100 years ago: Arthur Collins hit #1 with “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home”

Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home Arthur Collins

Writer(s): Hughie Cannon, Johnnie Queen (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 12, 1902 Peak: 18 US, 11 GA, 4 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home Dan Quinn

First Charted: September 1902 Peak: 2 US, 11 GA, 11 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards (Collins): Click on award for more details. Awards (Quinn):

About the Song: Several people have claimed to be the original Bill Bailey, JA but according to Tin Pan Alley folklore, RCG the Detroit-born “song-and-dance man” Hughie Cannon wrote the song while working as a bar pianist at a saloon in Michigan. A regular customer named Willard “Bill” Bailey lamented about the poor state of his marriage to Sarah. SM She threw the African American vaudeville singer named Bill Bailey whose wife had thrown him out of the house because she’d had it with his late-night partying. PS Bailey also said the song “Ain’t That a Shame,” written by Walter Wilson and John Queen, wrote their song about him and how he’d walked out on his wife. When it was raining and he was cold and raining, he tried to apologize since he had nowhere else to go, but she’d already found a new man. SM Cannon was inspired to write a rags-to-riches song about what would happen if Bailey suddenly became rich. TY2 He wrote about a wife hanging laundry and singing about her hopes that her husband would soon come home. She confesses that she drove him away with “nothing but a fine tooth comb,” but Bailey returns with a fancy car. RCG It became an“early ragtime classic,” RCG “favorite of Dixie jazz bands,” DJ and a “sing-along standard” RCG thanks to the ease with which it could be adapted to jazz or played on honky-tonk piano or banjo. RCG John Queen, a minstrel and songwriter who was friends with Cannon, introduced the song at New York City’s Newburgh Theater. TY2 Arthur Collins, Dan Quinn, and Silas Leachman each took the song to the top 5 in 1902, but Collins’ version was the biggest. PM He was no stranger to the top, having landed there seven times before. This, however, was his biggest hit yet. Over the years, the song was recorded by a number of other big-name artists. Jimmy Durante and his sidekick Eddie Jackson often used it in their act. JA Bobby Darin took it to number 19 in 1960. Others who recorded the song included Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Della Reese. PS The song also spawned numerous parodies, including Tom Lehrer’s “(Won’t You Come Home) Disraeli?” JA As with many “coon songs”, as such racially deragotory songs from the early 20th century have come to be known, later recordings were often “sanitized.” PS The song’s popularity led to spin-off tunes “I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Won’t Come Home” and “Since Bill Bailey Came Back Home.” PS Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 22. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) PS ParlorSongs.com RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 17. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 (1986). Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 477. Related Links: Last updated 12/16/2022.

Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots released

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Flaming Lips

Released: July 16, 2002 Peak: 50 US, 13 UK, -- CN, 62 AU, 12 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.57 US, 0.32 UK, 0.89 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Fight Test (Cat Stevens, Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann) [4:14] (7/1/03, 28 UK, 35 DF) One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21 [4:59] (36 DF) Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 [4:45] (1/1/03, 18 UK, 23 DF) Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2 [2:57] In the Morning of the Magicians [6:18] Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell [4:34] Are You a Hypnotist? [4:44] (36 DF) It’s Summertime [4:20] Do You Realize?? (Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann) [3:33] (8/1/02, 32 UK, 3 DF) All We Have Is Now [3:53] Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia) [3:09] Tracks written by Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, and Michael Ivins unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 47:25 The Players: Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars) Steven Drozd (drums, guitar, keyboards, bass, vocals) Michael Ivins (bass, keyboards, backing vocals)

Rating: 4.029 out of 5.00 (average of 29 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

