“Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” and “Joy to the Person of my Love”

"Joy to the Person of My Love" 

A few days ago, while listening to the “All Classical” internet radio station, I heard this piece - “Joy to the Person of My Love,” a very pretty 16th- or 17th-century Scottish tune. If you give it a listen, you might notice that the first phrase sounds strikingly similar to “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” the 1929 jazz standard with music by Don Redman, words by Andy Razaf. Here it is:

The obvious question: Is it even a tiny bit possible that Don Redman could have been aware of “Joy to the Person,” and borrowed the theme, either consciously or unconsciously?

After due consideration and some research, I think the answer has to be “unlikely, but possible, and we’ll never really know.”

Don Redman was a sophisticated musician. While he became famous as a jazz composer and arranger, he also had classical training. Redman grew up in a musical household - his father was a music teacher, his mother a singer. Redman studied at Storer College (class of 1920; wrote its alma mater), then at the Boston Conservatory. In the 1920s, there was a fair amount of academic interest in early music. There would surely have been some early music concerts in Boston, at which Redman might possibly have heard “Joy to the Person.” Alternatively, he could have run across it in a music history class.

At that time the available print source for “Joy” would have been William Dauney’s “Ancient Scotish Melodies.” This book was held in a number of college libraries. Dauney’s print version would have been the likely source for any live concert renditions that Redman might have heard. 

Dauney’s book was first published in 1838. It includes re-creations in modern notation of songs that were collected in the “Skene Manuscript” c.1630, originally in lute tablature. Here’s the way "Joy to the Person of My Love" appeared in Dauney’s book:

The first 8 bars in Dauney are a pretty good match for the Ensemble Galilei recording at the beginning of this post. It seems likely that Dauney was the Ensemble’s source for this song.

Comparing Dauney’s print version to modern fake book versions of “Gee Baby,” we can see some definite similarities in the first phrase. Note that “Gee Baby” is written in 4/4, while “Joy” is written in 2/4, so this phrase is 4 bars long in “Gee Baby,” 8 bars in “Joy.”

Here is the way the first phrase of "Gee Baby" appears in most modern fake books. This tune is usually played in Eb, but is here transposed to C for easier comparison:

For the first half of the phrase, the melodic contour is identical. In fact, all but one of the notes are identical. After that, the melodies move towards their tonic - A for "Joy," with an A minor feeling, or C for "Gee Baby," with a C major feeling. What are the odds of the notes, intervals, and phrasing matching up this well, accidentally?

I should mention here that a few previous popular tunes in the 1920s had made use of classical themes. Notably, "Avalon" (1920, music by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva, Vincent Rose) used a theme from Puccini, and was the subject of a celebrated lawsuit. "Song of India" was recorded by Paul Whitemen's band in 1921, adapted from a theme by Rimsky-Korsakoff. Could Redman have taken a cue from these?

I thought it might be interesting to check the modern fake book version of "Gee Baby" against Redman’s original sheet music, lead sheets, and/or the original 1929 recording, to see if modern fake book versions accurately represent Redman's original composition. 

However, 1929 copyright records indicate that no commercial sheet music for “Gee Baby” was produced at that time. Redman was required to include a lead sheet in his copyright submission; that would have been handwritten. The U.S. Copyright office has partially digitized their archive, and made it available online, but that unfortunately does not include Redman’s lead sheet (more about this later).

That left the 1929 recording as the only available guide to Redman's original concept.

Here's the original recording by McKinney's Cotton Pickers, led by Don Redman, on the Victor label: 

Redman is the vocalist, but he does not exactly sing the lyrics. It's more like conversational talking. The closest thing to the "melody" in this recording would be the trumpet part at the beginning. It's full of blues inflections, but the basic melody is pretty much like this:

This trumpet melody does not quite match the modern fake book version, but I'd say that if anything, this melodic line is a little closer to "Joy to the Person." 

One interesting feature is the F# in the first measure. In subsequent early recorded versions of "Gee Baby," this note seems to have evolved into the F that modern fake books use. 

The title of the tune has changed too, over time. The 1929 copyright submission was titled "Ain't I Good to You." The label on the 1929 record is "Gee, Ain't I Good to You," The lyrics in Redman's original recording never actually say “Gee baby, ain’t I good to you.” The closest they come is “Aw, baby…” 

Chu Berry’s 1941 version does use the whole “Gee baby…” phrase in the vocal, although the record label still reads, “Gee, Ain't I Good to You.” Nat King Cole's 1943 recording uses the full present title, "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You," as do his lyrics. Nat's recording was a hit, and the title has stayed the same since then.

