The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33807   Message #1179075
Posted By: Jim Dixon
05-May-04 - 11:11 PM
Thread Name: Req: Sing-along songs from the 20's & 30's
Subject: Lyr Add: PRETTY BABY (Kahn/Jackson/Van Alstyne)
Lyrics from Duke University's 'Historic American Sheet Music' collection:

PRETTY BABY
Words, Gus Kahn. Music, Tony Jackson and Egbert Van Alstyne. 1916.

1. You ask me why I'm always teasing you.
You hate to have me call you pretty baby.
I really thought that I was pleasing you,
For you're just a baby to me.
Your cunning little dimples and your baby stare,
Your baby talk and baby walk and curly hair,
Your baby smile makes life worthwhile.
You're just as sweet as you can be.

CHORUS: Ev'rybody loves a baby; that's why I'm in love with you,
Pretty baby, pretty baby;
And I'd like to be your sister, brother, dad and mother too,
Pretty baby, pretty baby.
Won't you come and let me rock you in my cradle of love,
And we'll cuddle all the time.
Oh! I want a lovin' baby and it might as well be you,
Pretty baby of mine.

2. Your mother says you were the cutest kid.
No wonder, dearie, that I'm wild about you.
And all the cunning things you said and did,
Why, I love to fondly recall.
And just like Peter Pan, it seems you'll always be
The same sweet, cunning, little baby dear to me.
And that is why I'm sure that I
Will always love you best of all. CHORUS

[The Virtual Gramophone has 2 recordings: one by Harry Macdonough and the Orpheus Quartet; and another by Henry Burr; both from 1916.]