You specifically asked for pre-WWII examples in music.
ETA: Well you didn’t say music actually. But I hope you enjoyed the songs.
Can we now tackle “Snookums” ?
So you’re now the one making a claim. Could you therefore please provide a cite?
Sure. Have you seen The Producers (1967)? There’s a character who calls everybody baby (much to the chagrin of Herr Leibkind). Also from 1967, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” by the Beatles. It was even used for inanimate objects like police cars during the Watt’s riots (“Burn, Baby, Burn”). If you have similar examples of such use prior to the word’s appropriation by beatniks, hippies, and other elements of the counterculture, could you please share them?
On another note, why the hostility?
Gosh, I guess next time I’ll know better than to use hostile words like “please.”
Like this? (First thing I thought of when I read this thread).
