"Pretty Baby" (1916)
Song
As Originally Sung by
Dolly Hackett
in the Shubert Production
"The
Passing
Show
of 1916"
Lyric by
Gus Kahn (1886-1941)
Music by
Tony Jackson
[Anthony (Antonio) Jackson (1876-1921)
and
Egbert [Anson] Van Alstyne (1878 [1882?] -1951)

New York & Detroit: Jerome H. Remick & Co.
[Source: facsimiles on pages 93-96 from
"For Me and My Gal and Other Favorite Song Hits, 1815-1917"
Edited by David A. Jasen
(New York: Dover Pub.,Inc., 1994)]

1. You ask my why I’m always teasing you,
You hate to have my call you Pretty Baby,
I really thought that I was pleasing you,
For you’re just a baby to me.
Your cunning little dimples and your baby stare,
Your baby talk and baby walk and curly hair,
Your baby smile makes kife worth while,
You’re just as sweet as you can be.

CHORUS [sung twice after each VERSE]
Ev’rybody loves a baby that’s why I’m in love with you,
Pretty Baby, Pretty Baby,
And I’d like to be your sister, brother, dad and mother too,
Pretty Baby, Pretty Baby,
Won’t you come and let me rock you in my cradle of love,
And we’ll cuddle all the time.
Oh! I want a Lovin’ Baby and it might as well be you,
Pretty Baby of mine.

2. Your mother says you were the cutest kid,
No wonder, dearie, that I’m wild about you,
And all the cunning things you said and did.
Why, I love to fondly recall,
And just like Peter Pan, it seems you’ll always be
The same sweet, cunning, Little Baby dear to me.
And that is why I’m sure that I
Will always love you best of all.