Oh, No, John - see below

Anne Boleyn (R.L. Weston and Bert Lee)

Anne Boleyn was one of the wives of King Henry VIII. He had her beheaded, and this classic music hall song is about how she wanders the Tower of London seeking revenge.

It was written in 1934 and originally performed by Stanley Holloway. Since then it has been recorded by Rudy Vallee, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, The Kingston Trio and the Chad Mitchell Trio.

Here is my video and here are the lyrics.

The Ash Grove

This is a traditional Welsh song called Llwyn Onn, which has been translated into English several times. The lyrics of the version here were written by John Oxenford in the nineteenth century.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Away With Rum

Also known as The Song of the Salvation Army, or The Song of the Temperance Union. Dating back to at least 1941, and possibly the nineteenth century, it probably began as a serious temperance song, but is now generally known in one of a number of satirical versions.

It has been recorded by Theodore Bikel and The Chad Mitchell Trio.

Here is a good rendition by YouTube singer alonzogarbanzo.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Ballad (John Stuart Calverley)

John Stuart Calverley (1831-1884) was regarded in his own day as a satirist in the same league as Henry Fielding, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Lewis Carroll and Thomas Hood. In fact he never achieved the success of these contemporaries, though he was an exceptional translator of Greek and Latin literature and did write some excellent parodies of poets such as Browning and Tennyson.

In this poem, he was not actually attacking the ballads themselves, but the ballad-like verse of popular poetess (and friend of Tennyson), Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), particularly mannerisms such as the use of false archaism and unnecessary synonyms for simple objects.

I first found this in a book of nonsense verse. Because it was written as a poem rather than a song, I sing it to my own tune. Here are the words.

Barnacle Bill the Sailor

An American bawdy ballad, originally titled Abraham Brown. It is also known as Ballochy (or Bollocky) Bill. Most versions are suitable for adults only, but the lyrics I sing are pretty innocuous.

The earliest known recording was by Frank Luther in 1928.


Here is my performance, and here are the lyrics.


Here is an early Fleischer cartoon (1930) based on this song. It stars Bimbo and features the character who would soon become Betty Boop.

The Bird in the Bush

A popular erotic song. This version is from the "Marrowbones" collection of English folksongs.

Here is my rendition.

Here is the tune:



And here are the lyrics.

The Blacksmith

This song was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the singing of a Mrs Powell in 1909. It appears to be related to the English song Brisk Young Widow and the American (or Canadian) song Brave Wolfe. Sometimes the blacksmith is a shoemaker, which I suppose is not so different.

It has been recorded by Steeleye Span (1970), Planxty (1973), Shirley Collins, Loreena McKennit and Linda Ronstadt, among others. Here is Andy Irvine doing it solo, and here it is sung by The Holohan Sisters.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Blow the Candles Out

A traditional English ballad from the 17th Century or earlier. It has been recorded by Richard Dyer-Bennet and Cisco Houston among others.

Here is my video and here are the lyrics.

Botany Bay

This is usually categorised as an Australian ballad but it actually comes from the English Music Hall tradition.

I first heard this sung by Burl Ives on one of my parents' 78 records. It was probably one of the first songs I ever learnt. I also remember that when I was a small child my father sang it to me when he took me out in a rowing boat on Lake Wendouree in Ballarat.

Here is my performance. And here are the lyrics.

The Butcher Boy

This sad little ballad is known by various names including Railroad Boy, In Tarrytown and Wild Goose Grasses, and has been recorded by many singers, including Buell Kazee (1928), Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peggy Seeger, Ed McCurdy, Almeda Riddle, The Ludlow Trio and Tommy Makem.

Here is my video and here are the lyrics.

The Chinese Bumboat Man

I can find very little information about this politically incorrect little ballad, also known as Wing Chang Lu (or Wing Chang Loo), except that it has been recorded by a folk group called Clam Chowder. I have this song in an old Penguin book - "The Weekend Book, Volume 2," which was first published in 1924. It seems to be well-known to the English members of the Hong Kong Folk Society.

