maandag 26 februari 2018

It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary (1912) / Carry Me Back To Connemara (1927)


"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" is a British music hall song written in 1912 by Jack Judge and Henry James "Harry" Williams.
In fact it had been written 3 years earlier, and then put aside as "It's A Long Way To Connemara", a ballad to appeal to the Irish emigrants, who were missing their homeland.

Here's a photograph of the 2 composers Judge (left) and Williams (right):




The song was allegedly written for a 5-shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall. Jack Judge, who took the bet, fished out "Connemara" from the original song and rewrote it as a marching song.
Now commonly called "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", the original printed music calls it "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary."

Here's the sheet music




First sung on the British music hall stage in 1912 by Jack Judge at the Grand Theatre in Stalybridge and later popularised by the music hall star Florrie Forde.

In 1914 it became popular among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war.



According to the Alan Kelly Archive, the first recording of the song was only 1 month after it was published. The Alan Kelly Archives can be consulted here:  Simple Search

(o) Harry Fay (1913) (as "It's A Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded November 15, 1912
Matrix: y 16010 e (X-2-42505)
Released July 1913 on Zonophone 1070

SEE PAGE 66 IN THE NEXT CATALOGUE:




Listen here (many thanks to John from Geelong for uploading it on YT)

                         


(c) Ted Yorke (=Jack Charman) (1913) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded ca May 1913
Matrix 3610 (fact # 636)
Released June 1913 on The Winner label # 2482

 

Listen here:

 

In 1915, when the song became world-famous, one of the 2 composers, Jack Judge, also recorded a version on the The Winner label.

(c) Jack Judge (1915) (as "It's A Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded ca. August 1915
Matrix: 4712-2 (fact # 1689)
Released October 1915 on The Winner label # 2875
 

Listen here (many thanks to Norman Field for uploading it on YT)




(c) Stanley Kirkby (=James Baker) (1913) (as "It's A Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded ca March 1913 in London
Matrix 28490
Released June 1913 on Columbia 2163
Re-released in May 1914 on Regal G 6671



Also released in 1914 in the USA on Columbia # A 1608





Or here: 


And re-released in the USA on Oxford 28490



Stanley Kirkby also recorded the song for the Jumbo Record label in 1913
Matrix A23706
Released on Jumbo Record cat# A281
 


SEE ALSO:  Jumbo

Listen here:



The same recording was also released on the Scala Record label
Scala Record # 609 
 

SEE: Scala


(c) Mr. Will Thompson (1913) (as "Long, Long Way To Tipperary")
Matrix 102
Released after September 1913 on Invicta # 275



Listen here:



Also recorded in 1914 on Clarion Cylinder # 825





(c) Bob Cannon (=Alf Gordon) (1913) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded November 11, 1913
Matrix X-2-42798 (ak 17168 e)
Released January 1914 on Cinch 5160





During the First World War, Daily Mail correspondent George Curnock saw the Irish regiment the Connaught Rangers singing this song as they marched through Boulogne on 13 August 1914 and reported it on 18 August 1914. The song was quickly picked up by other units of the British Army, who even recorded it.


(c) Descriptive Record (1914)  (as "British troops passing through Boulogne")
Medley incorporating soldiers singing "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary".
Recorded August 28, 1914 in Hayes, Middlesex, England
Matrix ak 18232 e
Released on His Master's Voice 9473 in the UK


SEE PAGE 207 OF THE HMV CATALOGUE:



This same version was also released in the USA on Victor 17696.
 




(c) Cecilian Quartette (1914) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary")
Cecilian Quartette = Pike, Wilde, Gardner, Howe
Recorded September 25, 1914 in London
Matrix: ak18269e
Released on His Master's Voice 2-4206
 

SEE PAGE 113 OF THE NEXT CATALOGUE:





In the USA the song was also a big success with 2 versions topping the US charts.

(c) American Quartet (1914) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary")  
No. 1 US Hit
Recorded September 15, 1914 in Camden,  New Jersey
Released on Victor 17639




Also released on Edison Disc # 50184
Recorded September 16, 1914





(c) John McCormack (1914) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary"
No. 1 US Hit
Recorded November, 23, 1914
Released on Victor 64476






John McCormack's version is also featured in the Collectors Anniversary Edition of the soundtrack "Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture" (2012).




