"Little Bitty Pretty One" is a 1957 song written and originally recorded by Bobby Day. The same year, the song was popularized by Thurston Harris.[1] Produced by Aladdin Records (located in Los Angeles, Calif.), and featuring the Sharps on backing vocals,[2] Harris's version reached No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Best-Sellers chart and No. 2 on the R&B chart.[3] The Bobby Day version reached No. 11 in the Canadian CHUM Chart.[4]
In 1991, Jacqueline Byrd, the widow of songwriter Bobby Day, told lawmakers that she had intercepted a letter addressed to her husband. The letter from the Copyright Office stated that the copyright to "Little Bitty Pretty One" was not renewed, thus ending royalty payments to Day and the song's publisher. Byrd never told her husband, who was dying of cancer, about the letter. If the song's copyright were renewed, Byrd and her four children would have received royalty payments until 2037.[5]