“Hang Out the Front Door Key,” released by Decca in 1935, was originally written by Benjamin Hapgood Burt in 1908. It tells the tale of a man who doesn’t return home to his wife in time for dinner, and in the second verse, he gets a taste of his own medicine.
Woody Guthrie would use the melody for his “Do Re Mi” an RCA Victor 78, in 1940. And in 2013, Tim Timebomb, a music project from Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, released a unique rendition featuring his trademark gravelly tone. Listen for yourself!
This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Kevin Pacelli, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.