“Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?”

This chapter presents a history, reception study, and analysis of “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” (Hughie Cannon, 1902). The discussion establishes the relationship of this comic rhythm song to a long line of previous and later coon songs, proto-blues, love ballads, and torch songs. It details the “Bill Bailey” song cycle, initiated by the collective innovation of the creative circle surrounding Cannon. Details are presented of the song’s popularity, folk traditions, revival as the quintessential Las Vegas number, and incorporation (including as a lullaby) in movies and in literature by George Bernard Shaw, Edith Nesbit, and Edgardo Vega Yunqué. The cheerful melody and bemoaning lyrics are analyzed. The survey of performances encompasses renditions by Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Della Reese, Nellie Lutcher, Nancy Wilson, Ann-Margret, Patsy Cline, and many others, revealing intriguing performance traditions, such as that one-seventh shift blame from the woman to the man.