Showing posts with label Eddie Cantor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eddie Cantor. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2025

Today in Music (1925): “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” hit #1

Yes Sir! That’s My Baby

Gene Austin & Billy Carpenter

Writer(s): Walter Donaldson (music), Gus Kahn (words) (see lyrics here)

First Charted: August 1, 1925

Peak: 17 PM, 14 GA, 18 SM, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.05 video, 0.03 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” was a collaboration between lyricist Gus Kahn and composer Walter Donaldson, who also had hits with “My Buddy” and “Carolina in the Morning.” The song was written for Eddie Cantor. Kahn was at Cantor’s house, playing with a wind-up toy pig that belonged to Cantor’s daughter and improvising lyrics as the toy “toddled around the room.” TY2

It became “a standard and a favorite of jazz bands.” DJ The song charted five times in 1925 with vocal versions by Gene Austin (#1), Blossom Seeley (#2), and Ace Brigode (#10), PM-615 as well as instrumental versions by Ben Bernie (#5) and the and Coon-Sanders Orchestra (#11). PM-615 Ricky Nelson charted with the song in 1960 (#34 BB) and the Baja Marimba Band did so in 1968 (#93 CB, 87 HR).

It was the first chart-topper for the “sweet-voiced” TY2 Austin, who would reach #1 nine times in his career, most notably with “My Blue Heaven,” a five-million seller that spent 13 weeks at the pinnacle. Austin was born in 1900 in Gainsville, Texas. He started in vaudeville and “his amiable vocal and piano style launched him on radio and records” PM-38 and a career as “the most popular singer of the late 1920s.” PM-38 The “fast paced mid-1920s jazz song” SM “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” was very different than the “soft ballad crooning style” SM of Gene Austin’s first solo hit, “Yearning (Just for You).”

Billy Yuke Carpenter is credited on the recording for “ukulele and jazz effects, the like of which had not been heard on a number one single before.” SM He was born William Arnold Costello in 1898 in Providence, Rhode Island. While he became “a noted ukulele player…his singing was what made this record stand out from the crowd. He made his voice sound like a musical instrument and sang in a style that at the time was called effing but later became known as scat.” SM

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First posted 12/26/2025.

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Saturday, January 28, 2023

USA: #1 Pop Songs, 1920-1929

USA’s #1 Pop Songs:

1920-1929

These are the #1 pop songs on the United States pop charts from 1920 to 1929. Songs could have hit #1 on either of these charts:

The date indicates the song’s first appearance at #1, regardless of which chart it was. The act associated with the song is then listed. The Gardner book does not indicate specific artists, so the artists identified here are those which also hit #1 on another chart, are the highest-ranked version according to Dave’s Music Database, or are spotlighted as the top version by Gardner.

Then come the letter codes indicating which charts the song topped. The number following that is the number of weeks at #1. The Gardner charts are monthly and not weekly so the #of weeks has been adjusted by multiplying the song’s number of months at #1 by 4. Meanwhile the Sharon Mawer charts are bi-weekly (dated the first and fifteenth of the month) so to reflect a more accurate depiction of how many weeks the song spent at #1, the original # was doubled.

Click here to access a full list of #1 songs from 1890 to present. See other chart-based lists here.

1920:

  1. 1/15: Elizabeth Spencer & Charles Hart “Let the Rest of the World Go By” (GA: 12, SM: 8)
  2. 1/17: Al Jolson “I’ve Got My Captain Working for Me Now” (PM: 2)
  3. 1/31: Ben Selvin “Dardanella” (PM: 13, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  4. 5/1: Ted Lewis “When My Baby Smiles at Me” (PM: 7, SM: 2)
  5. 5/1: Edith Day “Alice Blue Gown” (PM: 1)
  6. 5/8: Al Jolson “Swanee” (PM: 9, SM: 4, GA: 4)
  7. 6/15: Henry Burr “Rose of Washington Square” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  8. 7/15: Art Hickman “Hold Me” (GA: 8, PM: 3)
  9. 9/15: John Steel “The Love Nest” (GA: 8, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  10. 9/25: Marion Harris “St. Louis Blues” (PM: 3)
  11. 10/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Whispering” (PM: 11, SM: 10, GA: 8)
  12. 10/16: Art Hickman “The Love Nest” (PM: 2)
  13. 12/11: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “The Japanese Sandman” (PM: 2)