Here it is sung by Dave Ellis, who has a huge repertoire of songs, always sung a capella. He's also pretty good on the tin whistle.

Here are the lyrics.

The Court of King Caractacus

Sometimes spelt Karactacus, this is an old music hall song, which was popularised by Australian performer, Rolf Harris, in 1964. Rolf claims to have found it in a Boy Scouts song book and made some additions to the words. Caractacus was an actual British king, but obviously the song has nothing to do with him apart from using his name. Apparently the earliest recording known is King of Karactacus sung by Rich and Rich, which is available on a compilation album called Cockney Kings of Music Hall.

Here is my performance of the song, and here are the lyrics.

A Dalesman's Litany (F W Moorman / Dave Keddie)

F W Moorman was the president of the Yorkshire Dialect Society in about 1900. He wrote, or possibly collected, this song which was published in "Songs of the Ridings". It makes use of an old Yorkshire Proverb: From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us. (Hull and Halifax were the last places in Yorkshire to have a gibbet.)

It can also be found in Roy Palmer's Touch On The Times: Songs of Social Change 1770 to 1914 (Penguin, 1974, pp. 71-72), with minor differences and with the tune, which was written by Dave Keddie of Bradford (English Folk Dance and Song Society) in about 1960.)

Here is a recording by Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. And here it is performed by Dave Ellis at a session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

And here is the tune, courtesy of Mudcat and the Digital Tradition.



Here are the lyrics.

The Drunken Sailor

A shanty (possibly for hauling a halyard) going back to about 1840. The verses are often improvised. The song has had a few problems with political correctness, such as being banned from singing by school choirs, etc.

Here it is sung by Dave Ellis and played on the accordion by Sue Ellis preceded by two other sailor songs. And here is a fun collaboration by hultonclint, which I had the honour to take part in.

Here are the lyrics.

D-Day Dodgers (Hamish Henderson)

This song was inspired by an apocryphal remark supposed to have been made by Lady Astor, accusing the Eighth Army of avoiding taking part in the Normandy invasions. Nancy, Lady Astor, was Britain's first woman MP and an American-born Tory matron who campaigned tirelessly against sex and drink. In October 1944 she was a member of an all-party Parliament delegation that visited Italy to study the troops' living conditions. She was said to have not only described the troops as 'D-Day Dodgers', but described them as drunken and dissolute and ridden with VD from the Italian brothels, to the extent that they should be made to wear yellow arm-bands when on leave as a warning to the good women of Britain to keep away from them.

Lady Astor always denied ever having made any such remarks and there is indeed no record of them. This didn't stop just about every British serviceman in Italy from believing she did say it, and seeing her comments as typical of the slurs being made against them back home.

The song was put together by Hamish Henderson, using verses that were already circulating. Hearing a verse sung to the tune of Lili Marlene he grouped the verses together into its present form.

Some people thought the last verse was too sentimental and out of character with the rest of the song, but Henderson believed that, coming after the Lady Astor verse, it is a very powerful ending. I think he was right about that.

Here is the song sung by a choir of schoolgirls, and a rather more explicit version of the song with some good visuals.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Don't Jump Off the Roof, Dad (Cy Coben)

Though this is best known as a popular song by Tommy Cooper, it was actually written by an American composer, so you will find the details under American Songs.

Eddystone Light

England's Eddystone Light is probably the most famous lighthouse in the world. The first Eddystone Light, on Eddystone Rocks, a reef south of Plymouth, was the first lighthouse anywhere to be built on an exposed rock in the open ocean. It was originally built in 1698, but the song refers to the fourth lighthouse, built by James Smeaton between 1756 and 1759, which lasted until cracks appeared in the base 127 years later and it had to be dismantled.

I first heard this song sung by Burl Ives, and later Shirley Abicair. It has been recorded many times since then, for example, by Richard Dyer-Bennet, The Weavers, The Brothers Four and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Here is my performance. Here are the lyrics.

