Real song that people in the audience/the characters at that age would be familiar with, or made up for the movie? Because the movie is the only place that I’ve ever heard it.
I seem to remember the song being “Show me the Way to go Home”, and yes; it’s a real song and I’ve heard it. For reference, I’m in my late sixties. As Jaws was made almost 45 years ago I assume most moviegoers would have been familiar with it. It was fifty years old at the time of the movie.
Heck, even Emerson Lake and Palmer had a version.
I had been googling “I Don’t Wanna Go Home”, which explains why I wasn’t finding anything.
“Farewell & Adieu to You Fair Spanish Ladies” is real too. Though in the original version the singers are sailing back to England, not Boston. And it’s only 33 leagues from Ushant to Scilly.
That’s weird, it’s fairly well-known, and shows upin many places.
“Show me the way to go home. I’m tired and I want to go to bed. I had a little drink about an hour ago, and it’s gone straight to my head.”
That song was featured in The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, along with “Pennies From Heaven”. So it was an old, nostalgic song already for the WWII generation. It’s nearly a century old.
The Alan Parsons Project had a song of the same name as the thread title’s, but it’s otherwise totally different: I Don't Wanna Go Home - YouTube
English songwriters Reg Connelly and Jimmy Campbell adapted “Show Me the Way to Go Home” from a folk song in 1925. Here’s a version from that year by the Golden Gate Orchestra (AKA the California Ramblers).
The best version of this IMHO.
That was great.