1921:

  1. 1/1: Al Jolson “Avalon” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  2. 1/29: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Wang Wang Blues” (PM: 6)
  3. 2/1: Gene Rodemich “Margie” (GA: 8, SM: 8)
  4. 2/28: Eddie Cantor “Margie” (GA: 8, PM: 5)
  5. 2/28: Al Jolson “Yoo-Hoo” (GA: 4)
  6. 4/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Bright Eyes” (SM: 6, GA: 4)
  7. 4/16: Al Jolson “O-H-I-O (O-My! O!)” (PM: 4)
  8. 5/14: Marion Harris “Look for the Silver Lining” (PM: 3)
  9. 5/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Mammy” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  10. 7/1: Van & Schenck “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 2)
  11. 7/8: Nora Bayes “Make Believe” (PM: 3)
  12. 7/30: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Cherie” (PM: 6)
  13. 8/15: Ted Lewis “All by Myself” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 4)
  14. 8/31: Billy Jones as Victor Roberts “Peggy O’Neil” (GA: 1)
  15. 9/24: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Song of India” (PM: 5)
  16. 11/1: Ted Lewis “Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  17. 11/26: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Say It with Music” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  18. 12/31: Isham Jones “Wabash Blues” (PM: 6, SM: 2)

1922:

  1. 2/1: Al Jolson “April Showers” (PM: 11, SM: 2)
  2. 2/15: Ray Miller “The Sheik of Araby” (SM: 8, GA: 4)
  3. 3/25: Fanny Brice “My Man” (PM: 1)
  4. 4/15: Ray Miller “On the Gin-Gin-Ginny Shore” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  5. 5/1: Al Jolson “Angel Child” (PM: 5, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 6/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Three O’Clock in the Morning” (SM: 14, GA: 12, PM: 8)
  7. 6/10: Isham Jones “On the Alamo” (PM: 4)
  8. 7/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Stumbling” (SM: 8, GA: 8, PM: 6)
  9. 7/8: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Do It Again” (PM: 2)
  10. 9/2: Ernest Hare & Billy Jones “Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean” (GA: 8, PM: 2)
  11. 9/16: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Hot Lips” (PM: 6)
  12. 10/28: Gallagher & Shean “Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean” (GA: 8, PM: 6, SM: 4)
  13. 12/9: Henry Burr “My Buddy” (SM: 2, PM: 1)

1923:

  1. 1/1: Van & Schenck “Carolina in the Morning” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 3)
  2. 1/6: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” (PM: 1)
  3. 1/13: Al Jolson “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goo’bye)” (PM: 4)
  4. 3/1: Nora Bayes “Lovin’ Sam, the Sheik of Alabam’” (SM: 2)
  5. 3/15: Paul Specht “When Hearts Are Young” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  6. 4/1: Marion Harris “Aggravatin’ Papa” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  7. 4/7: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (PM: 7)
  8. 5/1: Sophie Tucker “You’ve Got to See Mama Ev’ry Night or You Can’t See Mama at All” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  9. 5/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Bambalina” (SM: 2, PM: 1)
  10. 5/26: Carl Fenton “Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses” (PM: 3)
  11. 6/1: Isham Jones “Who’s Sorry Now” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 6/23: Art Landry “Dreamy Melody” (PM: 3)
  13. 7/1: Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 5)
  14. 7/14: Bessie Smith “Down Hearted Blues” (PM: 4)
  15. 7/31: Ben Selvin “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (GA: 8, PM: 2)
  16. 8/11: Isham Jones “Swingin’ Down the Lane” (PM: 6)
  17. 9/15: Henry Burr “Just a Girl That Men Forget” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  18. 10/1: Billy Murray & Ed Smalle “That Old Gang of Mine” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 6)
  19. 12/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “I Love You” (SM: 10, GA: 8)
  20. 12/22: Eddie Cantor “No, No, Nora” (PM: 2)