The False Bride

This song, also known as The Week Before Easter or I Once Loved a Lass, was collected by Cecil Sharp in 1904 from Lucy White, Hambridge, Somerset, and published in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

In 1960, it was recorded by A.L. who wrote the following in the sleeve notes:
A version of this sad, tender song was printed on a Newcastle broadsheet in the 1680s, but it may be more than three hundred years old. A feeble prettied version, called The False Nymph, was current in concert halls in the eighteenth century. But as often happens, the common people preserved the song in much finer form than fashionable folk had it. It seems to have lasted best in the South, for several sets have turned up in Somerset, Devon and Sussex.

Other recordings are by John Bowden (vocals, concertina) with Martin Carthy (guitar), Shirley Collins (1963), June Tabor (1971, but not releasd until 2005), Sandy Denny (2005).

The tune was used by Richard Farina for his song, Birmingham Sunday.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Fare Thee Well

This ballad, also known as Ten Thousand Miles, which presents the exaggerated vows of two lovers who are about to be parted as the man is about to set off on a journey, was first published in 1710. Apparently, the verses were originally written by a Lieutenant Hinches as a farewell to his sweetheart. It was the source of one of Robert Burns' best known poems - My Love is Like a Red Red Rose.

I first heard it sung by Joan Baez, but it has also been recorded by Nic Jones, Doc Watson, Mary Black, Eliza Carthy and others.

Here is my performance of the song and here are the lyrics.

Foggy, Foggy Dew

This love song was popularised by Burl Ives in the 1940s though it goes back to at least the early nineteenth century.

Burl Ives reported that he spent a night in jail in Utah for singing it, as it was considered a bawdy song! It has also been recorded by Marty Robbins, and, perhaps more authentically, A.L. Lloyd.

Here is my performance of the song, and here are the lyrics.

The Fox

A children's song about a fox who steals the farmer's grey goose. Here's a great version by Nickel Creek.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

Gentleman Soldier

Also known as Soldier's Cloak, the earliest known version of this is a broadside printed some time between 1797 and 1807. These days it is often thought of as an Irish song as it was popularised by The Dubliners and The Pogues. It was recorded earlier by several singers and groups, including The Spinners and Alex Campbell.

There are several songs with a similar theme, such as To Hear the Nightingale Sing and Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Gossip Calypso (Trevor Peacock)

Here are a couple of kids dancing to Bernard Cribbins' original recording.

My performance is here and here are the lyrics.

The Green-Eyed Dragon With the Thirteen Tails

(Words by Greatrix Newman, Music by Wolseley Charles)

This song, composed in 1926, was one of the songs that intrigued me in my childhood as I explored my parents' collection of 78 rpm recordings. I knew little about dragons, but I had a vivid mental picture of this thirteen-tailed monster.

The recording I knew was probably the one by John Charles Thomas. It was also recorded by Stanley Holloway, Jerome Hines and Joseph Shore.

Here is my interpretation of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Greensleeves

The first mention of this famous song is as an entry in the Stationers' Register as "A newe northern Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" on Sept. 3, 1580. Though there have been claims that it was written by Henry VIII, he died more than twenty-five years before this date.

Though the tune has deservedly been used for many songs, this song is rarely sung in its entirety, with good reason. The original lyrics must make this one of the worst songs in the English language. It is basically a long list of complaints by someone whose girl has left him, despite all the expensive gifts he gave her. By the end of the song, we can well understand why she left.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

He Played his Ukulele as the Ship Went Down (Arthur Le Clerq)

Also known as The Wreck of the Nancy Lee, this song was published as a "comedy Fox-Trot by Arthur Le Clerq" in 1932. Probably the earliest recording was a double-sided 78 by Leslie Sarony, released on the Eclipse label in 1933. It has also been recorded by Tom Lewis, among others.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

The Highwayman (Alfred Noyes)

This famous narrative poem, published in 1906, appears in many school poetry courses. I have used it in classes many times myself as it is full of excellent illustrations of standard poetic techniques such as metaphor, simile, repetition, alliteration, assonance and onomatopaeia, but, more importantly, tells a dramatic story of love and adventure.

