Song

Paper Doll

The Mills Brothers

Album:

Song Meaning of Paper Doll by The Mills Brothers

Johnny S. Black, whose greatest hit was "Dardanella," which sold 5,000,000 copies in a recording by the bandleader Ben Selvin in 1920 and another 2,000,000 copies of sheet music, wrote the song in 1915, though it wasn't published until 1930. Black performed "Paper Doll" on the violin for music publisher Edward B. Marks in 1922, and Marks later purchased it for $25 in advance royalties. "Paper Doll" was a failure when it was released by Marks. In 1936, Johnny Black passed away following an altercation with a patron at his roadhouse in Hamilton, Ohio.

Black was apparently inspired to write the song after he was jilted by a girlfriend. The author Jack London Riehl wrote that Black was "a pianist, who augmented his income by boxing. His girlfriend ran off with another boxer, and he wrote this song, which began, 'I'd like to buy a paper doll that I can call my own ...' and ended 'I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own than have a fickle-minded real live girl.'"

Paper Doll lyrics by The Mills Brothers

I'm gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own

A doll that other fellows cannot steal

And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes

Will have to flirt with dollies that are real

When I come home at night she will be waiting

She'll be the truest doll in all this world

I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own

Than have a fickle minded real live girl

I guess I had a million dolls or more

I guess I've played the doll game o'er and o'er

I just quarreled with Sue, that's why I'm blue