(c) Willem Kila and Josephus (Jopie) Schouten (1914/1915)
Released on Jumbo Record # 16685





(c) Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers (1927) (as "It's A Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded October 31, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia
Released on Columbia 15249-D




Listen here:




In 1927 the Universal Dance Orchestra (in fact the Grey Gull Studio Orchestra) recorded a reworking of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary", using "Connemara" as the place of destination.
And as we saw above "Connemara" was in fact the place used in the very first incarnation of the song.

(c) Universal Dance Orchestra (1927) (as "Carry Me Back To Connemara")





During the Second World War "Tipperary" was again a big support for soldiers far from their homes.

(c) Bob Crosby's Bob Cats (1942) (as "It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary")
Recorded January 29, 1942 in Los Angeles
Released on Decca 18355
 




Listen here:





A piano version of the song is performed by Schroeder in TV's "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966) in which Snoopy dances when the song is played jauntily, but cries and sobs (and howls) when the song is played sadly and mournfully or wistfully.

Watch it here




(c) Tiny Tim (1969)
with Harry Roy and his Band recorded on the David Frost TV show.


Listen here:




In 1977 Bill Caddick wrote a song about the history of "the writing of Tipperary", incorporating a version of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary"at the end.
It's the last track on his album "Sunny Memories".



Listen here:




(c) Pete Townshend (1983)  (as "Tipperary")


Listen here:




In 2000 June Tabor covered Bill Caddick's version.

(c) June Tabor (2000)


Listen here:




In 2003 the Rolling Stones sang "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" during a live performance in the Point Theatre in Dublin.






There was always a bit of a debate over who acually wrote the song, but nowadays Henry James "Harry" Williams is officially credited as co-composer of the song.


I'd like to thank Norman Field for supplying me with some data in this post, and John from Geelong for uploading the Harry Fay YT

More versions here:


And here:




zondag 25 februari 2018

Chanson De Marie Antoinette (1770's) / La Jardinière Du Roi (1927) / Chanson Du Marie Antoinette (1938) / My Heart Cries For You (1950) / Mon Cœur Pleure Pour Vous (1951)



"My Heart Cries for You" is a popular song, adapted by Carl Sigman and Percy Faith from an 18th-century French melody "Chanson De Marie Antoinette". attributed to Dauphine of France, Queen Marie Antoinette.
The chorus "My heart cries for you, Sighs for you, dies for you..." is original and does not appear in the French song.

In 1927 Myron Jacobson (a Russian emigrant to the USA) adapted the French ballad and it was published in the USA (as "Marie Antoinette's Song"). See this link
English lyrics were written by Alice Mattullath.
 





The song was also featured in the Wesley Ruggles' movie Cimarron (1931), based on Edna Ferber's 1929 novel Cimarron



Lily Pons was the first artist to record the French version, wrongly spelled "Chanson Du Marie Antoinette" on the label

(o) Lily Pons (1938) (as "Chanson Du Marie Antoinette")
Recorded September 28, 1938
Released on Victor 1913
 



Listen here:





In 1938 she recorded the song again, this time with the correct title "Chanson De Marie Antoinette"




In 1947 she performed the song again on radio, this time with the correct title "Chanson De Marie Antoinette"



Swiss composer Gustave Doret adapted the song for his composition "La jardinière du Roy"
 



This version was recorded by Paul Sandoz in 1941

(c) Paul Sandoz (1941) (as "La Jardinière Du Roy")
Matrix OZA 478
Released on His Master's Voice JK 2

 


Listen here:   FN - Catalogue, Détail



(c) Lys Assia (1943) (as "La Jardinière Du Roy")
Released on Decca 27075

 




Toward the end of 1950 Percy Faith made an adaptation of this sentimental ballad (as "My Heart Cries For You") and it was recorded by Guy Mitchell with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, in a recording issued by Columbia Records as catalog number 39067, which sold over a million copies and reached #2 on the Billboard charts in 1951.
The writing credit on the label reads Peter Mars, an alias used by Percy Faith. Later versions of the song use his real name for the writing credit.