A Commercial and Critical Breakthrough “There are ways to demonstrate your commercial status and there are means to prove you are the coolest mothers currently striding the earth. Generally, these two are mutually exclusive so it is illustrative of the Flaming Lips’ unique success that they managed to combine both in one gloriously irrelevant moment.” RD As they had been “underground achievers for much of the 1980s and 1990s” RD no one anticipated 2000’s The Soft Bulletin becoming a critical success. They returned in 2002 with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It “was well-received critically and commercially, helping the band break into popularity.” WK It is “funny, beautiful, and moving” AM and “finds the Flaming Lips continuing to grow and challenge themselves.” AM Billboard called it “as strange as it is wonderful.” WK Fortune said it was “a lush and haunting electronic symphony.” WK The album is “a sublime fusion of Bulletin’s newfound emotional directness, the old-school playfulness of Transmissions From the Satellite Heart, and, more importantly, exciting new expressions of the group’s sentimental, experimental sound.” AM “While the album isn’t as immediately impressive as the equally brilliant and unfocused Soft Bulletin, it’s more consistent, using a palette of rounded, surprisingly emotive basslines; squelchy analog synths; and manicured acoustic guitars.” AM “Electronic bleeps and Pink Floyd-esque prog-rock mix freely with accessible singalongs in an overall concept loosely themed around killer robots and a gutsy heroine.” RD Concept Album or Not? Flaming Lips’ lead singer Wayne Coyne took the name for that heroine from Yoshimi P-We of Boredoms/OOIOO when he noted “that her unusual singing style sounds like she is battling monsters.” WK She ended up performing on the album. While Yoshimi is often considered a concept album, Coyne has insisted that was not the intent. WK The story of Yoshimi is “only directly apparent in the first four tracks.” WK Overall, though, the album’s lyrics “concern a diverse array of subject matter, mostly melancholy ponderings about love, mortality, artificial emotion, pacifism, and deception.” WK Billboard called it “a somber rumination on love and survival in an unfathomable world.” WK The Songs “Few bands can craft life-affirming songs about potentially depressing subjects (the passage of time, fighting for what you care about, good vs. evil) as the Flaming Lips, and on Yoshimi, they’re at the top of their game. Do You Realize?? is the standout,” AM It is “the most life-affirming anthem about death” RD and “so immediately gorgeous that it’s obvious that it’s the single. It’s also the most obviously influenced by The Soft Bulletin, but it’s even catchier and sadder, sweetening such unavoidable truths like ‘Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die?’ with chimes, clouds of strings, and angelic backing vocals.” AM “Yoshimi features some of the sharpest emotional peaks and valleys of any Lips album – the superficially playful Fight Test is surprisingly bittersweet” AM while also blending “Wayne Coyne’s folksy appeal with a surreal party soundtrack.” RD Because the vocal melody is similar to “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens, he was given a credit on the song after “a relatively uncontentious settlement.” WK Coyne said, “’Fight Test’ is not a reference necessarily to the ideas of ‘Father and Son,’ but definitely a reference to the cadence, the melody and chord progression.’” WK One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21 is “a sleekly melancholy tale of robots developing emotions.” AM In the Morning of the Magicians is “an aptly named electronic art rock epic that sounds like a collaboration between the Moody Blues and Wendy Carlos.” AM Meanwhile, “sad songs like All We Have Is Now and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell are leavened by witty lyrics and production tricks.” AM “Paradoxically, the Lips use simpler arrangements to create more diverse sounds on Yoshimi, spanning the lush, psychedelic reveries of It’s Summertime; the instrumental Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon” AM (which one a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance), “the dubby Are You a Hypnotist?; and the barely organized chaos of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2, which defeats the evil metal ones with ferocious drums, buzzing synths, and the razor sharp howl of the Boredoms’ Yoshimi.” AM

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Heather Phares RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 907. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 3/29/2008; last updated 8/24/2026.

The Vines Highly Evolved released

Highly Evolved The Vines

Released: July 14, 2002 Peak: 11 US, 3 UK, -- CN, 5 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK, 0.6 world (includes US and UK) Genre: post-punk revival

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Highly Evolved [1:35] (4/20/02, 32 UK, 70 AU) Autumn Shade [2:17] Outtathaway! [3:02] (10/19/02, 19 MR, 20 UK, 38 AU) Sunshinin’ [2:43] Homesick [4:53] (5/12/03, 50 AU) Get Free [1:59] (6/17/02, 27 AR, 7 MR, 24 UK, 44 AU) Country Yard [3:46] Factory [3:12] In the Jungle [4:15] Mary Jane [5:52] Ain’t No Room (Nicholls, Dave Olliffe) [3:28] 1969 [6:27] All songs written by Craig Nicholls unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 43:35 The Players: Craig Nicholls (vocals, guitar, percussion, piano on “Homesick”) Patrick Matthews (organ, bass, piano) Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (keyboards) Dave Olliffe, Victor Indrizzo, Joey Waronker, Pete Thomas (drums)

