Edited by Azizi Powell
Part A of this pancocojams post presents a partial chronology of songs that include the lyrics "If You Don't Like My Peaches, Stop Shaking My Tree" (or similar lyrics).
The pertinent lyrics for each song is given under each entry along with an internet link to those lyrics and a YouTube link to that song file or video. A link to a pancocojams post about that song is also included if such a post has been published.
Part B of this pancocojams post presents explanations of the lyrics "If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree/Get out of my orchard/and let my peaches be".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and cultural purposes.
Thanks to all those singers who are showcased in this pancocojams post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this pancocojams post.
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This pancocojams post replaces a 2013 pancocojams post on this subject.
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Click the "if you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree" tag for other pancocojams posts in this series.
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DISCLAIMER
This pancocojams post doesn't purport to list all of the Blues songs that include that lyric. This post also doesn't include any songs from other music genres that include that lyric.
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A PARTIAL CHRONLOGY OF SONGS THAT INCLUDE THE LYRICS "IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY PEACHES, STOP SHAKING MY TREE" (or similar lyrics)
1914- Irving Berlin -\If You Don't Want My Peaches (You'd Better Stop Shaking My Tree".
"If you don't want my peaches
You'd better stop shaking my tree"
-snip-
Here's some information about that song from "http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question16533.html
Asked by Jam Tomorrow:
"Who originally recorded the song 'If you don't want my
peaches then stop shaking my tree' (or something like that)?
Answered by Calpurnia
'If you don't want my peaches, you'd better stop shaking my
tree' was written by Irving Berlin but the song was either unpublished or
unsung during his lifetime. After his death, it was published by the Irving
Berlin Music Company as part of the 'Lower East Side Songbook'. [1995]
A two-CD album entitled 'Unsung Irving Berlin' was issued a
few years ago*. On this, 'Peaches' is sung by Mary Ellen Lerner, Berlin's
granddaughter."
-snip-
Calpurnia subsequently wrote that "Peaches" is her shortened title for that song. The actual title is "If You Don't Want My Peaches (You'd better stop shaking my tree".
-snip-
Here's another comment about Irving Berlin's 2014 song "If You Don't Want My Peaches".
from https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123813
Subject: RE: Don't Like My Apples Don't Shake My Tree
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Oct 09
"The assertion that Irving Berlin's song IF YOU DON'T WANT MY
PEACHES (YOU'D BETTER STOP SHAKING MY TREE) was not published during his
lifetime appears to be mistaken.
Our venerable Levy collection has the sheet music, bearing a copyright date of 1914. Click here for the PDF file.*
According to WorldCat.org, several other libraries also have copies: New York Public Library, University of Colorado at Boulder, Baylor University, and The Morgan Library & Museum. The NYPL also has online images, but the others don't.
All indications are that the song really was published in
1914."
-snip-
*That link is no longer active, but here's an active link to the sheet music for that 1914 Irving Berlin song: https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/077/138 .
While this Irving Berlin song does appear to have been published, it wasn't recorded until 1995, seven years after that composer's death.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=038eAjyPp18 for a YouTube sound file of this song.
Also click https://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/irving_berlin/if_you_dont_want_my_peaches_youd_better_stop_shaking_my_tree.html for that song's lyrics.
-snip-
It appears that Irving Berlin (b.1888 d 1989) may have been the first person to compose a song with the lyrics "If You don't like my peaches*, stop shaking my tree", However, that Irving Berlin song wasn't published or recorded until 1995.
Irving
Berlin's "If You Want My Peaches" differs considerably in structure,
lyrics, and spirit from Blues songs that include that verse. In that Irving
Berlin's song, the woman is chiding her suitor for his reluctance to ask her to
marry him. Read Part B in this post for explanations for the Blues meaning of the "if you don't like my peaches..." lyrics
Since the lyrics "If you don't want* my peaches, stop shaking my tree" are found in several Blues songs from the early 1920s on, my conclusion is that that saying was known among African Americans- before Irving Berlin composed a song with that title and those words.