(c) Guy Mitchell (1950)  (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded November 2, 1950 in Columbia Recording Studio B in New York City
Released on Columbia 39067



Listen here:




This version  had numerous cover versions; among the hit recordings made were those by:

Victor Young (#29 on Billboard's pop charts)
Dinah Shore (#3),
Vic Damone (#4),
Jimmy Wakely (#12),
Bill Farrell (#18),
Al Morgan (#24),
Evelyn Knight and Red Foley, (a duet which reached #28 pop and #6 country)


(c) Vic Damone (1950) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded early November 1950
Released on Mercury 5563


 




(c) Dinah Shore (1950) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded November 4, 1950 in New York
Matrix E0-VB-5928
Released on RCA Victor 47-3978 (78 RPM) and 20-3978 (45 RPM)




(c) Bill Farrell (1951) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded November 1950
Released on MGM 10868



Listen here:




(c) Lulu Belle and Scotty (1951) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Lulu Belle (vcl duet/vcl solo/gt),Scotty (vcl duet/gt), Jerry Byrd (steel gt), Louis Innes (rh gt).
Recorded ca November 1950 in Chicago, Il
Released on Mercury 6304



Listen here:




(c) Al Morgan (1951) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded November 1950
Released on London 877





(c) Evelyn Knight and Red Foley (1951) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded November 28, 1950 in New York
Released on Decca 27378




Listen here:




(c) Dinah Washington (1951) (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded April 12, 1951 in New York City
Released on Mercury 8209

For the occasion Louis Gasté gave her new French lyrics

(c) Line Renaud (1951) (as "Mon Cœur Pleure Pour Vous")
French lyrics by Louis Gasté
Released on Pathé PG 487



Listen here:




(c) Lys Gauty (1951) (as "Mon Cœur Pleure Pour Vous")
French lyrics by Louis Gasté.

Listen here:






(c) The Ramblers olv Theo Uden Masman (1951)  (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Vocals: Marcel Thielemans
Recorded April 4, 1951 in Hilversum
Matrix AA 15356-1H
Released on Decca 33151




(c) Roberta Peters (1952)  (as "Marie Antoinette's Song")




(c) Ben E. King (1962)  (as "My Heart Cries For You")


Listen here:




(c) Ray Charles (1964) (as "My Heart Cries For You"
 Nr 38 R&B Hit USA


Listen here:




(c) Trea Dobbs (1965) (as "Ik Zie Jou Alleen")
Dutch lyrics by Pierre Wijnnobel.
On her album "De songwereld van Trea".


Listen here:





(c) Porgy and the Monarchs (1966) (as "My Heart Cries For You"


Listen here:





In 1966 Elvis along with Charlie Hodge & Red West, made a home recording of "My Heart Cries For You". This was first released on the "A Golden Celebration" album set (1984)

(c) Elvis Presley (1966) (as "My Heart Cries For You")  


Listen here:




(c) Connie Francis (1967)  (as "My Heart Cries For You")
Recorded June 1, 1967 in New York City
Released on MGM K13773


Listen here:



1 month later Connie also recorded a French and a German version

(c) Connie Francis (1967)  (as "Mon Cœur Pleure Pour Vous")
Recorded July 5, 1967 in New York City



(c) Connie Francis (1967)  (as "Mein Herz Ruft Nach Dir")
German lyrics by Harry Sixt (=Fini Busch)
Recorded July 5, 1967 in New York City
Released on MGM 61 192


Listen here:




(c) Doyle Holly (1972) (as "My Heart Cries For You"
Nr 63 C&W Hit USA


Listen here:




The co-composer, Percy Faith himself, recorded an instrumental version of this song.
It's on his album "Corazon" (1973)

Listen here:




(c) Mieke (1976)  (as "Mijn Hart Huilt Om Jou")
Dutch lyrics by Pierre Kartner

Listen here:




(c) Margo Smith (1981) (as "My Heart Cries For You"
Nr 72 C&W Hit USA






More versions here:





vrijdag 23 februari 2018

Roving Journeyman (1820's) / Gamboling Man (1900) / Gamblin' Man (1924) / Rovin' Gambler (1925) / Gambling Man (1926)



This American folk song, known under many different names including "The Gambler", "Roaming Gambler", "Gambling Man", and "Roving Soldier", probably originated with an English broadside known as such as "The Journeyman" or "The Roving Journeyman", which appears in English broadsides from the 19th Century (Roud #360 in the Bodleian Library).

