From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

"Kentucky Babe" (song)

The most famous of the Negro lullabies, "Kentucky Babe" was sung by Clarence Carroll Clark, who was born 1885 in Indiana. The song was a major hit in 1896. The record was sold in the Sears, Roebuck, and Company catalogue No.113, in 1903. For more see chapter 12 in Lost Sounds: blacks and the birth of the recording industry, 1890-1919, by T. Brooks. There is a Kentucky Babe sound recording by Adam Geibel and Richard Henry Buck, recorded in 1911, 78 RPM, 12 in.: "Presents a sentimental song about an Afro-American baby in Kentucky." That recording is available at the Library of Congress. A later recording is available at the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Media Center (Title: Tintypes [sound recording]: original Broadway cast recording). View video of Dean Martin & Four Vagabonds singing "Kentucky Babe" on YouTube.

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Cite This NKAA Entry:

“"Kentucky Babe" (song),” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed July 26, 2024, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/index.php/items/show/953.

Last modified: 2024-02-22 14:36:08