Arthur Collins - Hello! Ma Baby 1899 Ragtime (Edison Phonograph)

Arthur Collins - Hello Ma Baby 1899 - Edison Phonograph Cylinder.
"Hello! Ma Baby" is a Tin Pan Alley song written in 1899 by the songwriting team of Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson, known as "Howard and Emerson". Its subject is a man who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone. At the time, telephones were relatively novel, present in fewer than 10% of U.S. households, and this was the first well-known song to refer to the device. Additionally, the word "Hello" itself was primarily associated with telephone use — "Hello Girl" was slang for a telephone operator even through the first world war — though it later became a general greeting for all situations.
The song was first recorded by Arthur Collins on an Edison 5470 phonograph cylinder.
It was originally a "coon song", with African-American caricatures on the sheet music and "coon" references in the lyrics.
As with many songs of the era, its chorus is far better known than its verse. The song may be most well-known today as the introductory song in the famous Warner Bros. cartoon One Froggy Evening (1955), sung by the character later dubbed Michigan J. Frog and high-stepping in the style of a cakewalk.

[AmandaInMourning]

125 years old now and I have a 6 year old who keeps singing the "hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal" part... I wonder what Arthur Collins would think about his song still being sung

[chuckledell]

120 years later and this is still catchy

[guywilliams]

It's so weird to think this is what music sounded like... Like it's hard to imagine young strong strapping 20 something year old men excited because this song came on and they couldn't wait to hear it... And because of the way things work back then, they hadn't heard it in weeks or whatever, so they were just losing their minds that their favorite song was on the air

[JamesIrwinss]

One of the Gay Nineties best melodies, along with of course, A Hot Time In the Old Town, Drill Ye Terriers Drill, and The Laughing Song (excluding the racism in that last one)!

[chicomom]

This song was making fun of the word “hello” a little. The word “hello” instead of “hullo!” (previously used in surprise) was misheard by Thomas Edison when he answered the telephone. So because of that, the word hello was “invented” along with the telephone as the word to use when answering it!

Graham Bell was using the word “ahoy” to answer it, but “hello” caught on faster. Makes sense now, but not back then- it was a brand new word, crazy!

[philipstudiosman]

Anyone heard this song in rdr2, it was greatly remade in red dead redemption two

[rhyleesmumX]

What a shame there isnt a video of this - using the phonograph

[markloveless]

I remember a usenet meme from many long years ago.


"Hello my baby, Hello my honey, Hello my ASCII gal
Give me a line by e-mail, baby I hope you're female...."

[guywilliams]

Anytime your grandparents talk about how bad the music is today and the language that was used, remind them how they swore back in this day and age, they were just clever about it

[DeathSoul]

I came here for RDR2 and thought I could sample this.

[Hap_Shaughessy]

Looney tunes used this song for the dancing frog obviously different voice actor though.

[classiclife]

What surprises is that the song is about the new telephone culture - HELLO was a new word, apparently - rather than simply another racist old song. Side note, what did Americans talk about or engage with back then, when the subject wasn't Black people?

[TedMakesAwfulMovies]

This would have been sung by a guy with black soote on his face lol

[olive]

Oh my god...

_This guy sounds like Alastor._

[raytotherose]

red dead redemption brought me here lol