Now I Have To Call Him Father

Listen to
Vesta Victoria’s 1911
recording for HMV.

Charles Collins & Fred Godfrey — London: Francis, Day & Hunter; Melbourne: Stanley Mullen; Detroit, New York: Jerome Remick, 1908.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Fred Godfrey related that he and a rival had just threepence between them when they decided to toss a coin to see who would sell a song to Vesta Victoria. Fred won. This was the song he offered her. It became one of her greatest hits, although she did not record it until 1911.

The plaintive chorus goes:

He used to come and court his little Mary Ann.
I used to think that he was my young man.
But Mother caught his eye and they got married on the sly.
Now I have to call him FATHER!

 

Vesta Victoria reprises her great hit in this 1931 medley.

Recordings

Florrie Forde (Zonophone 160, 1909; Regal T-160, 1909)

Yolande Noble (Columbia D-285, 1909; Columbia-Rena 1144, 1909; Pathé 8148, 1909?)

Ada Jones (Edison 10080, ca. 1909; Columbia Indestructible 976, ca. 1910) [2-min. black wax cylinders]

Kitty Curtis (Clarion 378, 1910; Clarion 759) [cylinders]

Vesta Victoria (HMV GC-3896, 1911); reissued on LP “Music Hall — Top Of The Bill” (EMI SHB-22, 1980); reissued on compact disc & cassette tape “Monologues & Comic Songs” (Evergreen Melodies C57 [disc], SY1 [tape], 2002/03 catalogue)

———, in “Vesta Victoria — Old Time Medley” (Regal MR-414, 1931; Columbia DX-290, 1931); reissued on LP “The Greatest Music Hall Bill Ever Assembled” (Music For Pleasure MFP-1146, early 1960s)