You’ve Got To Give the Babies a Bottle

A 1920 popular song.
Words and music by Howard Johnson and Milton Ager.


Sheet music provided by Laurence Rubenstein:


Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:


Lyrics

  1. Babies, they’re such cute little things
    Oh, how we bless them, kiss and caress them
    Ladies, they’re such beautiful things
    But they’re nothing but babies too
    That’s just the reason I claim
    You’ve got to treat them both the same

Chorus
You’ve got to give the babies a bottle
Or they’ll cry the whole night long
Tho’ you try to sing them lullabies
They have to have a bottle or they won’t close their eyes
And later when those babies grow older
Gee! but they’re hard to keep
Once you could soothe them by walking the floor
But now you’ve got to walk them through some old cellar door
You’ve got to give the babies a bottle
Or you never can rock them to sleep

  1. Babies, they’re such sweet little things
    Oh, how we pet them, we love to get them
    Ladies, they’re such neat little things
    And we love to get them too
    I’ve got a system in mind
    A way to win them either kind

Chorus
You’ve got to give the babies a bottle
Or they’ll cry the whole night long
Tho’ you try to sing them lullabies
They have to have a bottle or they won’t close their eyes
And later when those babies grow older
Gee! but they’re hard to keep
Once when they cried you would look for a pin
But now when baby cries you’ve got to look for some gin
You’ve got to give the babies a bottle
Or you never can rock them to sleep


Sung here by Fred Feild: