Home! Sweet Home!
"Home, Sweet Home" is a song adapted from American actor and dramatist John Howard Payne's 1823 opera "Clari, or the Maid of Milan", the song's melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop with lyrics by Payne. Bishop had earlier published a more elaborate version of this melody, naming it "A Sicilian Air", but he later confessed to having written it himself.

The song's lyrics are:

When the song was published separately, it quickly sold 100,000 copies. The publishers made a considerable profit from it, net £2,100 in the first year, and the producer of the opera did well. Only Payne did not really profit by its success. "While his money lasted, he was a prince of bohemians", but had little business sense. In 1852 Henry Bishop "relaunched" the song as a parlour ballad, and it became very popular in the United States throughout the American Civil War and after. The song's American premiere took place at the Winter Tivoli Theatre in Philadelphia on October 29, 1823, and was sung by "Mrs. Williams."

As early as 1827 this song was quoted by Swedish composer Franz Berwald in his "Konzertstück for Bassoon and Orchestra" (middle section, marked Andante). Gaetano Donizetti used the theme in his opera "Anna Bolena" (1830) Act 2, Scene 3 as part of Anna's Mad Scene to underscore her longing for her childhood home. It is also used with Sir Henry Wood's "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" and in Alexandre Guilmant's "Fantasy for organ" Op. 43, the "Fantaisie sur deux mélodies anglaises", both of which also use "Rule, Britannia!". In 1857 composer/pianist Sigismond Thalberg wrote a series of variations for piano (op. 72) on the theme of "Home! Sweet Home!".

The song was reputedly banned from being played in Union Army camps during the American Civil War for being too redolent of hearth and home and so likely to incite desertion.

In 1926 a "Music Stair" railing (see image) at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg, Virginia was designed by Washington, D.C. based architect Oliver H. Clarke for the homeowners, the Devores. The ornamental iron railing features the first few bars of the score to “Home, Sweet Home.” 

The Village of East Hampton acquired his grandfathers seventeenth-century house, known as "Home Sweet Home," and the windmill behind it, converting the homestead into a living museum in the landmarked East Hampton Village District.

The song is known in Japan as ("My Humble Cottage"). It has been used in such movies as "The Burmese Harp" and "Grave of the Fireflies". It is also used at Senri-Chūō Station on the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway.

Payne's tune, though, is perhaps most commonly recognized in the score from MGM's "The Wizard of Oz". The melody is played in a counterpart to "Over the Rainbow" in the final scene as Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) tells her family, "there's no place like home".

In the 1939 film "First Love", the song is performed by Deanna Durbin.

In the 1946 20th Century Fox film "Anna and the King of Siam", as well as in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical, "The King and I" (and its 1956 film adaptation), Anna Leonowens teaches her students to sing "Home! Sweet Home" as part of her psychological campaign to induce the King to build her a house of her own.
Q30
American
LOC
Q4401542
John Howard Payne
PER
Q1344
opera
Concept
Q42406
Englishman
Concept
Q1200639
Henry Bishop
PER
Q217044
Franz Berwald
PER
Q101698
Gaetano Donizetti
PER
Q559848
Anna Bolena
MEDIA
Q5434150
Fantasia on British Sea Songs
MEDIA
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Alexandre Guilmant
PER
Q281460
organ
Concept
Q215729
Rule, Britannia!
MEDIA
Q347871
Sigismond Thalberg
PER
Q1752901
Union Army
Concept
Q8676
American Civil War
EVE
Q60745106
windmill
MISC
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living museum
Concept
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East Hampton Village District
LOC
Q17
Japan
LOC
Q1631964
The Burmese Harp
MEDIA
Q274520
Grave of the Fireflies
ORG
Q2056658
Senri-Chūō Station
LOC
Q2323022
Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway
LOC
Q179200
MGM
ORG
Q193695
The Wizard of Oz
MEDIA
Q161402
Over the Rainbow
MEDIA
Q2583524
Dorothy
MEDIA
Q11637
Judy Garland
PER
Q1056710
First Love
MEDIA
Q236987
Deanna Durbin
PER
Q434841
20th Century Fox
ORG
Q563731
Anna and the King of Siam
MEDIA
Q1275079
Rodgers and Hammerstein
ORG
Q6431690
The King and I
MEDIA
Q27149
film adaptation
MEDIA
Q234244
Anna Leonowens
PER
Q312849
King
PER
Q851745
Home! Sweet Home!
MEDIA
1823-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1823
DATE
1852-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1852
DATE
1823-10-29T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
October 29, 1823
DATE
1827-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1827
DATE
1857-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1857
DATE
1926-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1926
DATE
1939-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1939
DATE
1946-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1946
DATE
1951-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1951
DATE
1956-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1956
DATE
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100,000
NUMBER
+2.100^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2,100
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1830
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2
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3
NUMBER
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43
NUMBER
+72^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
72
NUMBER
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
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