Volume 10 , Issue 33

The WWI Stammering Song

Remembering K-K-Katy! Many of you out there might remember this song once sung by the WWI soldiers and Sailors as they were saying goodbye before they headed off to war in France. Do you remember singing this stammering song in your youth?

One of the reasons I am writing about it this week is because I ran across an old Pathe Phonograph record that my grandmother had collected in the early 1900's. This particular phonograph record of mine was published by Pathe Phonograph Company and sung by Louis Winsch. Louis Winsch enjoyed modest success as a Path? recording artist during the World War I era, but wisely kept his day job at a Philadelphia phonograph store. -- mainspringpress.com

K-K-K-Katy sung by Billy Murray was considered a comic song, with words and music by Geoffrey O'Hara. It was written in Kingston, Ontario. It became one of the most popular songs of the World War I era, especially among the troops. Published 16 March 1918 by Leo Feist with the subtitle The Stammering Song, it sold over a million copies in sheet music form and was recorded with great success that same year for Victor (18455) by the US tenor, Billy Murray.

Ten other vocal and instrumental recordings of 'K-K-K-Katy' from the 1920s are listed in Roll Back the Years. In 1940 the song was revived by Jack Oakie in the movie Tin Pan Alley.

The song has been done by Mitch Miller, Bill Murray, Buddy Clark, Jon English, Charlie Mariano, Cliff Edwards, Alice Fay, and Louis Winsch, among others.

It was billed as The Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors.

It was regarded as something of a 'goodbye' song. The 'Katy' in the song was Katherine Gertrude (Craig) Richardson of Kingston, Ontario and was composed at Richardson's house in 1917 by Geoffrey O'Hara. O'Hara was originally from Chatham, Ontario, taught music at Columbia University and the University of South Dakota, and died in Florida on January 31, 1967, at age 84. During his career, he composed a great many songs, mostly hymns and other sacred music, but none so far have lasted like K-K-K-Katy.

The song was first played at a garden party fund-raiser for the Red Cross in Collins Bay on Lake Ontario.

Here are the complete lyrics to K-K-K-Katy
Jimmy was a soldier brave and bold,
Katy was a maid with hair of gold,
Like an act of fate,
Kate was standing at the gate,
Watching all the boys while on parade.
Kate smiled, with a twinkle in her eye,
Jim said, m-m-m-meet ya by and by.
That night at eight,
Jim was at the garden gate,
Stuttering this song to K-K-K-Kate.

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the c-c-c-cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.
K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the c-c-c-cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

No one ever looked so nice and neat,
No one could be just as cute and sweet,
That's what Jimmy thought,
When the wedding ring he bought,
Soon he'll go to France, the foe to meet.
Jimmy thought he'd like to take a chance,
See if he could make the Kaiser dance,
Stepping to a tune,
All about the silv'ry moon,
This is what they'll hear in far off France.

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the c-c-c-cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.
K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the c-c-c-cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.
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