1924:

  1. 1/5: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Sleep” (PM: 5)
  2. 1/26: Arthur Gibbs “Charleston” (PM: 1)
  3. 2/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Linger Awhile” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 4)
  4. 2/16: Wendell Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (GA: 8, PM: 6, SM: 4)
  5. 3/29: Ted Weems “Somebody Stole My Gal” (PM: 5)
  6. 4/1: Al Jolson “California, Here I Come!” (PM: 6, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  7. 6/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “What’ll I Do?” (SM: 16, GA: 12, PM: 5)
  8. 7/19: Isham Jones “Spain” (PM: 2)
  9. 9/6: Isham Jones “It Had to Be You” (PM: 5)
  10. 10/11: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Memory Lane” (PM: 5)
  11. 10/15: International Novelty Orchestra with Billy Murray “Charley, My Boy” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 11/15: Al Jolson “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally?” (GA: 12, SM: 8, PM: 3)
  13. 12/6: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Somebody Loves Me” (PM: 5)

1925:

  1. 1/10: Al Jolson “All Alone” (SM: 12, GA: 8, PM: 5)
  2. 2/7: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “All Alone” (PM: 3)
  3. 2/28: Marion Harris “Tea for Two” (PM: 3)
  4. 3/21: Johm McCormack “All Alone” (PM: 2)
  5. 4/4: Isham Jones with Ray Miller’s Orchestra “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (PM: 7, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 5/15: Blossom Seeley “Alabamy Bound” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  7. 5/23: Ted Lewis “O! Katharina” (PM: 1)
  8. 5/30: Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (PM: 12, GA: 8, SM: 8)
  9. 6/15: Gene Austin “Yearning Just for You” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  10. 7/4: Ben Bernie “Sweet Georgia Brown” (PM: 5)
  11. 7/15: Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie” (GA: 8, PM: 5, SM: 4)
  12. 8/15: Fred Waring “Collegiate” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  13. 9/12: Gene Austin with Billy Carpenter “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” (SM: 8, PM: 7, GA: 4)
  14. 10/31: Ben Selvin “Oh, How I Miss You Tonight” (PM: 3)
  15. 11/15: Isham Jones “Remember” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 1)
  16. 11/21: Ben Selvin “Manhattan” (PM: 4)
  17. 11/30: John McCormack “Moonlight and Roses Bring Mem’ries of You” (GA: 1)

1926:

  1. 2/13: George Olsen “Who?” (PM: 6)
  2. 3/15: Cliff Edwards “Dinah” (SM: 2)
  3. 3/27: Ben Bernie “Sleepy Time Gal” (PM: 4)
  4. 4/17: Al Jolson “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” (PM: 2)
  5. 4/30: George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” (GA: 12, SM: 10, PM: 3)
  6. 4/30: Vincent Lopez “Always” (GA: 12, PM: 2)
  7. 5/22: Gene Austin “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” (PM: 1)
  8. 6/15: Gene Austin with Fran Frey “Horses” (SM: 4)
  9. 6/19: “Whispering” Jack Smith “Gimme a Lil’ Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?” (PM: 2)
  10. 7/3: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra with Franklyn Baur “Valencia (A Song of Spain)” (PM: 11, GA: 8, SM: 4)
  11. 7/31: Al Jolson “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain if I Knew I’d Find You” (GA: 4)
  12. 9/4: Gene Austin “Bye Bye, Blackbird” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  13. 10/2: Al Jolson “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along” (PM: 2)
  14. 10/15: Jan Garber with Benny Davis “Baby Face” (PM: 6, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  15. 11/27: Johnny Marvin “Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” (PM: 2)
  16. 12/1: Johnny Hamp “Black Bottom” (SM: 2)
  17. 12/11: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “The Birth of the Blues” (PM: 4)
  18. 12/15: Henry Burr “Because I Love You” (GA: 4, SM: 2)

