"Sonny Boy" | |
---|---|
Song by Al Jolson | |
Recorded | 1928 for film The Singing Fool |
Composer(s) | Ray Henderson |
Lyricist(s) | Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown |
"Sonny Boy" is a song written by Ray Henderson, Buddy De Sylva, and Lew Brown. It was featured in the 1928 part-talkie The Singing Fool . Sung by Al Jolson, the 1928 recording was a hit and stayed at #1 for 12 weeks in the charts and was a million seller. [1]
The original lyrics and music of the song entered the public domain in the United States in 2024. [2]
Climb up on my knee, Sonny Boy
Though you're only three, Sonny Boy
You've no way of knowing
There's no way of showing
What you mean to me, Sonny Boy.
When there are grey skies,
I don't mind the grey skies.
You make them blue, Sonny Boy.
Friends may forsake me.
Let them all forsake me.
I still have you, Sonny Boy.
You're sent from heaven
And I know your worth.
You made a heaven
For me here on earth.
When I'm old and grey, dear
Promise you won't stray, dear
For I love you so, Sonny Boy.
When there are grey skies,
I don't mind grey skies.
You make them blue, Sonny Boy.
Friends may forsake me.
Let them all forsake me.
I still have you, Sonny Boy.
You're sent from heaven
And I know your worth.
You've made a heaven
For me here on earth.
And the angels grew lonely
Took you because they were lonely
I'm lonely too, Sonny Boy. [3]
In 1929, the song was performed by Bosko in the pilot film Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid , an early attempt at creating an animated cartoon with spoken dialogue.
Arild Andresen, piano with guitar and bass recorded it in Oslo on March 11, 1955 as the first melody of the medley "Klaver-Cocktail Nr. 4" along with "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and "Ain't Misbehavin'. The medley was released on the 78 rpm record His Master's Voice A.L. 3514.
Paul Robeson recorded this song on a 78 rpm record.
The song has also been recorded by The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra with vocalist Ruth Brown, Ruth Etting, The Andrews Sisters, Leo Watson, Sonny Rollins, Petula Clark, Mandy Patinkin, John McCormack, Richard Tauber, Franz Völker and Rudolf Schock.
Pesach Burstein recorded a Yiddish version (translation by L. Wolfe Gilbert).
The song is used as a major plot point in the short story Jeeves and the Song of Songs by P. G. Wodehouse (originally published 1929), included in the collection Very Good, Jeeves (1930). The story was dramatised as the second episode of season 1 of the British TV series Jeeves and Wooster , "Tuppy and the Terrier", where is it performed by Hugh Laurie as the character Bertie Wooster and then by Constance Novis as the character Cora Bellinger.
Danny Thomas performed the song at Arnold's as Howard Cunninghams father Cap Cunningham in the 1977 Happy Days fifth season episode "Grandpas Visit".
Ken Dodd performed the song as part of his ventriloquist's act with his puppet Dicky Mint during his performance on the LWT series An Audience With...
Singer Eddie Fisher was always called "Sonny Boy" by his family because of the popularity of this song, which was recorded the same year as Fisher's birth. In his autobiography, Fisher wrote that even after he was married to Elizabeth Taylor in 1959, earning $40,000 a week performing in Las Vegas, spending time with Frank Sinatra and Rocky Marciano, and had songs at the top of the charts, his family still called him "Sonny Boy". [4]
The song was performed by one of the entrants at Talent Trek on Phoenix Nights.
The song "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" by The Smiths from their self-titled debut album includes references to the song.
According to 1986 British TV documentary "The Real Al Jolson Story," "Sonny Boy" was written in a single sitting in a hotel room in Atlantic City as a joke. In the 1956 DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson biopic "The Best Things in Life Are Free", the songwriting trio are tired of being pestered by Al Jolson. They decide to write a song so unabashedly maudlin that even Jolson would hate it, and leave them alone. True to style, Jolson did not hate the overt sentimentality of the song and it became one of the biggest popular hits of the early 20th century.
