“Billy Boy” is a traditional folk song and nursery rhyme found in the United States, in which “Billy Boy” is asked various questions, and the answers all center around his quest to marry a girl who is said to be too young to leave her mother The tone of the nursery rhyme is ironic and teasing, both the question and answer form:
Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Oh, where have you been, Charming Billy?
I have been to seek a wife, she’s the joy of my whole life
But she’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother
The narrative of the song have been related by some to “Lord Randall”, a murder ballad from the British Isles, in which the suitor is poisoned by the woman he visits. By contrast, Robin Fox uses the song to make a point about cooking and courtship, and observes that: Feeding has always been closely linked with courtship […] With humans this works two ways since we are the only animals who cook: the bride is usually appraised for her cooking ability. (“Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy?”) In some cultures this is far more important than her virginity The song was also parodied in 1941 by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in an anti-war protest song of the same name