"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.