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Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away

27 Apr 21 - 10:47 AM (#4103707)
Subject: Origins: 'The Baby Tree' by Rosalie Sorrels
From: GUEST,Jeremy

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.


30 Jun 21 - 03:15 PM (#4111922)
Subject: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jon Bartlett

"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


30 Jun 21 - 03:23 PM (#4111923)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST,#

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

Lyrics there.


30 Jun 21 - 05:20 PM (#4111930)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jeri

It's by Rosalie Sorrells. The Baby Tree


30 Jun 21 - 05:24 PM (#4111931)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jeri

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


30 Jun 21 - 05:46 PM (#4111937)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: RunrigFan

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


01 Jul 21 - 03:12 AM (#4111976)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Jon Bartlett

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


01 Jul 21 - 07:10 AM (#4111984)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST,#

"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


08 Jul 21 - 11:34 AM (#4112708)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: GUEST

Refresh


10 Jul 21 - 05:54 PM (#4112893)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Lighter

"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."


10 Jul 21 - 06:29 PM (#4112894)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: This is the day they give babies away
From: Lighter

"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."