What's the first record to have 'babe' in the lyrics

Darin sings, "Oh, the shark, babe..." in Mack The Knife and that's not a record of THAT long ago but the earliest one that comes to mind to me. I was talking about this with my father and he was sure there were more earlier records that had 'babe' thrown in the lyric but he couldn't give me an example. I'd like to know if there were tracks before Darin's that did. Of course 'baby' is all over the place in records before his but what about 'babe'?

 

Not likely the first, but the one that immediately came to mind was Willie Dixon's "My Babe" from 1955.

 

Thanks.

 

Isn't there a lot of old blues records w/ the word babe or baby in it?

 

How about Robert Johnson:

"Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
"Oh, babe, my life don't feel the same
You breaks my heart, when you call Mr. So and So's name"

"Come On In My Kitchen"
"You can make the winter, babe, that's dry long so"
"You better come on in my kitchen babe, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors"

"I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"
"You can mistreat me here, babe, but you can't when I go home"


All of the above songs were recorded in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday, November 23, 1936.

 

Babe goes back a long way. When was "Babe Ruth" (the Sultan of Swat, not the band) first called that?

Before 1936 I expect.

Come to think of it, I think the hymn "Away in a manger" goes back further

 

"Kentucky Babe" was written in 1896, and must have been recorded early on. It's featured on the Columbia "Special Demonstration Double-Disc" of 1910 (imagine, music on both sides of the record!) Of course, in this case the "babe" is an actual baby.