Various renditions of the song are used as a leitmotif in the 1990 psychological horror film Jacob's Ladder , indicating protagonist Jacob's love for his late son Gabe. The film notably omits the last verse, which relates the narrator's loss in kind, perhaps as an artistic choice.
The song title is the title of a Dutch book and movie about a Surinamese/Dutch family and their lives leading up to and in the second World War. The little boy's nickname is Sonny Boy after this song, which was popular when he was born.
The song was referenced by the British band Black Midi in their song "John L" with the lyric "Three encores of 'Oh Sonny Boy' [sic] backed only by accordion". The reference is a nod to the blackface minstrelsy performed by Jolson, as the song's protagonist is a fascistic cult leader and espoused racist.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1928.
George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs, and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, he co-founded Capitol Records.
By Jeeves, originally Jeeves, is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and lyrics and book by Alan Ayckbourn. It is based on the series of novels and short stories by P. G. Wodehouse that centre around the character of Bertie Wooster and his loyal valet, Jeeves.
The Singing Fool is a 1928 American sound part-talkie musical drama motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon which was released by Warner Bros. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film stars Al Jolson and is a follow-up to his previous film, The Jazz Singer. It is credited with helping to cement the popularity of American films of both sound and the musical genre. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2024.
"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim. It became a pop standard, and continues to be performed and recorded in the 21st century.
"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play Little Johnny Jones which debuted in 1904 in New York.
"Pretty Baby" is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916.
Ella Fitzgerald at the Newport Jazz Festival: Live at Carnegie Hall is a 1973 live album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by a reconstructed Chick Webb Band, the pianist Ellis Larkins, and for the second half of the album, the Tommy Flanagan Quartet.
Thank You, Jeeves is a Jeeves comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 16 March 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 23 April 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, New York.
Bittersweet White Light is the ninth studio album by American singer Cher. The album is composed mostly of covers of American pop standards and was released in April 1973 by MCA both in the UK and the US. It was the last solo Cher album to be produced by Sonny Bono, then her husband and performing partner. While the album is a favorite among Cher fans, critical reviews were mixed and Bittersweet White Light was Cher's first commercial failure of the 1970s.
"It All Depends on You" is a 1926 popular song with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The song, written for the musical Big Boy, was published in 1926. It was featured in the hit 1928 Warner Bros. film The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson, Betty Bronson and Josephine Dunn, and directed by Lloyd Bacon.
"You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" is a popular song from 1913 composed by James V. Monaco with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy. It was introduced by Al Jolson in the Broadway revue The Honeymoon Express (1913), and used in the 1973 revival of the musical Irene.
"April Showers" is a 1921 popular song composed by Louis Silvers with lyrics by B. G. De Sylva.
Cliff Friend was an accomplished songwriter and pianist. A member of Tin Pan Alley, Friend co-wrote several hits including "Lovesick Blues", "My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now" and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", also known as the theme song to the Looney Tunes cartoon series.
Bombo is a Broadway musical with a book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge and music by Sigmund Romberg.
Al Jolson was an American singer, actor, and vaudevillian.
Billboard Pop Memories is a series of compilation albums released by Rhino Records in 1994, each featuring ten hit recordings spanning a five- or ten-year period from the 1920s through the 1950s.
"There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" is a 1928 song sung by Al Jolson in the early Warner Bros. talking picture The Singing Fool the same year. The song, along with "Sonny Boy" and "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", which were also in The Singing Fool, were big hits for Jolson. The song was written by Al Jolson, Billy Rose and Dave Dreyer.
When There Are Grey Skies is an album by the jazz pianist Red Garland, recorded in 1962 and released the following year on the Prestige label.
"Jeeves and the Song of Songs" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in September 1929, and in Cosmopolitan in the United States that same month. The story was also included as the fourth story in the 1930 collection Very Good, Jeeves.