There have been many attempts to set it to music, either in classical or folk styles. For example it was adapted as a cantata for mixed voices and orchestra by American composer, Deems Taylor, in 1914 and C Armstrong Gibbs did a setting for chorus and small orchestra in the early 1930s.

Probably the best known folk versions were by Phil Ochs (1965) and Loreena McKennitt (1997), though these left out some verses.

I was unable to put this song onto one video due to the ten minute limit imposed by YouTube. However, the poem was actually written in two parts, so I have recorded Part 1 and Part 2 separately. You can see the lyrics here.

Home, Dearest Home

This song has been known variously as The Servant of Rosemary Lane, The Boys of Cork City, The Lass That Loved a Sailor and the Clancy Brothers version, Home, Boys, Home.

The song was well known in the nineteenth century, with several versions printed as broadsides. The earliest appeared around 1830 and consisted of seven verses, but without any chorus. The line "And the ash, and the oak, and the bonny willow tree" appeared for the first time in the late nineteenth century, though not as a chorus. In oral tradition, the third tree accompanying the "oak and the ash" varies a lot, but usually it's willow, birch, ivy or elm. The chorus is much older than the song itself, going back at least to 1640, in a song called "Wanton Northern Lasse."

Variations on the song have been collected in many parts of the English-speaking world, with a number of parodies appearing in America. The version that I sing here is from the "Marrowbones" collection of English folk songs. The narrative perspective is a bit confusing as it starts off from the sailor's point of view, but in later verse it is the girl speaking.

Here are the lyrics.

I'm a Rake and a Rambling Boy

This song is a shortened version of a song called The Rambling Boy collected in 1930, from Emma L. Dusenbury, Mena, Arkansas, by Vance Randolph.

The song originated in England or Ireland and has a number of variations, including Newry Highwayman, Jolly Blade, Irish Robber and Wild and Wicked Youth. It probably appeared in America thanks to mid-19th century broadsides rather than being brought by immigrants.

My performance is here and the lyrics are here.

I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am (Fred Murray and R. P. Weston)

This British Music Hall song was written in 1910 and was a signature song of music hall star, Harry Champion, who is said to have sung the chorus in a very rapid and energetic manner. In later years he changed "Willie" to "William" in the line "She wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam" because of the slang meaning of the word in England.

It was revived in 1965 by Herman's Hermits, and became the fastest-selling song ever, becoming the group's second Number One hit. Their version was spelt without the extra "e" in "Henry" and used only the chorus. ("Second verse - same as the first!")

Here is another version - by Homer Simpson. And here is my rendition. Here are the lyrics.

Isn't it Grand to be Bloody Well Dead?

I first came across this song, under the title Ain't It Grand To be Bloody Well Dead?, in my copy of Frank Lynn's Songs For Singing" (1961), a title that always intrigued me, as I could never think of anything else you would want to be doing with songs.

Although this is an American songbook, the song appears to be English in origin, probably with Music Hall roots. The earliest recording I know of (thanks to YouTuber, blinddrunkal) is a 1932 recording by Leslie Sarony, with the title Ain't It Grand to be Bloomin' Well Dead. Here is a cover of his version from 78man's collection.

These days it is often thought to be an Irish song, since The Clancy Brothers sang it as Isn't It Grand, Boys?

Here is my rendition and the lyrics are here.

It's a Long Way to Tipperary (Jack Judge)

This was one of the most popular anthems sung by soldiers on their way to the Western Front during the first world war. It had its origins in the English music hall and is said to have been written for a 5 shilling bet on the 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local Stalybridge music hall. It was made popular in 1913 by music hall singer, Florrie Forde.