*These words are also found in African American traditions as 'If you don't like my apples".
**
1923: Bessie Smith - "Mamas
Got The Blues"
"I got a man in Atlanta, two in Alabama, three in Chattanooga
Four in Cincinnati, five in Mississippi, six in Memphis,
Tennessee
If you don't like my peaches, please let my orchard be"
Click https://genius.com/Bessie-smith-mamas-got-the-blues-lyrics for this song's lyrics.
Also, click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmfPuQpOoH8 for a YouTube song file of this song.
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1924: Trixie Smith - "Sorrowful Blues"
"Have you ever seen peaches, grown on a sweet-potato
vine?
Just step in my back yard and get a look at mine.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR8nBdnmY_0 for a YouTube sound file of this song.
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1926: The Birmingham Jubilee Singer - "Sweet Mama Tree Top Tall"
"[verse 3]
Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby, turn your damper down.
I smell your bread cookin', honey. Done got good an' brown.
I've got a gal in Georgia, two in Tennessee.
Got three in Alabama good enough for me.
Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby, turn your damper down.
[...]
[verse 6] Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby, turn your damper down.
I smell your bread cookin', honey. Done got good an' brown.
If you don't like my peaches, don't you shake my tree.
... let my peaches be.
Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby, turn your damper down.
(I said) Baby, turn your damper down."
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWaOpgA67P8 for a YouTube sound file of this song.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/08/birmingham-jubilee-singers-sweet-mama.html for a pancocojams post about this song.
**
1928: William Harris, "Hot Time Blues"
"Well if you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree
Get out of my orchard, let my peaches be."
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Q_xKx5jHE for a sound file of this song.
**
1929: Blind Lemon Jefferson "Peach Orchard
Mama"
...You swore nobody'd pick your fruit but me / I found three
kid men shaking down your peaches free"...
-snip-
"kid men" = "young men"
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IIs7HobUOU for a YouTube song file of this song.
**
1930: Mississippi Sheiks -"Sitting On Top Of The World"
"If you don't like my peaches don't you shake my treeGet out of my orchard, let my peaches beBut now she's gone but I don't worryLord I'm sittin on top of the world
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitting_on_Top_of_the_World for information about this song.
These lyrics are found in the musicmatch lyrics for this song, but not in the genius.com lyric page and some other lyric pages.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBuK2ZOZq6o for a YouTube sound file of this song.
**
1946: Nat King Cole -"If You Don’t Like My Apples"
"If you don’t like my apples, don’t you shake my tree
If you don’t like my apples, don’t you shake my
tree
Now I know a girl who looks like a mop
She’s skinny in the middle and fuzzy on top
If you don’t like my apples, don’t you shake my tree"
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJdYEfsK-d8 for a YouTube song file of this song. A pancocojams post of this song that includes my transcription of its lyrics will be published ASAP and that link will be added in this post.
**
1954: The Clovers - "Lovey Dovery"
"Well, you're the cutest thing that I did ever see
I really love your peaches, gonna shake your tree
Lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time
Lovey dovey, I can't get you out of my mind"
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIuUmyNL1iE for the YouTube video of this song.
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/05/i-really-like-your-appleswanna-shake.html
for a pancocojams post about the Clovers song "Lovey Dovey"
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1956: Jimmy Johnson - "If You Don't Like My Peaches"
"If you don't like my peaches, don't you shake my tree
If you don't like my peaches, don't you shake my tree
If you don't like my peaches, don't you shake my tree".
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg9-tqeMNcg for the sound file of Jimmy Johnson - "If You Don't Like My Peaches" published by Ste.Feb. 23, 2023
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1960 - Elmore James "Rollin
And Tumblin"
"Well now want you to love me baby,
or please let me be
Yes love me baby,
or please let me be
If you don't like my peaches"
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsgZ5IDQu80 for a YouTube song file of Elmore James performing "Rollin and Tumblin"
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/roll-and-tumble-blues-rollin-and.html for a pancocojams post about that song as sung by several Bluesmen.
