It’s A Grand Old Song Is “Home Sweet Home”

 

 

Billy Williams & Fred Godfrey, 1912; manuscript of lyrics in Billy Williams Collection, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, Australia.

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Interestingly, Godfrey recycled the idea of this song in 1940 for The Grandest Song Of All (Is “Home Sweet Home”), which both Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn recorded.

 

HMV-Victor 120700-A Aco G-15758
Zonophone Twin 910-B

A 1925 reissue
on an Aeolian Co.
label using a 1912
Jumbo master.

Recordings

Billy Williams recorded at least five versions of this song: 26 July 1912 for Zonophone, ca. August 1912 for Columbia-Rena, ca. August 1912 for Edison Amberol, ca. September 1912 for Pathé, and ca. November 1912 for Jumbo. Reissues appeared on several other labels.1

 

 

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Note

1  For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust,
     British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK: Gramophone, 1979); and Frank
     Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography
     (Bournemouth, UK: Talking Machine Review, 1982). For a collection of recordings of
     all the Billy Williams songs, see J.P. Myerscough, Billy Williams: All the Songs
     [8-CD set and accompanying notes] (Lowestoft, UK: Music Hall Masters, 2001).