# Hello! Ma Baby
**Hello! Ma Baby** is an American popular song first published in 1899, with music by Joseph E. Howard and lyrics by Ida Emerson, that tells of a man courting a woman he knows only over the telephone.[1](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/141/013) • [2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) Published in New York by T.B. Harms & Co., it was one of the successful ragtime songs of 1899 and is remembered for its chorus, "Hello! ma baby, Hello! ma honey, Hello! ma ragtime gal."[1](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/141/013) • [2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) • [3](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/) The music reference authority James J. Fuld called it the first well-known song to refer to the telephone.[4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/The-Book-of-World-Famous-Music-Fuld-3rd-1985.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First publication | 1899, T.B. Harms & Co., 18 East 22nd St., New York[1](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/141/013) |
| Writers | Music by Joseph E. Howard (1878–1961), lyrics by Ida Emerson (1873–1945)[5](https://imslp.org/wiki/Hello%21_Ma_Baby_%28Howard%2C_Joseph%29) • [4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/The-Book-of-World-Famous-Music-Fuld-3rd-1985.pdf) |
| First line of verse | "I'se got a little baby, but she's out of sight, I talk to her across the telephone"[3](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/) |
| Genre | Ragtime; published as a "coon song" in the minstrel tradition[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) • [6](https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/slideshow.html) |
| First recording | Len Spencer, baritone, with piano, recorded April 15, 1899 for E. Berliner's Gramophone[7](https://www.loc.gov/item/99470294/) |
| Rhythm | A cakewalk-type tune built on the succession of eighth, quarter, and eighth notes[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) |
| Copyright status | Composition in the public domain in the USA; still under copyright in the European Union[5](https://imslp.org/wiki/Hello%21_Ma_Baby_%28Howard%2C_Joseph%29) |
## Subject matter
The verse places the singer on one end of a telephone line: "I'se got a little baby, but she's out of sight, I talk to her across the telephone."[3](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/) The chorus addresses her directly, "Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello ma ragtime gal! Send a kiss by wire. Baby my heart's on fire!"[8](https://www.pdinfo.com/you-tube-song-search.php?T=2226) One later observer described the song as an early comment on the effects of new technology on human relationships.[6](https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/slideshow.html)
The song belongs to the wave of "telephone songs" that appeared as the telephone spread; telephone songs were extremely popular among the themes that New York publishing firms like T.B. Harms and Witmark & Sons produced in large quantity around 1900.[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) Fuld dates the song's copyright deposit at January 25, 1899, and writes that no biographic information is available regarding Emerson, while Howard was a versatile composer, lyricist, and performer born in New York in 1878 who died in Illinois in 1961.[4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/The-Book-of-World-Famous-Music-Fuld-3rd-1985.pdf) A 2005 history of ragtime identifies Emerson as Howard's wife.[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf)
## Genre and original context
The song was published in dialect and marketed as a "coon song," a genre that portrayed Black Americans in caricature for white audiences; it is also counted among minstrel music in sheet-music catalogs.[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) • [3](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/) Music historian Alec Wilder, in *American Popular Song*, calls it a cheery little song in the ragtime genre and notes that its lyric marks it as a coon song.[2](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf) The Brown University sheet-music collection notes that the song, by the white ragtime composer Joe Howard, is still performed today, with the dialect removed.[6](https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/slideshow.html) A 2005 book adds that the 1899 hit was long rendered as "Hello, My Baby," changing the dialect spelling "Ma" to "My," and that it survives shorn of its racist tone.[9](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780198028932_A35484241/preview-9780198028932_A35484241.pdf)
The original cover illustration shows a couple of the period talking on telephones, with a telephone pole and overhead wires in the upper right; the cover was drawn by the Starmer brothers, William A. Starmer and Frederick S. Starmer.[6](https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/slideshow.html) • [3](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/)
