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.

Today in Music (1894): "Dem Golden Slippers" hit #1

Dem Golden Slippers James A. Bland (music/lyrics)

Writer(s): James A. Bland (see lyrics here) First Published: 1874 First Charted: June 30, 1894 (Silas Leachman) Peak: 14 PM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.1 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.642 video, 0.104 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: James A. Bland wrote the words and music for “Dem Golden Slippers” weeks before his 20th birthday in 1874. TR It was a parody of “Golden Slippers,” a spiritual popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers after the American Civil War. WK He played the song for George Primrose of Skiff & Gaylord’s Minstrel Show. Primrose didn’t offer Bland a job but started using the song in his show. TR The next year, Bland joined the Original Georgia Minstrels, who were comprised of black performers. TR He became a “prominent black minstrel songwriter and banjo player” BA with the group. Bland finally had the song published in 1879, after which time other minstrel shows started using the song. TR “Dem Golden Slippers” surpassed the original spiritual and became “a bluegrass instrumental standard.” WK It also became the unofficial theme song for the Mummers Parade, which is held in Philadelphia each year on New Year’s Day. BA In 1894, Silas Leachman charted with his version of the song, taking it to #1. It was his most notable of four chart entries. PM He came from Louisville but settled in Chicago around 1890. Within two years he was recording for the North American phonograph company as “an amateur minstrel singer and pianist.” ST He was a unique artist because that era rarely saw an artist who worked as a singer and instrumentalist because of the recording technology available. ST Resources: BA BalladOfAmerica.org TR Theodore Raph (1986). The American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites. Dover Publications, Inc.: Mineola, NY. Page 188. ST SyncopatedTimes.com “Silas Leachman: Pioneer Self-Accomanpanist” PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 269. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/23/2025.