You’re The One

 

 

Letter dated 20 July 1911 from Fred Godfrey assigning the rights to You’re The One and
several other songs to Billy Williams (with no mention of supposed co-writer Fred Barnes).
The underlined addition of “all other songs” suggests a note of petulance on Godfrey’s
part, perhaps because Williams was paying
him less than £1 each for these songs, most
of which Billy recorded and performed on stage
to his great benefit. Indeed, Billy had already recorded this song for several labels by the time Fred assigned the rights to him.

Fred Godfrey, Fred J. Barnes & Billy Williams, 1911.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

One of the better melodies Fred thought up for Billy, and also one of the funniest set of lyrics.

 

Columbia-Rena 1655-ACinch 5112-A

Recordings

Billy Williams recorded at least eight versions of this song: 11 March 1911 for Zonophone, ca. April 1911 for Columbia-Rena, ca. April 1911 for Edison Amberol, ca. April 1911 for Homophon, ca. April 1911 for Pathé, 2 August 1911 for Favorite, ca. October 1911 for Jumbo, and ca. December 1911 for Beka Grand. Reissues appeared on several other labels.1

Jumbo Military Band, in “Jumbo Band Medley 2” (Jumbo 617, 1912)

 

 

 

 

 

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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).