My Melancholy Baby is a ballad published in 1912, with music by Ernie Burnett and lyrics by George A. Norton, in the Tin Pan Alley tradition. William Frawley is said to have first sung it in public in 1912 at the Mozart Cafe in Denver, and he later performed it as Fred Mertz on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1958. Early recordings were made by Walter Van Brunt in 1915, Gene Austin in 1927, Paul Whiteman in 1928 and Bing Crosby in 1938, whose version reached number 14 in the charts. From the 1930s the song became a jazz standard, and it has since been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Barbra Streisand in 1964 and Dean Martin. It was also heard in films including The Roaring Twenties (1939), Johnny Eager (1942), Scarlet Street (1945) and A Star Is Born (1954), where Judy Garland sang it. Ben Light claimed to have composed a tune with the same melody in 1908, but no copyright action was pursued.
