"Everybody Loves My Baby", also known as "Everybody Loves My Baby, but My Baby Don't Love Nobody but Me", is a
popular and
jazz standardsong composed by
Spencer Williams in 1924. Lyrics were written by
Jack Palmer.
One important early recording was by the young
Louis Armstrong with
Clarence Williams' Blue Five on November 6, 1924, New York, NY.
Released as a single: "Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me)" (Palmer, Jack; Williams, Spencer) [master S-72-959-B] – Okeh 8181. Featuring: Williams, Clarence (Piano, Director);
Taylor, Eva (Vocal); Armstrong, Louis (Cornet); Thompson, Aaron (Trombone);
Bailey, Buster (Soprano Saxophone); and
Christian, Buddy (Banjo).[1] Before this recording, Armstrong won a vaudeville night at the Roseland Ballroom singing and playing this tune.[2] Another popular recording in 1925 was by
Aileen Stanley.[3]
The song remained popular for decades and continues to be performed regularly in the 21st century.
Other notable recordings
The
Boswell Sisters recorded a version of this song for Brunswick Records (catalog no. 6271) on February 24, 1932.[4]
Fats Waller - recorded for RCA Victor (catalog No. 20-2217A) (1940).[5]
Hoosier Hot Shots - recorded on August 6, 1940 for Okeh Records (catalog no. 06017).[6] This was a top-ten country hit in 1941.
Glenn Miller and the AAFTC Orchestra released the song as V-Disc 223A in July 1944.
Bing Crosby recorded the song for his
radio show and it was broadcast on October 25, 1953[8] and subsequently released on the album Bing in Dixieland (2012).[9]
King Richard's Fluegel Knights - a "now-sound" instrumental that peaked at Easy Listening position #11 in 1967.[15] That recording was also used as the theme for the syndicated television program Celebrity Bowling.
Barbra Streisand sang it on her 1967 CBS TV special The Belle of 14th Street and it was also recorded for a Columbia Records release. However, due to the poor critical and public response to the show, the album was never released.
Julie Andrews sang a short version as part of a medley of songs from the era in concert in 1977, which is included on the Japanese-released RCA LP An Evening with Julie Andrews which, as of this writing, has never been released on CD.
Brazilian vocal trio Cluster Sisters recorded a version of this song on their debut album in 2015.
The Hot Sardines recorded a live version of this song on their album "Welcome Home, Bon Voyage" in 2019
In popular culture
The opening phrases of the song's lyrics are featured in a fine early
Langston Hughes poem, "The Cat and the Saxophone, 2am" (1926), about a couple's interactions at a jazz club in the 1920s.
It is played in the background of the film Cat's Meow, which tells the story of the mysterious death of
Thomas H. Ince aboard the yacht of
William Randolph Hearst.
The song is often sung by a woman about her man, but the lyrics are adaptable enough that either a man or a woman may sing it.
The song title (more specifically, the
double negative grammatically corrected "...but my baby loves nobody but me" in some
covered versions) has frequently led teachers and students of
predicate logic to jestingly accuse[16] the song's narrator of
narcissism: The first half of the title, "everybody loves my baby," implies "my baby loves my baby." The second half, "my baby loves nobody but me" (formally, "if I am not a given person, then my baby does not love that person"), is
logically equivalent to "if my baby loves a given person, then I am that person." The latter statement
implies "if my baby loves my baby, then I am my baby." From "if my baby loves my baby, then I am my baby" and "my baby loves my baby" it
follows that "I am my baby."[17] (Throughout the above, the
universe of discourse is restricted to persons.)
^An alternative route changes the order of the contrapositive and the instantiation: As above, "everybody loves my baby" implies that "my baby loves my baby." As for the second half of the title, "if I am not a given person, my baby does not love that person"
implies "if I am not my baby, then my baby does not love my baby." The latter is
logically equivalent to "if my baby loves my baby, then I am my baby." From "if my baby loves my baby, then I am my baby" and "my baby loves my baby" it
follows that "I am my baby." Again,
universe of discourse is restricted to persons.