Bill" Bailey, whose wife regularly called on him to end his late night habits. Whether true or not, Michigan's nocturnal Bill Bailey has been immortalized in a song that has been a Dixieland and jazz standard for over a century. The song is almost impossible to overdo, overact, over-arrange, or over produce, though parodies abound (I have included only one).

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Comments

[Robert Clarke]

Great selections with incredible variation of a classic song. I even liked "Disraeli." Just for comparison, here is another that I think acts as a foil, or failed attempt at making this song "hip." https://youtu.be/J2iBX_wGbkU

[Steve L.]

Thanks for the link, Rob -- painful as it is.