households, and this was the first well-known song to refer to the device. At the time, telephones were relatively novel, present in fewer than 10% of U.S. Its subject is a man who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone. Howard and Ida Emerson, known as 'Howard and Emerson'. ' Hello! Ma Baby' is a Tin Pan Alley song written in 1899 by the songwriting team of Joseph E.