The one below is dated between 1818 and 1838:
 




American antecedents are easier to trace. "The Gamboling Man" appears in "Delaney's Song Book No. 23" around 1900 and was republished, with repeated lines eliminated, by Carl Sandburg in his "American Song Bag" (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1927). Sandburg assumes it was disseminated by the minstrel shows through the south and west, and stresses that the gambling motif is an American introduction: "while gamblers may gambol and gambolers may gamble, the English version carries no deck of cards."


"The Roving Gambler" was also included in John A. and Alan Lomax's "American Ballads and Folk Songs" (New York: Macmillan, 1935)



John Lomax acquired this song from one of his star informants, Slim Critchlow, who sang with the Utah Buckaroos, a cowboy band, on Salt Lake City radio stations KDYL and KSL. Critchlow's version is similar to those collected in many other parts of the United States and closely resembles a variant called the "Guerilla Man".



In 1917 Cecil Sharp had collected a version in Pineville, Kentucky from Mrs Townsley and Mrs Wilson




The song is also included in Henry Marvin Belden's "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society" (1940).

A ROVING SOLDIER

I am a roving soldier,
I rove from town to town,
And when I see a table
So willingly I sit down.

I eat when I'm hungry,
I drink when I get dry,
And if the Rebels don't kill me
I'll live until I die.

'Oh, daughter! oh, daughter!
What makes you treat me so?
To leave your native country
With a roving soldier boy?'

'Oh, mother, oh, mother!
You know I love you well,
But the love that I have for that Union man
No mortal tongue can tell.

'His pockets lined with greenbacks,
His musket in his hand,
------
The men at his command.

'And when they hear him coming
They'll wring their hands with joy,
And one will say to the other,
"'There comes the soldier boy.'"

Collected 1912- "learned it about ten years before from an old man..."
H. M. Belden, Ballads and Songs, collected by the Missouri Folklore Society, 1940(1973), "The Guerrilla Boy," B, with music.


THE GUERRILLA BOY

I am a roving guerrilla,
I rove from town to town,
And whenever I spy a pretty little girl
So willingly I get down
So willingly I get down.

I rode on my journey
Till I came to Bloomfield* town,
And there I spied a pretty little girl
And willingly I got down (2x).

I had not been in Bloomfield
More days than two or three
Till I fell in love with a pretty little girl
And she fell in love with me (2x).

She asked me in her parlor,
She cooled me with her fan;
She whispered in her mother's ear,
'I love the guerrilla man.'

'Oh, daughter, dearest daughter,
How can you serve me so,
To leave your kind old mother
And with the guerrilla go?'

'Oh, mother, dearest mother,
I know I love you well;
But the love I have for the guerrilla man
No human tongue can tell.

'I'll bundle up my clothing
With my true love by my side,
And I'll rove this wide world over
And be a guerrilla's bride.

'And when I see him coming
I'll clap my hands for joy
And say to my old mother,
"'There come's my guerrilla boy!"

'With his pockets lined with silver,
A **navy in each hand,
A long and full success
To the roving guerrilla man!'

And now this war is over,
I'll lay my **navy down.
To be a roving guerrilla
I wear the starry crown.***

*Bloomfield is in southeast Missouri. **Navy- the navy revolver, favored as a sidearm in the Civil War era. ***starry crown- meaning?
The song derives from "The Roving Journeyman," which appears in English broadsides. Belden says "probably of Irish origin." Also see "The Gambling Man."
H. M. Belden, "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society," 1940, 1973, p. 374, The Guerrilla Boy A.
A Civil War song.



It is # 498 in the Roud Folk Music Index.