1927:

  1. 1/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra with Jack Fulton “In a Little Spanish Town” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 8)
  2. 3/5: Sophie Tucker with Ted Lewis “Some of These Days” (PM: 5)
  3. 3/15: Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 2)
  4. 4/9: Gene Austin “Tonight You Belong to Me” (PM: 3)
  5. 5/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “It All Depends on You” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 5/14: Ben Bernie “Ain’t She Sweet?” (PM: 4)
  7. 6/1: Nick Lucas “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  8. 6/11: George Olsen “At Sundown (When Love Is Calling Me Home)” (PM: 3)
  9. 7/1: Roger Wolfe Kahn “Russian Lullaby” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  10. 7/2: Moran & Mack “Two Black Crows – Parts 1 & 2 (The Early Bird Catches the Worm)” (PM: 5)
  11. 8/1: “Whispering” Jack Smith “Me and My Shadow” (GA: 4, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 8/6: Gene Austin “Forgive Me” (PM: 1)
  13. 9/1: Guy Lombardo “Charmaine!” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 7)
  14. 11/15: Ben Selvin “Miss Annabelle Lee (Who’s Wonderful, Who’s Marvelous)” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  15. 11/19: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Blue Heaven” (PM: 1)
  16. 11/26: Red Nichols “Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider” (PM: 3)
  17. 12/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Just a Memory” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  18. 12/17: Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (PM: 13, GA: 8, SM: 8)

1928:

  1. 3/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Among My Souvenirs” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 4)
  2. 4/14: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Together” (GA: 4, PM: 2, SM: 2)
  3. 4/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Ol’ Man River” (PM: 1)
  4. 5/1: Gene Austin “Ramona” (GA: 12, SM: 12, PM: 8)
  5. 5/5: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Ramona” (GA: 12, PM: 3)
  6. 7/21: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Laugh, Clown, Laugh!” (PM: 1)
  7. 7/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Angel (Angela Mia)” (GA: 8, PM: 6)
  8. 8/1: Vincent Lopez “My Angel (Angela Mia)” (GA: 8, SM: 8)
  9. 9/8: Gene Austin “Jeannine (I Dream of Lilac Time)” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  10. 10/13: Cliff Edwards as Ukelele Ike “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (PM: 1)
  11. 10/20: Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (PM: 12, GA: 8, SM: 8)
  12. 12/1: Al Jolson “There’s a Rainbow Round My Shoulder” (PM: 2)

1929:

  1. 1/15: Ben Selvin with Jack Palmer “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” (SM: 2)
  2. 1/26: Guy Lombardo with Carmen Lombardo “Sweethearts on Parade” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  3. 2/16: Gene Austin “Carolina Moon” (PM: 7, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  4. 3/1: Ruth Etting “I’ll Get by As Long As I Have You” (SM: 2)
  5. 3/23: George Olsen with Ethel Sutta “A Precious Little Thing Called Love” (PM: 2, SM: 4)
  6. 4/15: Rudy Vallee “Weary River” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  7. 4/20: Rudy Vallee “Honey” (PM: 8, SM: 2)
  8. 5/31: Leo Reisman “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” (GA: 8, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  9. 7/1: Bob Haring with the Copley Plaza Orchestra “Pagan Love Song” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 4)
  10. 8/10: Cliff Edwards as Ukelele Ike “Singin’ in the Rain” (PM: 3)
  11. 8/31: Al Jolson “Little Pal” (PM: 5)
  12. 9/1: Ethel Waters “Am I Blue?” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 2)
  13. 10/15: Nick Lucas “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” (SM: 12, PM: 10, GA: 8)
  14. 12/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Great Day” (PM: 2)

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First posted 1/28/2023.

