Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away

Subject: Origins: 'The Baby Tree' by Rosalie Sorrels
From: GUEST,Jeremy
Date: 27 Apr 21 - 10:47 AM

Hi! I am currently writing about the Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship album _Blows Against the Empire_, and am curious about a song on there called "The Baby Tree," written by Rosalie Sorrels. Does anybody know anything about the origins of this song? Did she write it specifically for that album? I am also curious if Sorrels wrote any other songs that are as fantasy-/science fiction-like as this one.

Subject: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 03:15 PM

"This is the day they give babies away for a half a pound of tea": Anyone got any more words for this (to a brass band tune, I think)?

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST,#
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 03:23 PM

https://folkworks.org/milestone/remembering-rosalie-sorrels/

Lyrics there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 05:20 PM

It's by Rosalie Sorrells. The Baby Tree

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 05:24 PM

And of course, if you look at that thread, you see there's more of a story to that song...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: RunrigFan
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 05:46 PM

Today is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea
If you know any ladies who'd like to have babies
Then send them 'round to me
Today is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea
You just open the lid, and out pops the kid
With a twelve-month guarantee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uilDW41zLHA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 01 Jul 21 - 03:12 AM

With great respect: the song is much older that Rosalie Sorrels. She I suppose incorporated it into her well-known "Baby Tree" song. I'm looking for the ur-source.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 Jul 21 - 07:10 AM

"The Honeymoon March" seems to have been the original upon which this parody is based. See the bottom half of the page that opens at

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-February/046172.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 21 - 11:34 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 05:54 PM

"N.Y. Times Book Review" (Jan. 4, 1948), p. 27:

"The jingle was used to advertise some packaged tea between 1893 and 1902 and pictures of babies accompanied the package:

"Today is the day we give babies away with a half a pound of tea.
If you know any ladies who want to have babies just send them around to me.

"There are white babies and black babies and babies of every degree,
For this is the day we give babies away with a half a pound of tea.

"...The original version of this parody was the lyric to George Rosey's 'Honeymoon March' (words by Dave Reed, Jr.), published in 1895 by Jos. Stern & Co."


G. L. Morrill, "Rotten Republics" (1916), p.73:

"There's an old nursery rhyme, 'This is the day we give babies away for a half a pound of tea.'"


"Sunset, the Pacific Monthly" (Apr., 1912) p. 485:

"Oh,this is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea!"

he sang as they entered the club together."

"Indianapolis Morning Star" (Sept. 25, 1903), p. 4:

"'This is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea.'

"So wrote Mr. Holloway, and his friends have mentioned him as the man ho wrote those words for the pretty 'Honeymoon Two-step,' ever since that popular song first appeared. The...words were written at Crawfordsville and were later sung all over the country."

"Arizona Republican" (March 24, 1901), p. 5 [ad]:
"This is the day we give babies away with every pair of shoes."

Wallis R. Sanborn, "The Klondike Stampede," p. 214. (Written 1932, based largely on his old letters, here referring to 1898):

"Someone...introduced a little piece of a song that ran as follows:

    Oh! This is the day
    We give babies away
    With a half barrel of beer   [sic]
    A half a barrel of beer   
    It makes you feel so queer.

"That was all of the song we ever heard."



It's hard for me to believe without proof that tea could have been advertised in 1893 with the words about "ladies who want to have babies, just send them around to me."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 06:29 PM

"The Weekly Wisconsin" (Milwaukee) (Nov. 21, 1896), p. 6: "Olaf's Uncle Tom told him in a gay rollicking song that --

'This is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea."



"Gazette" (Cedar Rapids, Ia.) (May 1, 1920), p. 9:

"You will recall the old nursery rhyme:

"This is the day they give babies away
With half a pound of tea,
Open the lid and out pops a kid
With a written guarantee."