Everybody Works but Father

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his father's indolence and the rest of the family's industry. Eventually his father takes a job while everyone else relaxes. Chorus: "Everybody works but Father, he hangs around all day... Everyone works around our house but my old man."
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (sheet music published by Helf & Hager)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his father's indolence and the rest of the family's industry. Eventually his father takes a job to clean up Decatur St.; now he works while everyone else vacations. Chorus: "Everybody works but Father, he hangs around all day/Feet stretched out by the fire, smoking his pipe of clay/Mother takes in washing and so does sister Ann/Everyone works around our house but my old man"
KEYWORDS: work father family worker humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Everybody works but father"; cf. "We all go to work but father"
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 78.81, "Everybody works but Father" (1 text,1 tune, a copy of the published sheet music)
Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 208-210, "IWe All Go to Work But Father" (1 text, 1 tune, as sung by Gus Elen)
Roud #4782
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Everybody Works but Father" (OKeh 45056, 1926)
Billy Murray, "Everybody Works But Father" (Victor 4519, 1905)
Riley Puckett, "Everybody Works but Father" (Columbia 15078-D, 1926)
Bob Roberts, "Everybody Works But Father" (CYL: Edison 9100, 1905)
Unknown baritone, "Everybody Works But Father" (Busy Bee 1219, c. 1906)
Frank Wilson, "Everybody Works But Father" (Victor 4727, 1906)
SAME TUNE:
Everybody Works but Adam ("Everybody works but Adam, He sits 'round all day, Tearing up rebate checks") (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, B. E. Washburn, "College Folklore at Chapel Hill in the Early 1900's," Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 29)
NOTES [189 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 269, estimates that this was the ninth most popular song in America in 1905, peaking at #3 in October 1905 (#1 for the year being Harry H Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree").
Early versions of this entry credited this song to Jean Havez, based presumably on the sheet music. This is also the attribution in Gardner, and the primary attribution at FolkSongAndMusicHall. Davidson, however, credits words to J. C. Heffron and music to Leslie Reed. It seems clear that the music hall versions are the oldest; that seems to be the Reed version, later rewritten by Havez (see the discussion at FolkSongAndMusicHall). The versions do differ significantly; they are rewrites of the same general theme, which helps explain the authorship issues.
The original of this was probably "We All Go to Work but Father," by Leslie Reed and Warwick Williams. In that earlier form, the song does not seem to have become traditional; see its entry at FolkSongAndMusicHall. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: RcEBWBF

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