Dillon had already had some success with "girl" songs such as "I'd Rather Have a Girlie Than an Automobile", so von Tilzer suggested they try another in that vein.

[3] According to Dillon's 1966 obituary in The New York Times, the song sold over five million score sheets and recordings.

[6] The song also appears in the Whistleblower DLC for the survival horror video game Outlast.

Since the song refers to a young man wanting to find a wife like his mother, it is perhaps inevitable that some commentators have suggested, with varying degrees of seriousness, that the song's title and lyrics promote an Oedipus complex.

Verse 2 By the old mill stream there sit a couple old and gray, Though years have rolled away, their hearts are young today.