Title and lyrics to an old lullaby

MY CURLY HEADED BABY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M3hwbcu9HM

The Library of Congress American Memory Collection
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rpbaasm&fileName=0200/0259/rpbaasm0259page.db&recNum=0

Hope that helps

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! I either never knew the verse or had forgotten it completely. I thought it was the wrong song at first. Paul Robeson's version was the closest to the the tune and words I remember - i.e. "lulla" being pronounced like the lulla in lullaby not 'loo-la". Thanks also for sending both sites...I appreciated seeing both! I have wondered about this song for years and finally put the question out there. You have made my day! Bless you!
evonne

My mother used to sing this to me in 1950s so I decided to look it up since I did not remember all of the words. I had forgotten the intro "my curly headed baby" part too. Thank you ! My mother pronounced it Loola !

Oh my God, My wonderful Auntie who raised me sang this to me and I've been searching for it ever since. Let me know if you find anymore on this.

Thanks for the links. I, too have searched for this old song, and was never able to find it. My mother's side of the family was French/creole, and I see that the song is labelled as both Creole & African-american. Her version, also sung to me back on the early 50s, used the 'loola-loola' variant. I see some words in her version were closer to the very oldest sheet music, but not all.
Here is her version, which I assume she learned from her own mother, who was born in the 1900s:
Oh, Ta loola loola loola loola bye bye
You can have the moon to play with
And the stars to run away with
If only you don't cry.
Oh, Ta loola loola loola loola bye bye
In your mama's arms she'll rock you,
And once again we'll sing this song,
Oh Ta loola loola loola loola bye (this line descended in pitch)
Oh, Ta loola loola loola loola bye (this line ascended, ending quite high).
I sang this part, which I realize now is only the chorus, to my own two children. The full song, once I heard it, did sound oddly familiar, but I suspect mother sang the full version only rarely, and forgot much of it as time went by.

My grandmother, in her 60's in the early 1940's, sang this song to us in Seattle. Also, we had a 78rpm record of a female artist, with orchestral accompaniment, who sang the melody and most of the lyrics (including the dialect) exactly as published in the Chappell & Co. sheet music in the Library of Congress web site. The record was badly worn and is now lost, but I copied it onto a cassette when I still had it. I do not remember the label information.

Bruce