Billy Williams
(1878–1915)
“The
Man In The Velvet Suit”
Billy Williams was, with Florrie Forde and Albert Whelan, one of the great Australian stars of the British Music Hall. Like Forde, who encouraged him, he was a prolific and enormously popular early recording pioneer. In the years just before the start of World War One, Williams formed a special partnership with Fred Godfrey that ended only with Billy’s untimely death at the age of 37. The great majority of the nearly 150 songs that Williams recorded were credited to Williams and Godfrey, and during the last three or four years of his life, he recorded virtually nothing but Godfrey compositions.
It is impossible to say what contribution Williams actually made to the songs for which he is credited as co-author. The Billy Williams Collection held at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australia, contains many letters in which Godfrey assigns to Williams, for a small fee — usually a pound or a guinea (21 shillings) each — his rights to songs he has written, sometimes in batches of a dozen or more at a time. Perhaps they shared the writing duties equally, but it seems likely that Williams’ heavy performing and recording schedule left little time to do more than tinker with the lyrics here and there. At the same time, it is certainly true that, as their business card attests, Williams and Godfrey advertised themselves as a songwriting team — perhaps one should let it go at that.The Williams and Godfrey compositions are as follows (an asterisk indicates that Billy Williams never recorded the song):
1906:
It’s The
Only Bit Of English That We’ve Got (with Harry Castling)
1908:
Oh! The Girls
Of Gottenberg (with Harry Castling)
1909:
The Colliers (with Harry Castling)
Come Into The
Garden, John (with Fred E.
D’Albert)
In The Land
Where The Women Wear The Trousers (with Fred E.
D’Albert)
My Girl From London
Town (She’s Never Seen The Swanee River)
They Never Do That Where I Come From*
1910:
I’ll Lend
You My Best Girl
Sally O’Malley
She’s Coming
Home Tonight
1911:
All The Houses
Were Going Round And Round
All The Silver
From The Silvery Moon
Come And Have
A Look At What I’ve Got!
Don’t Go
Out With Him Tonight
(with Alfred Glover; Harry Carlton should also be credited)
Don’t Let Me Get Any Better, Nurse
Don’t Sing A Song About A Rose To Me
Here We Are Again
I Didn’t Know What To Do*
I Do Wish I Were
A Ladies Man
I Don’t
Care
I Keep On Toddling
Along (possibly with
Paul Pelham and Herbert S. Rule)
I Never Heard
Father Laugh So Much Before
I Wish It
Was Sunday Night (with
Huntley Trevor)
It’s A Far Better Thing I Do Than I Have Ever Done
John James Brannigan
Let’s All
Go Mad
Let’s
Go Where All The Crowd Goes
(with Harry Carlton)
Let’s
Have A Song On The Gramophone
(with Harry Carlton)
My Father Was
Born In Killarney (Don’t Run Down The Irish)
My Lass Frae Glasgae
Toon
My Sweet Rosetta (with Harry Carlton)
My Young Man Is Not A Chocolate Soldier
Oh! Mr. McPherson
One Girl’s As Good As Any Other Girl (If That Little
Girl Is Yours)
Sing Me An
Irish Song (with Harry Carlton)
Take Me Back To
U.S.A.
Take Me Where
There Are No Eyes About
Tell Them You’re
A Londoner
There’s
Something Nice About A Girl
Wake Up, John
Bull! (with Harry Carlton)
What Is A Fellow To Do!*
Why Can’t
We Have The Sea In London?
Why Don’t
Santa Claus Bring Something To Me?
You’re The
One (with Fred J. Barnes)
1912:
Are We All Here?
Call Me Early
In The Morning
Give My Love To
Scotland, Maggie
Hello! Little Miss Llewellyn* (with Charles Wilmott)
I Don’t Know What To Do
I Met Alice*
I Wish I Were Back In Lancashire
If Mother Had Never Met Father*
I’ll Be Waiting At The Church For Mary Brown
In The House Next Door To Me*
It’s
A Grand Old Song Is Home Sweet Home
It’s A Waste Of Time*
It’s Mine
When You’ve Done With It
It’s Nothing To Do With You*
The Kangaroo Hop
Nobody
Knows How To Kiss Me
Oh, Daniel Douglas (Won’t Ye Come Back To Douglas?)*
Oh, For Another
Day At Margate!
