Is there perhaps some other song with the lyric “hello by darling”? I checked “honey”, that’s how I remembered it (and yes, Michigan J Frog is who I remembered singing it)
For me, it’s absolutely always “honey”, unless I’m singing to my mom’s dog. In that case, it’s “Hello, my Brady, hello, my puppy, hello, my ragtime dog”.
“Brady” is a really good name to sing to, in general. It can also be “You’re once, twice, three times a Brady”, or “B-b-b-Brady, beautiful Brady”, or “Sweet Doggie O’Brady”.
On this particular song, I remembered the correct word.
I have noticed, when I hear a song that I have not heard in many years, it sounds different than I remember. My memory re-edits the songs, and adds more complex background instrumentals than the song really had. (And it’s not the difference in the sound system. I had cheap speakers then, and I have cheap speakers now.)
I thought it was “darling”. No idea why, it’s not a song I think much about. Maybe “darling” strikes me as more period appropriate and “honey” as more contemporary.
Would make a good question for Who Want’s to be a Millionaire.
Poll the audience and you’d still probably get it wrong.
It’s also complicated by the fact that there are alternate edits of songs. For example, “I Melt With You” by Modern English has an album version and a radio version that have slightly different instrumentation and are cut slightly differently. The album version has an instrumental part goes on for like eight measures more than the radio single, and the radio single has additional background vocals after the first first that the album version lacks, so it’s not just a shorter cut of the album track. Both are played on the radio these days, depending on the station. (I prefer the radio single version, myself.)
Reading the title, I filled the blank with darling. It wasn’t until I read your OP that I realized that honey is what I actually remember. Weird. I blame Nelson Mandela.
Same experience here.
Definitely “honey”. Why would Michigan J. Frog sing the wrong lyrics?
Honey.
Because you catch more flies with honey, obviously.
Oh, geez. I honestly thought it was “lady,” as a near-rhyme to “baby.” I hang my head in shame.
What I DID remember correctly was that the song is actually entitled “Hello Ma Baby.” Also, I don’t think the Andrews Sisters covered it. It dates back to ragtime. I remember hearing it as a kid, I think in cartoons. Then as a teen, I saw the movie A Thousand Clowns and that’s when it really stuck.
ETA: Just looked it up: it was the Chordettes. They do sound a lot like the Andrews Sisters.
Also, the original song had racist roots, according to Wikipedia. And I was wrong: it was a Tin Pan Alley song, not ragtime. D’oh.
I don’t know who this Frog character is, I know it best from Spaceballs. Where it’s definitely “Honey”.
Speaking of that in the song “What is Love” by Haddaway is he sing “Lady don’t hurt me” or “Baby don’t hurt me” because the lyrics I looked up online say “Baby” but it sounds to me in the video like “Lady”.
Ah, that’s what I get for not double checking info in the first Google hit I found on the song!
American cartoon classic from 1955 (note this is just the musical numbers, not the whole thing):
I was being facetious, I do actually know the “singing frog drives man crazy” Looney Tune.
Oh. Well.
Never mind 
.
Honey. I don’t think I’ve ever heard darling, so it sounds off to me.
Sorry, that came across like I was mocking you for posting that link or something, I didn’t mean it like that, you were totally right to try and correct what looked like ignorance and I was perhaps too needlessly flippant.