Willie the Weeper

DESCRIPTION: Willie the Weeper, a chimney sweep, is a hop addict. One night he has a particularly wild dream, with the (Queen of somewhere) making him promises. The further course of the ballad varies, but usually describes a crash
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: drugs dream
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 507, "Willie the Weeper" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 115, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 204-205, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 184-185, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 223, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 103-106, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 123-125, "Willie the Weeper" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 114-115, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 156-157, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 54, "Willy, the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text)
DT, WILLWEP1 WILLWEP2
Roud #977
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Willie the Weeper" (Vocalion 3381, 1937)
Roy Evans, "Willie the Weeper" (Columbia 15687-D, 1931; rec. 1928)
Ernest Rogers, "Willie the Chimney Sweeper" (Columbia 15012-D, 1925) (Victor 20502, 1927)
Marc Williams, "Willie the Weeper" (Brunswick 240, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Lil" (tune)
NOTES [100 words]: This is said to be the inspiration for the pop song "Minnie the Moocher." Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks think the story originated in San Francisco.
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 116, says that this song was first published in 1927, the year when it was recorded by three major jazz bands (King Olvier's, Louis Armstrong's, and Doc Cook's). The song itself seems to be older, as the earliest date shows (although I don't know where that date comes from). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R507

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