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Sleepy Head
Words & Music by Gus Kahn & Walter DonaldsonRecorded by The Mills Brothers, 1934
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, come on, get out of bed.
D9 Dm6 Cdim B7
Ain't you heard the rooster crow? Must've been a week ago,
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 E7 A Edim E7
Good-for-nothing Sleep - y Head.
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, see the sun so bright and red?
D9 Dm6 Cdim B7
He's been up and ridin' high, but you just let the time go by,
D9 Dm6 E7 Bm7-5 A
Good-for-nothing Sleep - y Head.
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, I'd take away that bed,
D9 Dm6 Cdim B7
But you're such a lazy pup, you'd be sleeping standing up,
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 E7 A Edim E7
Good-for-nothing Sleep - y Head.
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, underworked and over fed,
D9 Dm6 Cdim B7
Gonna sleep the day away, "But this is such a sleepy day,
D9 Dm6 E7 Bm7-5 A Edim E7
"I wanna be a Sleep - y Head."
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, got to get you out of bed;
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 Cdim B7
"You just stand around and shout until you get me tuckered out,
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 E7 A D9 A
I'm bound to be a Sleep - y Head."
Bridge:
Am F7 Am F7 Am
Big boy, don't you know today is Sunday?
Am F7 Am F7 Am
That's no day to lay around and doze.
A D9 A D9 A F#7
"Sunday is the day I sleep til Monday --
B7 Cdim Bm7-5 E7
That's the way I save my go-to-meet - in' clothes."
A G#7 C#7 F#7
Sleepy Head, you're gonna be a long time dead;
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 Cdim B7
Gabriel's gonna blow his horn, but you won't hear it if it's morn,
D9 Dm6 Bm7-5 E7 A
Good-for-nothing Sleep - y Head.
Coda:
C#m7-5 Fdim(III) F#7 D9 Dm6 E7 Bm7-5 A
"I heard you!" Good-for-nothing Sleep - y Head.
This one is from that group of now largely forgotten classics by the Mills Brothers that featured their early trademark of "instrumental breaks" that were not instrumentals at all -- it was the singers mimicking musical instruments with nothing but their voices. It was this skill that put the brothers "on the map," so to speak.