A popular song from 1916.
Words and Music by Irving Berlin.
Cover Art by Albert W. Barbelle.
Copyright ©11 Sep 1916.
Sheet Music from the collection of Michael Deatz.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- When the robin returns to its nest
After straying away from the rest
There’s a welcome that waits
From its feathery mates
A welcome that can’t be expressed
So it is with the boy who decided
From his father and mother to roam
Through his travels he may be misguided
But when fin’lly the black sheep comes home
Refrain:
Ev’rything that he did is forgotten
And they welcome him back to the fold
He knows by their sad, wrinkled faces
That the pain of his absence has told
Once again, they all sit ’round the table
As they did in the days of old
And they’ll weep tears of joy
As they whisper “My Boy”
When the black sheep returns to the fold
- When the smile of a fool starts to fade
When he finds out the errors he made
Then the old-fashioned truth
That he heard in his youth
Says, “Go home,” but he is afraid
As he stands on the threshold of sorrow
With the doors of the world closed up tight
He compares yesterday with tomorrow
And decides that he’ll go home that night
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: