The recording by The Mills Brothers was released by Decca Records as catalog number 18599. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on June 22, 1944, and lasted 20 weeks on the chart, peaking at number one. The Mills Brothers version also reached number five on the Harlem Hit Parade.[6]
The flip side, "Till Then", also charted in the top 10, making the record a two-sided hit.
It was heard twice in the Angel episode "Rm w/a Vu" in two scenes: one where Maude haunts Cordelia and another in a flashback scene in Los Angeles, where Dennis is entombed in the wall of his apartment by the former, his mother, in 1946.
Spike Jones version
Spike Jones' parody of the song is essentially the straight song with most of the parody being in the way the song is presented, in three parts:
A slow, deliberate rendering of the first half of the song, with vocal by Carl Grayson, in a style imitating The Ink Spots.
A spoken rendering of the second half of the song, by Red Ingle, with elaborations ("honey child, honey doll, honey lamb, honey pie") in a style reminiscent of The Ink Spots's bass singer Orville "Hoppy" Jones.
A frantically paced reiteration of the full song, in "Dixieland" style, with vocal again by Carl Grayson, accompanied by shotguns and other typical Jonesian sound effects.[7]
Harry Mills of the Mills Brothers reported not being bothered by the parody, since they were under the same management as Jones and were good friends.[7]
Some artists have covered this version of the song (albeit fewer than have recorded the original standard). Those artists include: