"Show Me the Way to Go Home" is a popular song written in 1925 by the English songwriting team Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly, using the pseudonym "Irving King". The song is said to have been written on a train journey from London by Campbell and Connelly. They were tired from the traveling and had a few alcoholic drinks during the journey, hence the lyrics. The song is in common use in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and North America.
The music and lyrics were written in 1925 by Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly. They self-published the sheet music and it became their first big success, selling 2 million copies and providing the financial basis of their publishing firm, Campbell, Connelly & Co. [1] Campbell and Connelly published the sheet music and recorded the song under the pseudonym "Irving King". [2]
The song was recorded by several artists in the 1920s. The first recordings, in 1925, were by Hal Swain's New Princes' Toronto Band – a group of Canadian musicians working in London – and by American-born male impersonator Ella Shields, in both cases for the Columbia label in London. [3] Other recordings were made by radio personalities The Happiness Boys, [2] Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra, [2] and the California Ramblers. [4] Throughout the twentieth into the twenty-first century it has been recorded by numerous artists.
Show me the way to go home,
I'm tired and I want to go to bed,
I had a little drink about an hour ago,
And it's gone right to my head,
Wherever I may roam,
On land or sea or foam,
You will always hear me singing this song,
Show me the way to go home.
Parodies popular on Midwest American campuses in the 1950s went:
Indicate the way to my abode
I'm fatigued and I want to retire
I imbibed a few about sixty minutes ago
And it percolated right through my cerebellum
Wherever I may perambulate
O'er land or sea or atmospheric vapor
You will always hear me rendering this melody
Indicate the way to my abode [5]
or
Indicate the way to my abode
I'm fatigued and I wish to retire
I had a spot of beverage sixty minutes ago
And its risen right up to my cranium
No matter wherever I may perambulate
On land or sea or atmospheric vapour
You can always hear me chanting the melody
Indicate the way to my abode
Some similar versions substitute "terra firma" for land and/or "aqueous precipitate" for foam.
Supporters of Wimbledon F.C. / AFC Wimbledon have sung an adapted version reflecting their team spending 25 years away from their Plough Lane home stadium: "Show Me The Way To Plough Lane".
Supporters of Liverpool FC sing a version "Show them the way to go home" to mock the away team and away fans that are visiting Anfield stadium:
Show them the way to home
They're tired and they want to go to bed (for a wank)
Cos they're only half a football team
Compared to the boys in red[ citation needed ]
At Universal Studios Florida, in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley, there is a window of animated shrunken heads. They banter with each other and often break into "Show Me The Way To Go Home". It is also one of the spots where one can use an interactive wand and use the Silencio wand movement to make them stop singing and make muffled sounds as if they suddenly can't move their lips. It is located across from Borgin & Burke's gift shop and next to the Dystal Phaelanges skeleton display. This along with several other design details throughout the Harry Potter themed section are a tribute to the former Jaws attraction, which closed on January 2, 2012 and was replaced by Diagon Alley in 2014.[ citation needed ]
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game before writing the song. The song's chorus is traditionally sung as part of the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball game. Fans are generally encouraged to sing along, and at some ballparks, the words "home team" are replaced with the team name.
"This Land Is Your Land" is a song by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. One of the United States' most famous folk songs, its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Its melody is based on a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire". When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land".
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"You Are So Beautiful" is a song credited to Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher that was first released in 1974 on Preston's ninth studio album, The Kids & Me. It was also the B-side of his single "Struttin'". Later that same year, English singer Joe Cocker released a slower version of the song on his album I Can Stand a Little Rain. Cocker's version was produced by Jim Price, and released as a single in November 1974. It became Cocker's highest-charting solo hit in the United States, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and at number four on Canada's Top Singles chart.
"If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)" is a popular song, written by Nat D. Ayer with lyrics by Clifford Grey. It was written for the musical revue The Bing Boys Are Here, which premièred on 19 April 1916 at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square, London. The song was originally performed as a duet between Lucius Bing, played by George Robey, and his love interest Emma, originated by Violet Loraine.
"Frankie and Johnny" is a murder ballad, a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds her man Johnny making love to another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.
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