[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
(They Made It Twice As Nice As Paradise), 1916.
Words by Raymond Egan.
Music by Richard A. Whiting.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. I used to have a dear old Mammy
In the days of old Black Joe
She used to cuddle me upon her knee
And tell me tales of long ago
She said the angels built old Dixie
And I know that’s not a fib
For to me it looks like heaven
And I’ll tell you what the angels did
Chorus
They built a little garden for the rose
And they called it Dixieland
They built a summer breeze to keep the snows
Far away from Dixieland
They built the finest place I’ve known
When they built my home sweet home
Nothing was forgotten in the land of cotton
From the clover to the honeycomb
And then they took an angel from the skies
And they gave her heart to me
She had a bit of heaven in her eyes
Just as blue as blue can be
They put some fine spring chickens in the land
And taught my Mammy how to use a frying pan
They made it twice as nice as Paradise
And they called it Dixieland
2. My dear old Mammy never told me
Where she learn’d this mystery
And if I seem’d surpris’d she’d look so wise
And say “Ma chile, that’s history”
But she liv’d so long in Dixie
She was old enough to know
And I think she might have been there
When the land was built, so long ago