My Melancholy Baby

This tune was written in 1911, by Ernie Burnett and Maybelle Watson. The original title was “Melancholy”. Maybelle Watson, Burnett’s wife, wrote the original lyrics. Burnett sold the song in 1912, but the publishing company didn’t care for Maybelle’s lyrics so they rewrote the lyrics and published the song as “My Melancholy Baby”. The song was a hit for a wide variety of artists and is a now a Jazz Standard. Interestingly, as the years went by Maybelle divorced Ernie and sued the publishing company for royalties, (on the lyrics she wrote but that they never used), well for one reason or another she ended up getting credit as a co-lyricist and received a portion of the royalties. Go get ‘em Maybelle! I couldn’t find more on that story, but there must have been some interesting drama there.