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 Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 219. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 142. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 38-39, 615. Related Links: First posted 12/26/2025.

100 years ago: Henry Burr hit #1 with “My Buddy”

My Buddy Henry Burr

Writer(s): Walter Donaldson (music), Gus Kahn (words) (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 4, 1922 Peak: 11 US, 6 GA, 12 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.19 video, 0.07 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “My Buddy” was the first hit for Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn. Donaldson previously had hits with “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree?” and “My Mammy” while Kahn had written lyrics for “Pretty Baby” and “Ain’t We Got Fun?” The pair went on to work together on “Makin’ Whoopee,” “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,” “Carolina in the Morning,” and “Love Me or Leave Me” and wrote more hits with other partners. Both were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The song “My Buddy” became a favorite in vaudeville, DJ popularized by Al Jolson. TY2 It was “quite a tearjerker.” TY2 It is “an old-fashioned ballad that brought back people’s memories of a time before the war,” SM allowing them “to express their grief now that part of their life was no longer there.” SM The lyrics say, “Life is a book that we study / Some of its leaves bring a sigh / There it was written by a buddy/ That we must part you and I / Nights are long since you went away / I think about you all through the day.” “My Buddy” was the last of Henry Burr’s twenty-three chart-toppers as a solo artist or with Albert Campbell. He had 164 chart entries total and is considered “the #1 ballad singer of recorded music’s 1890-1930 pioneer era.” PM He was the first to chart with “My Buddy” and his was the most successful. There were also chart versions by Ernest Hare (#5, 1923), Ben Bernie (#11, 1923), and Sammy Kaye (#23, 1942). PM The song has also been recorded by Gene Autry, Chet Baker, Count Basie, Teresa Brewer, Benny Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Bobby Darin, Doris Day, Dr. John, Connie Francis, Glenn Frey, Stan Getz, Jackie Gleason, Eydie Gormé, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Jeff Healey, Earl Hines, Lena Horne, Harry James, Mario Lanza, Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, the Mills Brothers, Anne Murray, Dinah Shore, Nancy Sinatra, Kate Smith, Kay Starr, Barbra Streisand, Mel Tormé, Barry White, and Bob Wills. The song was featured in the movie Wings (1927), the Gus Kahn biopic I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951), The Black Marble (1980), and Buddy in 1997. TY2 Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 139. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 124. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 65-70 and 553. Related Links: First posted 4/25/2023.

100 Years Ago: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” hit #1

How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree Nora Bayes

Writer(s): Walter Donaldson (music), Sam Lewis (words), Joy Young (words) (see lyrics here) First Charted: March 15, 1919 Peak: 2 US, 14 GA, 14 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.21 video, 0.02 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Composer Walter Donaldson previously wrote “The Aba Daba Honeymoon” (Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan, #1, 1914) and would work again with lyricists Sam Lewis and Joe Young on “My Mammy” (Paul Whiteman, #1, 1921). Donaldson was a Songwriting Hall of Famer who also wrote “Carolina in the Morning” (Van & Schenck, #1, 1923), “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” (Gene Austin, #1, 1925), “My Blue Heaven” (Gene Austin, #1, 1927), and “Makin’ Whoopee” (Eddie Cantor, #2, 1929). “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” was written with a focus on soldiers from rural America and the concer that they “would not want to return to farm life after experiencing the European city life and culture of Paris during the Great War. “ SM It was a hit in vaudeville, being sung by Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, and Nora Bayes. DJ The song hit the charts three times in 1919 with versions by Nora Bayes (#2), Arthur Fields (#7), and Byron G. Harlan (#9). PM The latter two included a verse with a wife assuring her farmer husband that nothing much will have changed. SM Bayes’ version did not include that verse, but it was the biggest hit of the three. She was born Rachel Eleanora “Dora” Goldberg in Chicago, Illinois in 1880 and became a famous singer in vaudeville and then Broadway before marrying singer/songwriter Jack Norworth in 1908. SM They wrote “Shine on, Harvest Moon” which was a #1 hit in 1909 for Harry MacDonough with Miss Walton and Billy Murray with Ada Jones. It was revived in 1942 when Judy Garland sang it in the film For Me and My Gal. Cantor sang it in his own 1953 biopic The Eddie Cantor Story. Pee Wee Hunt and Joe “Fingers” Carr recorded the song in 1956. DJ Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 79. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) SF Songfacts PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 512. Related Links: First posted 3/20/2023.

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.

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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 Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Walter Donaldson DS Don’t Stay Up Too Late (blog) DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 631. CPM Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 42. Related Links: First posted 12/17/2013; last updated 3/20/2023.