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Friday, March 12, 2021

100 years ago: Eddie Cantor “Margie” hit #1

Margie

Eddie Cantor

Writer(s): Benny Davis and Con Conrad (lyrics), J. Russell Robinson (music) (see lyrics here)

First Charted: February 5, 1921

Peak: 15 US, 12 GA (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

This song started life as an instrumental SM by Joseph Russell Robinson, a ragtime pianist with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. They introduced the song in 1920 in a medley with “Singin’ the Blues.” WK Their recording reached #9 and remained in print continuously for sixty years. DJ

Lyrics were added later by pianist Con Conrad and songwriter Benny Davis, SM both of whom were vaudeville performers. It was inspired by Marjorie Cantor, the five-year-old daughter of Eddie Cantor but it is not actually a love song to a little girl, but the singer’s girlfriend. He can’t stop thinking about her and wants the world to know. TY2

The most popular version was by Eddie Cantor, who incorporated the song into his Broadway revue The Midnight Rounders and took it to #1 in 1921. There were other charted versions by Gene Rodemich’s Orchestra (#7, 1920), Ted Lewis (#4, 1921), Frank Crumit (#7, 1921), Claude Hopkins (#5, 1934), and Don Redman (#15, 1939). PM

The song has been used in several movies including Margie in 1940 and 1946. It was also in Stella Dallas (1937), Hit Parade of 1941 (1940), The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), The Drowning Pool (1975), and The Cat’s Meow (2001). It became a jazz standard recorded by Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Fats Domino, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jim Reeves, Jo Stafford, Slim Whitman, and others. WK

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First posted 1/28/2023.

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Sunday, December 17, 2017

90 Years Ago Today: "My Blue Heaven" hit #1

My Blue Heaven

Gene Austin

Writer(s): Walter Donaldson (music), George Whiting (lyrics) (see lyrics here)

First Charted: December 3, 1927

Peak: 113 US, 18 GA, 18 SM, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 6.0 US (includes 1 million in sheet music sales)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.15 video, -- streaming

My Blue Heaven

Fats Domino

First Charted: March 31, 1956

Peak: 19 US, 14 CB, 18 HR, 5 RB, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US (includes 1 million in sheet music sales)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.9 video, -- streaming

Awards (Gene Austin):

Click on award for more details.

Awards (Fats Domino):

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Eddie Cantor introduced this song in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. DJ Austin and Paul Whiteman both had #1 versions of the song that year; two more top ten versions came the next year. The song was also a notable hit for New Orleans R&B singer and pianist Fats Domino nearly 30 years later when he had a #5 R&B hit and #19 pop hit with it. “The song was revived as a title theme song for a minor musical drama starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey in 1950, and forty years later for a Steve Martin comedy about a small-time gangster who is relocated as part of a witness protection program.” DJ

However, Austin’s version is the biggest, selling over 5 million copies, making it one of the ten best sellers of the first half of the century, PM-631 the biggest song of 1927, CPM and the second biggest non-holiday record seller of the entire pre-1955 era. PM In the wake of the song’s initial success, Gene Austin reportedly bought a yacht which he named ‘My Blue Heaven’. Sales of the song skyrocketed when, on his first trek out, the boat was caught in a hurricane and rumor had it that he’d drowned. DS

His tenor voice has been credited as the onset of the crooner revolution. DS Blogger Jonathan Bogart called Austin “the stuffiest, squarest popular singer around,” DS saying that Austin would serve up “unimaginative…but serviceable” DS “standard-issue Tin Pan Alley…fluff.” DS For “Heaven,” Austin demonstrated “how deeply jazz had soaked into the collective unconscious of popular entertainment” DS with his “wordless warble…in the middle of the song.” DS The producers also tacked some fake birdsong on to the last chorus, a hint of the “the future of artificial sound in pop music.” DS

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First posted 12/17/2013; last updated 3/20/2023.

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