Nobody (1905 song)

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"Nobody" is a popular song with music by Bert Williams and lyrics by Alex Rogers, published in 1905. (It has been claimed[1] that Rogers actually wrote the entire song, not merely the lyrics.)

The song premiered in February 1906, in the Broadway production "Abyssinia." The show, which included live camels, premiered at the Majestic Theater and continued the string of hits for the vaudeville team of Williams and Walker. "Nobody," became Bert Walker's signature theme, and the song he is best remembered for today. It is a doleful and ironic composition, replete with his dry observational wit, and is perfectly complemented by Williams' intimate, half-spoken singing style.

When life seems full of clouds and rain,
And I am filled with naught but pain,
Who soothes my thumping, bumping brain?
[pause] Nobody.
When winter comes with snow and sleet,
And me with hunger and cold feet,
Who says, "Here's two bits, go and eat"?
[pause] Nobody.
I ain't never done nothin' to Nobody.
I ain't never got nothin' from Nobody, no time.
And, until I get somethin' from somebody sometime,
I don't intend to do nothin' for Nobody, no time.

Williams became so identified with the song that he was obliged to sing it in almost every appearance for the rest of his life. He considered its success both blessing and curse: "Before I got through with 'Nobody,' I could have wished that both the author of the words and the assembler of the tune had been strangled or drowned... 'Nobody' was a particularly hard song to replace." "Nobody" remained active in Columbia Records' sales catalogue into the 1930s, and the musicologist Tim Brooks estimates that it sold between 100,000 and 150,000 copies, a phenomenally high amount for the era.

[edit] Recorded versions

[edit] References

  1. ^ Magee, Jeffery (Autumn, 1998). "A Tribute to Bert Williams". American Music 16 (3): 349–351. doi:10.2307/3052642. 

[edit] External Links

[1] 1905 Library of Congress recording of Arthur Collins singing "Nobody."

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