Joe, this is the history of SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME and it was handed down to me from my great grand dad through my grand dad through my dad and I grew up with dancing to SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME at the barn dances all through the 1930s and the 1940s and even into the 1950s that were held nearly every Saturday night somewhere in the country in Northern Idaho. In 1823 HOME SWEET HOME was written by John Howard Paine and the music was written by Sir Henry R Bishop. This tune was the closing tune at all barn dances in West Virginia until 1867 when GOOD NIGHT LADIES was written. I don't have the artist. Then the closing tune at the dances was HOME SWEET HOME followed by GOOD NIGHT LADIES. In 1926 Irving King wrote SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME. From that day forth the closing tunes were HOME SWEET HOME, GOOD NIGHT LADIES and then SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME.


SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME
(Irving King, 1926)

1. When I'm happy, when I'm happy, singing all the while,
I don't need nobody then to show me how to smile.
When I've been out on a spree, toddling down the street,
With this melody everyone I greet:

CHORUS:
O, show me the way to go home. I'm tired and I want to go to bed.
I had a little drink about an hour ago and it all went to my head.
Wherever I may roam, on land or sea or foam,
You can always hear me singing this song: Show me the way to go home.

2. Buying drinks, a lot of gents gathered in a small swell café.
A Scotchman who had quite a few was feeling rather gay.
He kept drinking with each guy as the hours fled.
When it comes his time to buy, he stands up and said: CHORUS

3. Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he.
He called for his pipe and he called for his wine, and he called for his fiddlers three.
When they'd had a high old time, all the whole night through,
What was it that King Cole said and all the fiddlers too? CHORUS