The first, and most popular recording was by John McCormack in 1914.

I remember it being sung in the 1960s musical, Oh, What a Lovely War, and later in the film of the same name.

The soldiers often sang a parody using these words:

That's the wrong way to tickle Mary
That's the wrong way to kiss
Don't you know that over here lad
They like it best like this
Hooray pour Les Francois
Farewell Angleterre
We didn't know how to tickle Mary
But we learnt how over there.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

It’s The Same the Whole World Over

A song from the British music hall tradition. This tragic tale of a poor girl taken advantage of by unscrupulous upper class men was popularised by Derek Lamb.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Lady Mary

This song, also known as Palace Grand or simply The Sad Song was collected from a ballad singer in the Ozarks in the early twentieth century. Beyond that, little is known of its origins. This shortened version was recorded by Joan Baez.

French folk singer Hobosean (YouTube name - nondepouk) has written his own French translation of this song. Here is his video of the song and here are his lyrics:

Il vint de son grand Palais
A la Porte de mon Cottage
Il parla peu mais son Image
Me restera à tout jamais
Le Regard de ses Yeux sombres et tristes
Et si tendre qu'on ne saurait le dire
Mais moi je n'étais rien pour lui
Pour moi il est l'Astre qui brille

Elle était là dans son Jardin
Vêtue de fin Satin, de Soie
Lady Mary si étrange et si froide
Ton Coeur n'a pas ravi le sien
Mais il savait combien je l'aimais
D'un Baiser en Gage pour la Vie
Mais moi je n'étais rien pour lui
Pour moi il est l'Astre qui brille

Et là dans son grand Palais
Il est couché sur des Fleurs de Lys
Ses Paupières sont fermées à jamais
Sur ses beaux Yeux si sombres et si tristes
Mais parmis tous ces Gens qui le pleurent
Pourquoi faudrait il que je pleure?
Car moi je n'étais rien pour lui
Pour moi il est l'Astre qui brille
Mais moi je n'étais rien pour lui
Pour moi il est l'Astre qui brille

He has made the following comments about the song:
Une chanson traditionnelle qui parle de l'amour d'une pauvre fille pour un homme de l'aristocratie. La dernière strophe de chaque couplet est un peu comme un refrain "I was nothing to him / but he was the world to me" - littéralement "Je n'étais rien pour lui, il était le Monde pour moi" que j'ai traduit par "mais moi je n'étais rien pour lui; pour moi il est l'Astre qui brille."

Here is my performance of the English version and here is me singing the French version! Here are the lyrics in both English and French.

Lily the Pink (The Scaffold)

The Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of Mike McGear (stage name of Peter Michael McCartney - brother of Paul McCartney), John Gorman and Roger McGough, who was well-known as one of the three so-called "Liverpool Poets". I had the pleasure of seeing McGough perform his poetry when he toured Australia.

Lily the Pink was their biggest hit and reached Number 1 on the UK charts in 1968. It is really a rewrite of the traditional song Lydia Pinkham, the main difference being that Lydia's was a "vegetable compound" rather than a "medicinal compound".

Here is a video of Scaffold performing the song and here is a cover by The Irish Rovers.

My performance is here and here are the lyrics.

Lyke-Wake Dirge

I first came across this ancient ballad in a poetry anthology when I was at school, one of several by that noted writer, "Anon". It was brought to life for me when I heard it sung by Buffy Sainte-Marie on her 1967 album Fire and Fleet and Candlelight. I loved her rendition of the song sung in her incredible vibrato style.

The song is known to have been sung in 1616, but is probably much older. It tells of the soul's journey in the afterlife, where its fate depends on acts of charity during life, as related in Matthew 25:31-46. The lyrics were first collected by John Aubrey in 1686.

The title refers to the tradition of the "wake", which means a watch over the dead body before the funeral takes place. "Lyke" means a dead body, an old English word related to the German word leiche and the Dutch word lijk, which have the same meaning.

