"When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)" was a 1926 popular song written by songwriter Harry M. Woods

Harry M. Woods

Henry MacGregor Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist. Woods is sometimes credited as Harry Woods.-Early life:...

. The song was an instant hit for singers like "Whispering" Jack Smith, Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

 and the Ipana Troubadors

The Ipana Troubadors

The Ipana Troubadors was a musical variety radio program which began in New York on WEAF in 1923. In actuality, the Troubadors were the Sam Lanin Orchestra...

. Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

, however, had the most success with his recording, which reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

Jolson also performed the song on the 1926 sound-on-disc

Sound-on-disc

The term Sound-on-disc refers to a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or playback sound in sync with a motion picture...

 short film A Plantation Act

A Plantation Act

A Plantation Act is an early Vitaphone sound-on-disc short film starring Al Jolson. This was the first film that Jolson starred in. On a film set with a plantation background, Jolson in blackface sings three of his hit songs: "April Showers", "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", and "When...

.

The song became the signature song

Signature song

A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...

 for singer and actress Lillian Roth

Lillian Roth

Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...

, who performed it often during the height of her musical career from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. It was later performed by Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...

, playing Roth, in the 1955 biographical film about Roth, I'll Cry Tomorrow

I'll Cry Tomorrow

I'll Cry Tomorrow is a biopic which tells the story of Lillian Roth, a Broadway star who rebels against the pressure of her domineering mother and reacts to the death of her fiancé by becoming an alcoholic...

.

The song was recorded in 1953 by Doris Day

Doris Day

Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

, and again reached considerable success on the charts.

Also in the 1950s, a version was released by Peter Pan Records

Peter Pan Records

Peter Pan Records is a record label specializing in children's music. It was created in the late 1940s. The label was owned by the Synthetic Plastics Company of Newark, New Jersey until the 1970s....

, with "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody

Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody

"Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is a popular song written by Jean Schwartz, with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was published in 1918....

" on the reverse side of the single.

The song helped inspire the name of the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 casual dining

Casual dining

This is a list of casual dining restaurant chains around the world, arranged in alphabetical order. A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere...

 restaurant chain Red Robin

Red Robin

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers is a chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1969 in Seattle, Washington, and now headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.-History:...

: the owner of the original restaurant sang in a barbershop quartet which frequently sang the song, and in the 1940s he renamed his restaurant "Sam's Red Robin".

The English football club Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

 play Billy Cotton

Billy Cotton

William Edward Cotton , better known as Billy Cotton, was a British band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the dance band era. Today, he is mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960s radio and television personality, although his musical talent emerged as early as the 1920s...

's version of the song as the team come out on to the pitch at their home ground The Valley.