The tempo has changed as well. Redman's 1929 recording was a medium tempo "fox trot." Chu Berry played it as a slow, bluesy ballad, with a 12/8 feel. That tempo worked well, and subsequent recordings tended to be relatively slow. Modern fake books specify a slow 12/8 feel.

The first four recordings

McKinney’s Cotton Pickers

To recap, here is the basic information about Redman's original 1929 recording, discussed above:

McKinney’s Cotton Pickers

title on record label - “Gee, Ain’t I Good to You”

recorded 11/5/29

label - Victor

copyright 11/18/29 as “Ain’t I Good to You”

Chu Berry

Chu Berry's 1941 version was the second commercial recording of this song. 

Chu Berry
title - “Gee, Ain’t I Good to You”
recorded 8/28/41
label - Commodore

Like the 1929 recording, this one starts with the trumpet (Oran "Hot Lips" Page) stating the AABA melody. The notes of the A section are the same as in Redman's 1929 version, including the raised third note (shown as F# in the transposed example above). The B section, though, is interpreted in a way that  resembles the modern fake book version.

This is followed by "Lips" Page’s vocal, which is more melodic and less speech-like than the Redman version. The vocal interpretation does not hit either the F# or F as the third note. This is followed by a piano solo, then a sax solo by Chu Berry. Chu uses an F natural in his first two A sections. The slow "12/8 feel" tempo here probably influenced Nat Cole’s 1943 interpretation, as did the full “Gee baby, ain't I good to you” phrase in the lyrics.

(“Lips” Page recorded the song again in 1945 under his own name. His trumpet playing on the B and A sections at the end is as funky as you can get.)

Nat King Cole

Nat Cole turned this song into a hit. He recorded it in 1943, but it was not released until 1944. 

King Cole Trio
rec. 11/30/43, released August 1944
title - “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You"
label - Capitol Records
Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” 9/30/44, then 22 weeks more

The piano plays a 4-bar intro and two A sections, then Nat sings AABA. The third note of the A section is never raised in this recording, either in piano or vocal. The vocal melody, including the B section, is very much as shown in modern fake books - in Nat Cole's reinterpretation, the words fit the melody more naturally. This is followed by Oscar Moore's guitar solo, which again uses a natural (diatonic) third note in the first A section. The guitar solo is over the first two A sections. Moore starts with some interesting ideas, but when the piano takes over in the B section, there seems to be some confusion for a few measures between Oscar and Nat, about where they are in the form. By the middle of the last A they are back in sync. The vocal then takes BA, to the end of the song. 

At the end, Oscar plays a subtle "Jingle Bells" quote. Perhaps that was because the recording was made at the very end of November, or perhaps it was in reference to the lyric "Bought you a fur coat for Christmas." Three years later, when Nat made his hit recording of  The Christmas Song, Oscar used the same cute quote at the end, in a more obvious way.

Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing

In 1944, Count Basie recorded "Gee Baby" with a big band arrangement by Don Redman. It was released in 1945 on a "V-Disc."

Count Basie
rec. 5/27/44, live at the Blue Room, Hotel Lincoln, New York City
title - "Gee, Baby Ain't I Good to You"
label - V-Disc

The V-Disc program produced 78-rpm records for release to U.S. Armed Forces personnel; the records were not released to the general public. This was a live performance, featuring vocalist Jimmy Rushing. The big band arrangement was by Don Redman. 

Redman's 1944 Basie arrangement comes across as a much more polished update of the 1929 recording, but paralleling it to a large extent. It begins with a 4-bar intro, followed by the AABA melody, played by alternating sections. The melody as stated here is almost exactly as it was played by the trumpet in the 1929 version. 

This is followed by Jimmy Rushing, singing a vocal section that is new material ("Listen, listen to what I've got to say..."). This section seems to me like the "verse" that occurs at the beginning of many "Golden Age" standards, introducing the "chorus," which is the principal melody. Rushing then sings the AABA melody. He sings it fairly straight - with blues inflections and some interpretation, but hitting mostly the same notes as the instrumental melody. Almost every time the melody is played or sung in this recording, the third note of the A section is raised. Just once, in Lester Young’s tenor sax solo at the end, is it played natural. After the tenor solo, there is some brief closing material.

Because the instrumental and vocal statements of the melody so closely follow the version from 15 years earlier, I think it's reasonable to say that this is how Don Redman wanted his song to go. The modern fake book (Nat Cole) version may, or may not, be an improvement.

