Yes, it now seems as if the "Pull Your Shades Down, Mary Ann" was a WWI song — and that it was solely based on "Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy."

The big determinant for me was finding that the Billy Murray and Aileen Stanley Victor recording of "Keep Your Skirts Down, Mary Ann" (their spelling)was *later." The info I have is that it was recorded and issued in 1925. So (unless that duo recorded it earlier in their careers as well ... or unless they were covering another earlier version dating to WWI), "Skirts" cannot have had any formative influence on "Pull Your Shades Down" as I'd first thought.

This raises the possibility that "Fritzie" was first, "Pull Your Shades Down, Mary Ann" came as a parody of that, and the Murray-Stanley "Keep Your Skirts Down, Mary Ann" was a pop-market makeover of "Pull Your Shades Down."

It wouldn't be the first time the bawdy song came first — "Lavender Blue," "Sweet Violets," "The Fireship/Roving Kind" and lots of others were cleaned up for the pop market.

So we're left where we were before, wondering what tune was used for "Pull Your Shades Down." As of now, it looks like "Fritzie Boy" is the only candidate left.

Bob