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The sentimental tune
Won't You Come Over to My House was one of a number of popular
songs created by the team of Egbert Van Alstyne and Harry H. Williams during the early part of the 20th
century.
The song tells the story of a woman who sees a lonely baby girl crying. The woman is moved by the sight,
picks her up and invites the girl to come play at her house.
At the end of the song we realize why she was so moved by the child - she had a girl like her
who had died "not long ago".
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Van Alstyne was a bit of a child prodigy, playing the organ at his Methodist church in Marengo, Ililnois when
he was only 7. After college he toured awhile but then joined up with Harry Williams in a vaudeville show. Around 1900
they stopped in New York and Van Alstyne went to work as as staff pianist for some
Tin Pan Alley publishing houses.
Soon he was writing songs and Williams was creating the lyrics for them. During this time they had several
successful songs with the biggest hit being In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree. After 1910
he would go on to collaborate with other lyricists.
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Williams and Van Alstyne
(from the sheet music cover to Santa Fe, 1910)
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The time was in June,
The bees humm'd a tune
The perfume of rose fill'd the air,
When just o'er the way,
Sat a baby one day,
All alone and so one one seem'd to care,
But one passer by,
Turn'd and look'd with a sigh,
At the tears and the eyes swollen red,
Then close to her breast,
The young darling she press'd,
And tenderly to her she said,
[CHORUS]
Won't you come over to my house,
Won't you come over and play,
I've lots of playthings, a dolly or two
We live in the house 'cross the way,
I'll give you candy and sweet things,
I'll put your hair in a curl,
Won't you come over to my house,
And play that you're my little girl.
Perhaps you don't know,
That not long ago,
These toys I am giving to you,
Were my little girls,
Yes, my one little Pearl's,
And her eyes were like yours, large and blue,
But one night I found,
That the angels came 'round,
And they took her way up to the sky,
So don't stay away,
But come over each day,
Or you'll make your new Mama cry,
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Sheet music cover
from 1906
(select to
download the
sheet music)
Egbert Van Alstyne
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