Rating: 3.830 out of 5.00 (average of 32 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Highly Evolved is the debut album by Australian garage rockers The Vines.” WK It “was an immensely popular debut, part of a trend towards post punk-inspired garage bands.” WK such as the White Stripes and the Strokes, “known as much for the relentless hype from the UK music press as for their music.” WK Indeed, the Vines were “hailed by a growing number as ‘the future of rock’” LE and “hyped by the British press as no less than the second coming of Nirvana.” HP. However, “on Highly Evolved the Vines offer something more interesting than yet another trawl through flannel-clad angst.” HP “The Vines are more a conglomeration of the best of the past. The Sydney, Australia, quartet sounds alternately like Nirvana, the Beatles, T. Rex, and even the Beach Boys (and, at times, all of those blended together). On Highly Evolved they present 12 flawlessly crafted songs, each one living up to the title of the album and first song.” LE “The addictively short Highly Evolved’s primal beat and chunky guitars are certainly post-grunge, but not not in the boringly earnest, imitative way that bands such as Silverchair were – the song’s sludgy sexiness and tight structure also recall the ‘60s garage punk that shaped bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney.” HP “But instead of just capitalizing on that one (admittedly great) sound, on the rest of the album the Vines prove that their style is indeed a highly evolved hybrid of grungy, garage rock swagger, ‘60s psych, and ‘70s pop.” HP “The breakneck force of Get Free, and the gritty party of Sunshinin’ are proof alone of their deserved success.” LE The latter “throws a Krautrock-tinged bassline into the mix for good measure, while the irresistible Factory sounds like Elton John and Supergrass collaborating on a response to ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.’” HP “Likewise, their ballads mix their reverence for the past with their own youthful enthusiasm. With its tinkling pianos and sweet, close harmonies.” HP “the wistful yearning of” LE “Homesick is a fresh update on the AM radio sounds of Gilbert O’ Sullivan; the gorgeous, guitar-driven Autumn Shade and Country Yard share deep roots in British pop.” HP “Unlike many other pop postmodernists, the Vines never sound weighed down by all the influences they include in their music – it’s as if they’re so excited by everything they hear, they can’t help but recombine it in unique ways.” HP “Sonically more complex than their stripped-down contemporaries White Stripes and the Strokes, the Vines write songs worthy of orchestration. But unlike White Blood Cells or Is This It, this album lacks cohesion. Each song is a world to itself, never quite uniting with the others.” LE At the same time, “Highly Evolved’s relatively weak moments occur when the Vines aren’t doing as much musical juggling: Straightforward rockers like 1969 and In the Jungle are certainly driving, but aren’t as distinctive as the tough, pushy riffs on Outtathaway! or Ain’t No Room’s wound-up, punky pop.” HP In the end, “Highly Evolved is a great introduction to the Vines’ eclectic style and suggests that they may have a more distinctive voice – and future – than many of their contemporaries.” HP Criticisms like those above, “normally reserved for more established bands, shows the extent of the Vines’ accomplishments – getting compared to the greats your first time out isn’t too bad.” LE “Influential British music magazine New Musical Express…voted it the 2nd best album of the year in 2002. It was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.” WK

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Vines LE Laura Etling, Amazon.com HP Heather Phares, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia First posted 9/15/2009; last updated 3/9/2022.

Bruce Springsteen “The Rising” charted

The Rising Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Released: July 16, 2002 First Charted: July 13, 2002 Peak: 52 US, 26 AC, 16 A40, 13 AA, 24 AR, 94 UK , 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 5.9 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The title cut from Bruce Springsteen’s twelfth album was written in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City in which terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3000 people. Springsteen was specifically inspired by the image of New York City fire fighters climbing into the towers to try and rescue survivors before the buildings came crashing down. The song, and the album as a whole, “is one of the very best examples in recent history of how popular art can evoke a time period and all of its confusing and often contradictory notions, feelings, and impulses.” AMG While many post-9/11 songs were focused on revenge and patriotism, “The Rising” “is a much more introspective look at the events, as Springsteen attempts to reflect the many different emotions caused by the tragedy.” SF It “touched listeners so intensely that it became genuinely healing on a national level.” SS The song opens with the narrator describing the act of climbing the stairs and being engulfed in flames. He has final visions of his wife and children and describes seeing Mary in the garden of a thousand sighs, suggesting the religious ascension of “Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Christ on Easter morning.” WK Writer Jeffrey Symynkywicz described it as an anthem about “arising out of the darkness and despair of September 11.” WK Music historian Steve Sullivan starts “from a place of overwhelming loss and sorrow…[and] comes to celebrate the unity of family and friends” SS and challenges the listener to “seize life’s possibilities.” SS “One feels joy and hope while wiping away tears.” SS The New York Times described the song as a story in which “one man's afterlife is an endless longing for the physical touch of those left behind, and the music climbs toward jubilation as an act of will.” WK Allmusic called it “an invitation to share everything, to accept everything, to move through everything individually and together.” AMG Rolling Stone said some may misunderstand the song, explaining that Springsteen’s “concern is not with a national uprising but with a rising above: the transcending of ever-mounting losses and ancient hatreds.” WK “The Rising” earned Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. It was also nominated for Song of the Year. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bruce Springsteen AMG All Music Guide album review by Thom Jurek SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 257. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/27/2023.