Billy Boy is a traditional American folk song and nursery rhyme with roots in 19th century England. It tells a playful question-and-answer story about Billy Boy seeking a wife who is “a young thing and cannot leave her mother,” with verses about cooking, sewing, and other tasks, ending in a twist about the girl’s age. The tune is linked to the English ballad Lord Randall and was collected and published by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1912 as part of Novello’s School Songs (Roud Folk Song Index 326). It is typically classified as traditional folk music or a children’s song, and has been recorded in many versions, including Jerry Lee Lewis on the 1975 album Rare, Vol. 1, and jazz arrangements by Ahmad Jamal. The song has appeared in films such as The Iron Major (1943) and So Dear to My Heart (1948), and a line from Billy Boy was used as the title of Henry Jaglom’s 1983 film Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
