From “MUSIC BOX REVUE,” 1925.
Words and Music by Irving Berlin.
Cover by R.S. Rosebud-Rosenbaum Studio.
Copyright ©15 Dec 1924.
Sheet Music from the collection of Michael Deatz.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
VERSE
A gentle voice is calling me;
I hear it night and day.
It seems to whisper tenderly,
“You should be on your way.”
I’m going back without a doubt
To where my heart belongs,
The land that Jolson sings about
In all his “Mammy” songs.
CHORUS
Southland,
All night long your banjos ring in my ear
And I can hear
The call of the Southland.
Cornfields
Seem to say it’s just the time of year,
Come on and hear
The call of the South.
I’ll be so happy when I open the gate
To see my sweetie there who promised to wait;
And then when I deliver
The kiss I’m gonna give ‘er,
Trouble will drown way doen
In the Swanee River.
Southland,
I must go back to somebody I’ve missed—
I can’t resist
The call of the South.
Berlin wrote the following lyrics to Stephen Foster’s
“Old Folks at Home” to be sung as a countermelody to
the chorus of “The Call of the South”:
Way down upon the Swanee River
I feel so blue,
Oh, how my heart is yearning ever,
Yearning to welcome you!
All the world is sad and dreary,
Dreary while you roam;
So won’t you please return, my dearie,
Back to the old folks at home.
Sung by Laurence Rubenstein: