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STAGE AND SCREEN

Who was the Bill Bailey whose reluctance to return home has been made famous in song? Was he connected in any way with the eponymous north Atlantic sandbank?

Edmund Street, Bordeaux, France

  • "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home", written by Hughie Cannon in 1902, is the lyric narrative of a familiar story. Bailey was said to have been a performer in the American music hall who liked to drink excessively and pursue the debauchment of women other than his wife. Eventually, his wife kicked him out. So that is the reason why Bill Bailey will not come home - he still thinks his wife is finished with him. Hughie Cannon (1877 - 1912), was a performer and also a composer who played piano for many vaudeville acts. Next to "Bill Bailey", his other greatest hit was "He Done Me Wrong", written in 1904 for the musical "Frankie and Johnny". Other hits were "Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes" (1900) and "I Hates To Get Up Early In The Morning" (1901), both in collaboration with John Queen. It is doubtful Messrs Cannon and Bailey had a hand in naming the sandbank so familiar from the shipping forecast.

    John Bennett, Glasgow, Scotland

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