Oh! Molly McIntyre
(I’ll Be A Scotchman For You)
Oh! The Sailors Of The King
On Her Pic-Pic-Piccolo
The Only Dream I Ever Dream (Is A Dream Of You)*
The Penny Wedding*
Sandy Macadoo
She Does Like
A Little Bit O’ Scotch
She Is My Best
Girl Now
Sheila O&rsquoNeil
Since Father’s Been A Gardener*
Squeeze Her, Ebenezer
Stick To The Major*
There’s A Little Bit Here, There's A Little Bit There*
There’s A Little Fairy Looking After You*
There’s A Sound Of Music In The Air*
Wait Till I’m
As Old As Father
The Wedding Of Jeanie McKie (Come Along, You Heilan’ Lads)*
(with Tom Mellor or Harry Gifford
— sources differ)
We’ll Have A Night Out Together Tonight* (with Harry Castling)
What’s The Matter With The Daylight?*
When I’m Asleep* (with Fred E. Terry and Charles Collins)
Where Are The Girls We Used To Know?
Where Does Daddy
Go (When He Goes Out)?
You’re Sure
To Find A ——— [Sailor, Policeman, etc.] There*
1913:
All Girls Are Beautiful*
All The Ladies
Fell In Love With Sandy
Blame It Onto
Poor Old Father
Giving A Donkey
A Strawberry
Good-bye, Rag-time!
How Do, Miss Winter-Time?* (a hit for Ella Retford)
I Can’t Keep Still Tonight
I Come Frae Scotland
I Don’t
Know How You Do It
I Don’t Know Where You Live (EMI also credits Charles Collins
and
Joe Burley)
I’m Out
For The Day Today
It’s Not The Band That They Go To See
(It’s Her Big Brown
Eyes)*
Jean Loves All
The Jockeys
Let’s Have
Another One Together
Mr. John Mackenzie,
O
Oh, That Ragtime Waltz! (Waltzing Ragtime With You)
The Ragtime Wedding
Some Day, Some Place, Somewhere*
There Must
Be Something Nice About The Isle Of Man
We All Live At
No. 24
What Time Tomorrow Night?
Who’s Your
Friend?
The
Worst Of It Is, I Like It
1914:
Do A Tango Dance With Me*
I’ll Have
To Ask My Mother If She’ll Let Me
There’s
Life In The Old Dog Yet
Our Little Kiddie
Sings The Best Song Of All
They Can All Do
As They Like With Me
When Mother Backed
The Winner Of The Derby
Date uncertain:
Broncho Bill* (unpublished MS held by the National Film and Sound Archive [NFSA], Canberra, Australia)
How D’You Do, My Little Sunshine Girl* (1912?, unpublished
MS held by NFSA)
Hullo! Christmas Time* (1912?, unpublished MS held by NFSA)
Hurrah For Baden Powell (with Fred J. Barnes, 1912?, unpublished
MS held by NFSA)
I Want To Marry A Hero* (1912?, unpublished MS held by NFSA)
I Wonder* (1912?, unpublished MS held by NFSA)
I’ve Just Been To A Wedding Today* (1912?, unpublished MS
held by NFSA)
The Policeman’s Party (1912?, unpublished MS held by NFSA)
The Rose Of Rosetown (1912?, unpublished MS held by NFSA)
She Is The Leader Of The Band (1912?, title from Williams and
Godfrey stationery, held by NFSA)
Wedding Day* (credits to Williams, Godfrey, Charles Wilmott, Tom
Mellor, Vesta Tilley, and John S. Baker, [EMI])
When Your Fairy Prince Comes Along* (1912?)
In addition, several of Williams’s
songs are of uncertain authorship:
Postcards (1908): Andrews and Bayly1 credit Williams and William Hargreaves; some record labels credit Williams and Godfrey.
I Must Go Home Tonight (1909): Andrews and Bayly credit William Hargreaves; in an interview, Billy Williams’s widow credited Williams and Godfrey.Since Poor Father Joined The Territorials (1909); EMI credits Will Hyde & Godfrey; other sources credit Hyde alone, or Hyde, ? Heath & Williams.
When Father Papered The Parlour (1910); most sources credit R.P. Weston & Fred J. Barnes, others credit Billy Williams & Weston; Gammond credits “Weston, ______ another staff writer & Barnes”;2 claimed by Fred Godfrey (the other “staff writer”?).3Why Do You Think I Look So Gay? (1910): Andrews and Bayly credit Williams and R.P. Weston; some record labels credit Williams and Godfrey.
__________________
Notes
1 Frank Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography (Bournemouth:
Talking
Machine Review, 1982).
2 Peter Gammond, Music Hall Songbook: A Collection of
45 of the Best Songs from 1890–1920 (London:
David and Charles; EMI Music, 1975), p. 68.
3 The NFSA in Canberra, Australia, holds a typed version of the lyrics with written corrections, but they are not in
Godfrey’s hand.