## Early performances on record and film
The earliest recording in the Library of Congress's Berliner collection was made on April 15, 1899: Len Spencer, a baritone of the day, sang with piano accompaniment on a 7-inch disc running at 64.5 rpm, and his autograph is inscribed in the zinc master.[7](https://www.loc.gov/item/99470294/) Arthur Collins, one of the most popular recorded singers of the era, also recorded the song; his recording opens with an announcer declaring, "Coon song 'Hello My Baby' sung by Arthur Collins."[10](https://socialhistoryofamericanmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/43-The-Bigger-Bang-pt.-4-Ragtime.pdf)
The song also reached the new medium of film within its first year. In the short Biograph film *Fougere* (November 1899), the Parisian chanteuse Eugenie Fougere performs the ragtime cakewalk while singing "Hello, Ma Baby," her big number at the New York Theatre, in a film shot at American Mutoscope's rooftop studio at 841 Broadway in New York City.[11](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/31220-FOUGERE)
## Later life of the song
The song stayed in circulation through the twentieth century. It appeared on [Mitch Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/mitch-miller)'s LPs *Sing Along with Mitch* and *Sentimental Sing Along with Mitch* (1960), in the associated *Sing Along with Mitch* television broadcasts from 1961 to 1963, and in the 1963 songbook *Sing Along with Mitch* and the 1965 *Community Sing Session: 101 Songs You Love to Sing*.[12](https://dasar.us/song/?id=918) A 2011 stage musical titled *Hello! My Baby* drew on songs from the late 1800s through the 1920s from the American public domain, ending with a drop-down lyric sheet for "Hello, Ma Baby."[13](https://www.goodspeed.org/uploads/Shows/Past%20Shows/Hello%20My%20Baby/Hello%21%20My%20Baby%20Audience%20Insights.pdf)
**Copyright status.** The composition entered the public domain in the United States: the lyrics, melody, and arrangement as published before 1931 are public domain there, while sound recordings and arrangements from 1931 or later remain protected.[8](https://www.pdinfo.com/you-tube-song-search.php?T=2226) IMSLP lists the work as public domain in the United States but not in the European Union, consistent with Emerson's death year of 1945 under EU life-plus-70 terms.[5](https://imslp.org/wiki/Hello%21_Ma_Baby_%28Howard%2C_Joseph%29) Under the Music Modernization Act, United States sound recordings published before 1923, such as the 1899 Berliner disc, began entering the public domain on January 1, 2022.[14](https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/about-this-collection/rights-and-access/)
## References
1. [Hello Ma Baby, Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Johns Hopkins University](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/141/013)
2. [Loring White, *Ragging It: Getting Ragtime into History* (2005), excerpt in *The Transition Era* chapter](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780190939960_A42869851/preview-9780190939960_A42869851.pdf)
3. [Hello Ma Baby, Charles H. Templeton, Sr. sheet music collection, Mississippi State University Libraries](https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/3088/)
4. [James J. Fuld, *The Book of World-Famous Music*, 3rd ed. (1985), entry for "Hello, Ma Baby"](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/The-Book-of-World-Famous-Music-Fuld-3rd-1985.pdf)
5. [Hello! Ma Baby (Howard, Joseph), IMSLP](https://imslp.org/wiki/Hello%21_Ma_Baby_%28Howard%2C_Joseph%29)
6. [African American Sheet Music, Brown University Library](https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/slideshow.html)
7. [Hello, ma baby, Len Spencer recording, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/99470294/)
8. [Hello! Ma Baby, Public Domain Information Project](https://www.pdinfo.com/you-tube-song-search.php?T=2226)
9. [*American Popular Song* excerpt, Oxford University Press](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780198028932_A35484241/preview-9780198028932_A35484241.pdf)
10. [The Bigger Bang, Part 4: Ragtime, Social History of American Music](https://socialhistoryofamericanmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/43-The-Bigger-Bang-pt.-4-Ragtime.pdf)
11. [Fougere (1899), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/31220-FOUGERE)
12. [Song Information: Hello! Ma baby, DASAR](https://dasar.us/song/?id=918)
13. [*Hello! My Baby* Audience Insights, Goodspeed Musicals](https://www.goodspeed.org/uploads/Shows/Past%20Shows/Hello%20My%20Baby/Hello%21%20My%20Baby%20Audience%20Insights.pdf)
14. [Rights and Access, National Jukebox, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/about-this-collection/rights-and-access/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Standard and pre-rock popular songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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