"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 standard song composed by Spencer Williams in 1924. Lyrics were written by Jack Palmer.
One important early recording was a young Louis Armstrong's, 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) -- Okeh 8181. Featuring: Williams, Clarence (Piano, Director); Taylor, Eva (Vocal); Armstrong, Louis (Cornet); Thompson, Aaron (Trombone); Bailey, Buster (Soprano Saxophone); and Christian, Buddy (Banjo). (See the online Louis Armstrong Discography for more information.)
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.
The song remained popular throughout the twentieth century. Note that the song has 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 Boswell Sisters recorded a version of this song in 1932.
Revivals include a top-ten country hit by the Hoosier Hot Shots (1941), and a "now-sound" instrumental by King Richard's Fluegel Knights that peaked at Easy Listening position #11 in 1967.
Glenn Miller and the AAFTC Orchestra released the song as V-Disc 223A in July, 1944.
Doris Day recorded a short version for the 1955 film Love Me or Leave Me and The Temperance Seven recorded a version for the 1962 film It's Trad, Dad!.
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.
It is also sung in Series 3, Episode 1 of Jeeves and Wooster.
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 title (more specifically, the 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 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." (Throughout the above, the universe of discourse is restricted to persons.)
Famous quotes containing the words loves and/or baby:
“one loves only form,
and form only comes
into existence when
the thing is born
born of yourself,”
—Charles Olson (1910–1970)
“The growing of food and the growing of children are both vital to the family’s survival.... Who would dare make the judgment that holding your youngest baby on your lap is less important than weeding a few more yards in the maize field? Yet this is the judgment our society makes constantly. Production of autos, canned soup, advertising copy is important. Housework—cleaning, feeding, and caring—is unimportant.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)