**
1960: Lonnie Johnson - "St. Louis Blues"
"If you don't like my peaches, baby, don't you shake my tree.
You just stay outa my bus'ness, let my peaches be.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTj03jbVHgQ for a YouTube sound file of this song.
**
1963 - Ella Fitzgerald - "St. Louis Blues"
"If you don't like my peaches, why do you shake my tree?
Stay out of my orchard, and let my peach tree be".
-snip-
This was an ad lib version that is mentioned online, but isn't given as the standard version of these lyrics that were sung by Ella Fitzgerald.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAKsHWnKkig for a YouTube video of Ella Fitzgerald singing "St. Louis Blues".
This date is given in the comment from https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/if-you-don%E2%80%99t-like-my-apples-don%E2%80%99t-shake-my-tree.3428605/that is quoted below in Part B, excerpt #2.
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1973: Steve Miller Band - "The Joker"
"Well, you're the cutest thing that I did ever see
I really love your peaches, gonna shake your tree
Lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time
Ooh wee baby, I'll sure show you a good time"
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV3AziKTBUo for a YouTube video of this song.
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/05/i-really-like-your-appleswanna-shake.html for a pancocojams post about the Clovers song "Lovey Dovey" for comments about the Steve Miller Band's song "The Joker"
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B. THE MEANING OF "IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY PEACHES, DON'T SHAKE MY TREE/GET OUT OF MY ORCHARD AND LET MY PEACHES BE:
I believe that a contemporary explanation of the words "If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree/Get out of my orchard and let my peaches be" in Blues songs and other music genres is "if you aren't serious about having a romantic relationship with me, leave me alone (Stop flirting with me or playing games with me.)
Here's some online comments about the meaning of these lyrics given in no particular order and numbered for referencing purposes only.
Online Excerpt #1
According to Stephen Calt, author of Barrelhouse Words: A
Blues Dialect Dictionary (p. 180), in Blues songs "peaches" means
women's breasts. Calt gives these lines from Trixie Smith's 1924 song
"Sorrowful Blues" as an example of this usage:
"Have you ever seen peaches, grown on a sweet-potato
vine?
Just step in my back yard and get a look at mine.
-snip-
Stephen Calt also writes "Peaches, a term that (in the
above instance) predates most recorded double entendres and may thus have a
basis in black vernacular speech. In the familiar couplet below, peaches has no
express sexual meaning, the singer ordering a female not to pursue him absence*
a sexual interests or attraction.
-snip-
*The word "absence: in this sentence means "if she
doesn't have" a sexual attraction to the person....
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Online Excerpt #2
From https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/if-you-don%E2%80%99t-like-my-apples-don%E2%80%99t-shake-my-tree.3428605/ if you don’t like my apples, don’t shake my tree
dojibear
Fresno CA
English (US - northeast)
Feb 25, 2018
"It definitely does not mean "if you want me only for
sex, stop bothering me". That would not make sense.
If you shake an apple tree, you get applies (they fall from
the tree). If you don't like the apples, there is no reason to shake the tree.
So if it refers to sex, it probably means don't flirt with me (don't act
seductively towards me) if you don't want my body.
[...]
Black
Language Matters: “If You Don’t Like My Peaches, Then Don’t Shake My Tree” As
soon as I hear someone say it, I bust out laughing: “If you don’t like my
peaches, then don’t shake my tree.” I love the self-assuredness and, well, the
bit of threat and warning that come with these words. I consider this a very
nice way of saying: YOU BETTA BACK UP! I AIN’T HAVIN IT!"...
-snip-
The words "If you don't like my apples, don't shake my tree" are found in a few contemporary (1960s and on) children's rhymes and cheers. Those words are used as part of a diss (taunt/insult) and don't have any sexually meanings, Click __ for a pancocojams post on those cheers.
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