AND HERE ARE THE RECORDINGS:

Although instrumental, Samantha Bumgarner's "Gamblin' Man" has the musical framework for all the later "Rovin' Gambler"/"Gamblin' Man" versions

(o) Samantha Bumgarner (1924)  (as "Gamblin' Man")
Recorded April 23, 1924 in New York
Released on Columbia 191-D



Listen here:




(c) Kelly Harrell (1925) (as "Rovin' Gambler")
Recorded January 7, 1925 in New York
Released on Victor 19596




More than 1 year later Harrell recorded another version for the Victor label
That version was recorded on June 8, 1926 on Victor 20171.



Listen here:




(c) Land Norris (1925)  (as "Gambling Man")
Recorded April 1925 in Atlanta, GA.
Released on Okeh 40404



Listen here:




(c) Al Craver (=Vernon Dalhart) (1925)  (as "The Rovin' Gambler")
Recorded June 6, 1925 in New York
Released on Columbia 15034-D
 


Listen here:





(c) Welby Toomey (1926) (as "Roving Gambler")
Recorded October 1926 in Richmond, IN
Released on Gennett 6005
 


Listen here:




(c) Gid Tanner and his Skillet-Lickers (1929) (as "Roving Gambler")
Recorded 8 April 8, 1929 in Atlanta, GA.
Released on Columbia 15447-D




Listen here




In 1944 Woody Guthrie adapted the song a bit and made a recording for Moses Asch

(c) Woody Guthrie (as "Gambling Man")
Recorded April 19, 1944
Matrix MA 51


Mastered from Smithsonian Acetate 086 10" shellac disc, in 1997 it was finally released on "Muleskinner Blues The Asch Recordings. vol.2"


Listen here:




(c) Terry Gilkyson (1950)  (as "Rovin' Gambler")



Listen here:




In 1957 Lonne Donegan copied the Woody Guthrie-adaptation.
It reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in June and July 1957, where it spent two weeks in this position.

(c) Lonnie Donegan (1957) (as "Gambling Man")
Recorded on May 9, 1957 live at the London Palladium 
Released as a double A side along with "Puttin' On the Style". 



Listen here:




(c) New Lost City Ramblers (1958) (as "Roving Gambler")


Listen here:


Or here:




(c) Everly Brothers (1958) (as "Roving Gambler")


Listen here:




(c) The Easy Riders (1959)  (as "Rovin' Gambler")


Listen here:




(c) The Brothers Four (1960) (as "I Am a Roving Gambler")



Listen here:




(c) Slim Dusty (1961)  (as "Rovin' Gambler")



Listen here:




(c) Frankie Laine (1961)  (as "The Roving Gambler")
Recorded July 5, 1961 in Hollywood.


Listen here:




(c) Jim Reeves (1964) (as "Roving Gambler")
Recorded March/April 1963 Johannesburg, RSA


Jim also sang it in the movie "Kimberley Jim".




(c) Hedy West (1965)  (as "Gambling Man")


Listen here:




(c) Simon & Garfunkel (1970) (as "Roving Gambler")
Recorded in 1970 as a demo, finally released in 2001



Listen here:




(c) Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie (1975) (as "Roving Gambler")



Listen here: 




(c) Bob Dylan (1998) (as "Roving Gambler")
Recorded live on December 17, 1997 in El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles
Released on maxi-CD "Love Sick"



But Bob had already taped the song in May 1960 in the apartment of Karen Wallace in St. Paul, Minnesota



Here's a live version from April 1997.




(c) John Cohen & The Down Hill Strugglers (2013) ( as "The Roving Gambler")


Listen here:




(c) Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones (2013) (as "Roving Gambler")


Listen here:










Songs with the same melody:


(c) Carter Family (1937) (as "The Little Black Train")
Recorded May 7, 1935 in New York
Released on Melotone 7-07-62 / Romeo 7-07-62 and Perfect 7-07-62


Listen here:




(c) Harkreader and Moore (1927) (as "The Gambler's Dying Words")
Recorded ca. May, 1927 at Marsh Laboratories in Chicago, IL.


Listen here:




(c) Asa Martin (1931)  (as "The Rovin' Moonshiner")
Recorded March 6, 1931 in New York
Released on Perfect 12763 / Banner 32307 / Oriole 8102 and Conqueror 7844



Listen here: