This recording, though not the first, was made the same year the sheet music was published. Other recordings released that year were by Margaret Young, Isabella Patricola, Ernest Hare, the Synco Jazz Band. Later recordings, but still on 78-rpm records, were by Finzel's Arcadia Orchestra, Don Clark and His Orchestra, Emmett Miller and His Georgia Crackers, Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, and Texas Jim Lewis. That takes us up to 1942. This information is from The Online 78-rpm Discographical Project, which lists mainly American discs.


BIG BAD BILL (IS SWEET WILLIAM NOW)
Words by Jack Yellen, music by Milton Ager.
As recorded by Clementine Smith (as Gladys Murray) on Regal 9760, 1924.

In the town of Louisville
They've got a man called big bad Bill.
I want to tell you he sure was tough.
Brother, he was rough.
He had folks all scared to death.
When he walked by, they held their breath.
He was a fightin' man, sure enough.
Bill took himself a wife.
Now he leads a diff'rent life.

Big bad Bill is sweet William now.
Married life has changed him somehow.
He's a man they all used to fear.
Now the people call him Willie dear.
He was stronger than Samson, I declare,
Till a brown-skinned Delilah bobbed his hair.
Big bad Bill don't fight anymore,
Washes dishes and he mops the floor.
He used to spend his evenings looking for a fight.
Now he's gotta see his mama ev'ry night,
'Cause big bad Bill is sweet William now.

When Bill was in his prime he sure was one bad boy.
A great big forty-four, that was his fav'rite toy.
He had a deep bass voice I never will forget,
But now he sings soprano in the church quartet.

He weighed two hundred pounds and was as hard as nails.
He specialized in shooting cops and breaking jails,
But let me tell you, brother, something must be wrong
When a darky puts his dice away and plays mahjong.

He was the red-hot papa that you've heard about
Till an asbestos mama put his fire out,
And big bad Bill is sweet William now.