The Library of Congress Copyright Cards

Until January 1, 1978, the U.S. Copyright Office used double-sided 3" x 5" index cards to store copyright information. The pre-1978 archive of these cards at the Library of Congress has now been digitized, and images are available online. Any lead sheet that might have been included in the copyright submission is unfortunately not part of the digital archive. To view that additional material, one would have to pay a fee of $200 per hour, with a minimum of 2 hours (total, $400+) for a staff member to look through the physical archives and make a physical or digital copy. That's more than I was willing to spend, so I cannot say what was on Redman's lead sheet.

Nevertheless, there is interesting information on the file cards. Below are four cards relating to "Gee Baby," with comments.

The first card, with an initial date of 11/15/29, registers the song immediately after its first recording by McKinney's Cotton Pickers on 11/5/29. It shows Joe Davis as the owner of the copyright. Davis was a music producer, prominent in the popular music business in the 1920s and 1930s. He would have set up the record date, and probably would have had a profit-sharing arrangement with Redman. 

The phrase “MUSICAL COMPOSITION NOT REPRODUCED FOR SALE” means that the song was copyrighted, but no commercial sheet music was produced. The fine print specifies that “one complete copy is herewith deposited.” That would be the lead sheet that I chose not to order.

  

The second card, dated 12/7/43, shows a transfer of the copyright ownership to Michael H. Goldsen, immediately following Nat Cole's recording on 11/30/43. According to Google, Joe Davis sold his publishing catalog to Bregman, Vocco & Conn (BVC) in 1939. BVC then sold this song to Goldsen in 1943. Goldsen was the head of publishing at the newly-formed Capitol Records. He later went on to become a major figure in music publishing, as the owner of Criterion Music Corporation.

 

 

The third card, dated 10/18/44, documents the first publishing of sheet music for "Gee Baby," showing Capitol Songs, Inc. as owner (Capitol Songs was the publishing arm of Capitol Records). Although Nat Cole had recorded "Gee Baby" in November 1943, it was not released until August 1944. It almost immediately became a hit, with 22 weeks on Billboard’s “Harlem Hit Parade.” Clearly, Capitol wanted to sell sheet music, to capitalize on the song’s popularity.

Note that this card refers to "MUSICAL COMPOSITION PUBLISHED IN THE U.S." In Copyright Office terminology, "published" meant a print version, rather than a recording.

The fourth card, dated 3/27/45, registers “new copyright matter,” specifically an arrangement for “orchestra” by Don Redman. This covers the arrangement in the 1945 V-Disc release of the Count Basie big band recording. The card indicates that the arrangement was “published” (i.e., printed), and that two copies were filed with the Copyright Office. Does that mean that a set of big-band parts was marketed?

The Sheet Music

As indicated by the 1929 copyright card, there was no sheet music published for this song at the time of its first release, or for many years afterward. There seems to have been a printing of sheet music in 1944. I was unable to find a copy, either for sale or just to view (and again, I don’t want to pay $400+ for the Copyright Office to make me a copy). I would have expected it to show Nat Cole’s interpretation, which seems to be the source for modern fake book versions.

I was able to find a collection of printed charts titled, “Nat ‘King’ Cole All-Time Greatest Hits, Complete Original Sheet Music Editions.” The book was issued in 1996. The charts in this book do seem to be mostly copies of original sheet music, although some songs show chord symbols that appear to have been either edited, or added later. The chart for “Gee Baby” does indeed show the Nat Cole interpretation. However, it includes the “interlude” from the Basie version, which came a year after Nat’s recording. That would indicate that the chart in this collection was created later, and could not have been part of the copyright submission in 1944. 

My best guess is that the chart I found was based on the (missing) 1944 sheet music, but was a revised version created some years later. I’d say that it does give some support to the idea that the first printed sheet music derived from the Nat recording, and that later fake book versions took that as their reference.

Is “Gee Baby” actually Public Domain?

"Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" is generally regarded as Public Domain, because works written in 1929 passed the legal limit of 95 years as of 2025. But that would apply only to Redman’s original version. What about the 1944 copyright for the sheet music, with Nat’s now-standard reinterpretation, or Redman’s 1944 Basie arrangement, copyrighted in 1945? 

This reminds me of the Mickey Mouse issue: Mickey’s image from the 1928 “Steamboat Willie” cartoon is Public Domain, but later versions of Mickey with a shorter, less rat-like nose are still copyright-protected.

If you are thinking of recording this song, and want to play it safe, I suggest that you take the 1929 trumpet melody as a starting point, then give it your own reinterpretation - just as was done by Don Redman, “Lips” Page, Nat Cole, Jimmy Rushing, and any number of other greats. Why would you want to play it straight out of a fake book? For added authenticity and legality, keep that raised third note.

Billie Holiday (1946) gets the last word: