Hello! Ma Baby

"Hello! Ma Baby" is a song written in 1899 by the team of Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson ("Howard and Emerson"). Its subject is a man who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone. The song was first recorded by Arthur Collins on Edison 5470. [http://www.archive.org/details/ArthurCollins_part1]

Although it is portrayed as a "coon song", with African-American caricatures on the sheet music, the song is easily adaptable to any singer.

Its chorus is far better known than its verse, as the introductory song in the famous Warner Bros. cartoon "One Froggy Evening" (1955), sung by the character later dubbed Michigan J. Frog and high-stepping in the style of Bert Williams:

:Hello! ma baby:Hello! ma honey:Hello! ma ragtime gal:Send me a kiss by wire:Baby, ma heart's on fire!:If you refuse me:Honey, you'll lose me:Then you'll be left alone:Oh, baby, telephone:And tell me I'm your own!

References

External links

* [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/n/n07/n0743/ Sheet music illustrating some of the facts stated in this article]