The Fascinating Journey of "Come On-A My House"
“Come On-A My House” was a hit in 1951, recorded by Irish-American Rosemary Clooney but written by two Armenian-American men, William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian. Originally written in 1939 during a road trip the cousins took across the country, the music was based on an Armenian folk song. The duo wrote the song for their off-Broadway musical, The Son, but Clooney took it to #1 on the Billboard charts, and it has been covered dozens of times since.
The song features icons of Fresno’s Armenian orchard life: apples, plums, apricots, figs, dates, grapes, peaches, and notably pears and pomegranates, which appear as significant Armenian symbols throughout Saroyan's written works (see the stories “Five Ripe Pears” and “The Pomegranate Trees” for examples of this).
In Clooney's version, she opts for a generic “ethnic” European immigrant accent, or what some imagined to be an Italian-American accent, which was a popular trope in the 1950s and 1960s, used in novelty, or “dialect,” songs. Though the lyrics to “Come On-A My House” don't specifically call out an ethnic origin, they are written phonetically to simulate how an Armenian immigrant might say these words in English:
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you candy
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give a you
Apple, a plum and apricot-a too eh
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house I'm gonna give a you
Figs and dates and grapes and cakes eh
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you candy
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you everything
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you Christmas tree
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you
Marriage ring and a pomegranate too ah
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house I'm gonna give a you
Peach and pear and I love your hair ah
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you Easta-egg
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you
Everything, everything, everything
Come on-a my house
Others picked up on this accent and covered the song with international variations. Louis Prima altered some of the words to better match an Italian immigrant's song in 1951, offering up calamari and scungilli in addition to fruit. Mickey Katz recorded it in 1951, in mixed English-Yiddish, adding a Klezmer interlude and replacing the fruits with matzo balls, fish, knishes, and kugel. Chiemi Eri covered the song in Japanese in 1952, followed by Eartha Kitt singing it in Japanese in 1965, and Coldfeet’s English-Japanese version in 2003. Daniel Santos & Los Jovenes del Cayo also recorded it in mixed English-Spanish with a Latin rhythm, in “Ven Pa’ Mi Casa” in 1951, followed by multiple covers in Spanish, including another popular take by Nico Estrada y su Sonora with Vicky Zamora in 1960. Anita Darian gave it a middle Eastern flair in 1959 and sang in English-Armenian. Bill Coleman gave it the first jazz treatment in 1952. Saroyan and Bagdasarian recorded a version in 1951 that includes a spoken-word introduction by Saroyan (Bagdasarian did the singing) that elaborates on the immigrant theme: “One lonely immigrant boy/Going from work one day/See fine U.S. Number-1 girlie/Fall in love with her right away./He looked on her/She looked on him/But he didn’t know just what to say/He loved her, he wanted for to marry her/So he told her in old country way.” This part has only occasionally made it into cover versions.
In 1959, Julie London released the most sultry version (later released as part of an album in 1962), taking the song in a whole new direction with more obvious double entendre. This interpretation was followed up in 2002 when Nasty Tales and Their Orchestra’s version was used as the theme song for the Playboy bunny reality TV show The Girls Next Door. Della Reese’s version was later lip-synched by Madonna in a dream sequence in the movie, Swept Away. Following up these sexier versions was Nina Ernst’s very provocative 2019 recording containing dark undertones with a video connecting the song to sex and drug use, showing that this song has staying power and many interpretations!
You can watch the transformation of this song over the decades using the list of videos below. From the upbeat pop sentiment of the 1950s to psychedelic versions in the 1960s, to 80s synth and 90/2000s ska. The song has been recorded dozens of times since the 1950s and has appeared in TV, movies, and theater. Below is a list of cover recordings, most of which took a direct approach to recording the song as written, but with a few loose adaptations that breathe new life into the song. After being covered for 70 years, it might qualify as an American folk song at this point. Have we left any off? Let us know if you have more covers of “Come On-A My House” to share!
1951 Rosemary Clooney: https://youtu.be/mriXncI96lw
1951 William Saroyan and Ross Bagdasarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQFi612fjbI
1951 Kay Armen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5637g-I-ro
1951 Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gPCtogSEA
1951 Daniel Santos & Los Jovenes del Cayo (English/Spanish) “Ven Pa' Mi Casa”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6jxAzdwHdk
1951 Mickey Katz and his Orchestra (Yiddish/English): https://youtu.be/3m0c5yaEvLA
1951 The Three Suns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpgGUgQBwdY
1951 and 1958 Louis Prima: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A98yXnLl2AQ
1951 Kay Starr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h70_XG45Q9Y
1951 Dolores Martel with Tony Pastor Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJUWVAPZJi8
1952 Chiemi Eri: (Japanese) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RffoFrBHl04
1952 Bill Coleman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZSRUuysC8
1950s (released in 2015) Peggy Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbfn_TpcKp4
1959 (1962 released on album) Julie London: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZ90M_BYjc
1959 Anita Darian (Armenian/English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5H_W3zuO8g
1960 Della Reese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3A8bGCqpQQ
1960 Richard Hayes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyOLGNL7WGI
1960 Ñico Estrada y su Sonora with Vicky Zamora (Spanish/English) “Ven Pa’ Mi Casa”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsqm6R-bE1k
1961 Four Lads https://youtu.be/wWrM01VcWbU
1962 Patrice Munsel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TUvLOE_8SQ
1965 Ross Bagdassarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3JjKRe362A
1965 Eartha Kitt (Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM8a2bhswXU
1967 The Bluebeards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1pMG4pwXpg
1967 The Shakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCZcvYTMT00
1982 Captain and Tenille (bonus track on album More than Dancing…Much More)
1988 Surf Punk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JTg8JshypY
1990 Voice Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f7kShoM3qY
1994 John Pizzarelli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lbsP43PE1g
1999 Flat Earth Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jd11PIqY2k
1999 Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO61iHkLFe8
2001 KT Oslin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57rsUl6BVBE
2002 Nasty Tales and Their Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7UAb8ANY3g
2002 Swept Away, Madonna/Della Reese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwzDmscsPc
2003 Bette Midler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDEHICERmj8
2003 Coldfeet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOFcC6VD4CU
2004 Barbara Lusch https://youtu.be/ks6tnGVvZ_A
2004 The Poker Dots https://youtu.be/nl392u9zqu8
2005-2010 Girls Next Door Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuPPApQY1hc
2005 The Swingin Swamis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGEAt455KTo
2008 Courtney Collins and Jeremy Ylvisaker with J.T. Bates and Michael Lewis https://youtu.be/ERuSbIVb_oQ
2011 Coco d’Or: https://youtu.be/9mdBwDY9Cgw
2011 Sherry Dyanne feat. Candy Dulfer: https://youtu.be/iLu5qSN7ugA
2013 René Marie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zu30H3m-o0
2014 George Ch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emDkDwyUW0M
2015 Marin Mazzie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm0fnTR3Bso
2016 Rosemary Standley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxVj08B-eoA
2018 Imelda May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE313LuTerw
2019 Shizuka Kudo: https://youtu.be/65mwUFhSbeI
2019 Sarah Mai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyPK9V9DS3w
2019 Nina Ernst: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66ygmIJh2RE
2022 Hudson Cerone: https://youtu.be/moQODhm1XfI (Special thanks to reader J.F. for sharing this link with us!)
Article written by Dori Myer, Archivist, Forever Saroyan, June 2020