The custom of holding a wake grew from an ancient superstition that the soul may take some time to separate itself from the body after death, so this was a time when the soul was still present and able benefit from the mourners' prayers. The song may well have been sung at wakes to remind the departing soul and the mourners of the difficulties ahead.

The "Brig o' Dread" referred to is the final hurdle that determines whether the soul's destination is Heaven or Hell. Those who have shown charity to the poor can walk safely across the bridge while their meaner peers will fall off into the fires of Hell.

"Whinny-Muir" refers to a moor - a treeless land covered with brush. The meaning is that if you have not given shoes and stockings to others in your lifetime, you will have to cross this thorny landscape in your bare feet.

The meaning of "fleet" is unclear. There are various suggestions, one being that the word should be "sleet" and has been misinterpreted because of the similarity between the letters "f" and "s" in ancient English.

Apart from Buffy Sainte-Marie's rendition, other notable recordings are by Pentangle, on their album Basket of Light (1969), The Young Tradition and various recordings by Steeleye Span.

Here is my version, which is based on Buffy Sainte-Marie's rendition rather than the better-known Pentangle one.
And here are the lyrics.

Mademoiselle From Armentieres

This is one of those songs that everyone adds verses to, with varying degrees of suitability for family listening.

The melody was believed to be popular in the French army in the 1830s, but little is known about the origins of the song itself. The earliest known version tells the story of an inn-keeper's daughter, Mademoiselle de Bar le Luc, who meets up with two German officers. The tune regained its popularity during the Franco-Prussia war of 1870, and again in 1914.

One story is that Gits Rice, a Nova Scotian sergeant in the Canadian Army sat down in a little cafe in the small town of Armentieres, near Lille, in 1915 and, inspired by the barmaid serving drinks, wrote the words and performed it a few days later for the 5th Montreal battalion, which was stationed in France. The song has also been attributed to Harry Carlton and Joe Tunbridge, and also to Cecil H Winter, an Australian bush poet serving with the ANZACS in England and France in 1915-16. Of course it's possible that all these writers were responsible for different variations of the song.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Maids, When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man

A popular folk song, possibly of Irish origin. Sung by The Dubliners among many others.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

Moving Father's Grave

The origins of this song have been debated, but so far appear to be inconclusive. It is generally thought to have come from the British music hall tradition, though there is a reference in The Journal of the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers and Iron Ship Builders of America, (Aug. 1, 1903), to "Bro. Tommy Ward" singing a song called We Had to Move Paddy's Grave to Dig a Sewer." The song was apparently sung by British soldiers in WW2.

Tom Paley sang it in 1955 and Peter Sellers recorded a version in about 1959 called They're Removing Grandpa's Grave to Build a Sewer. Oscar Brand recorded a rather longer version of the song, and it has also been sung by The Clancy Brothers, in a Maine PBS special in 1988, The only recording I have been able to find on YouTube.

I first discovered this song in my copy of Frank Lynn's songbook with the rather redundant title, Songs For Singing (1961).

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

My Boy Willie

This is the original English version of the American song Billy Boy. There is also an Irish version.

Apparently Francis James Child considered it was related to Lord Randall. (Child 12) If so, it must also be a distant relative of Dylan's Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall!

Here is my video of the song, and the lyrics are here.

My Old Man's a Dustman

The earliest version of this song appears to have been written in 1922 by JP Long, E Mayne and A LeFre, though it may also have evolved from a Liverpool song called My Old Man's a Fireman on the Elder Dempster Line, which includes the lines, 'He wears Gorblimey trousers / An a little gorblimey 'at'". One of the first performances was by Joe Brennan, who sang it in a J. C. Williamson pantomime, Forty Thieves.

The version that everyone knows now is the one adapted and sung by Lonnie Donegan, which was a big hit in 1960. The Smothers Brothers, in America, also did a popular cover of the song, with rather different lyrics.

The term "nana" is a short form of "banana" and may be related to the term "bananas", meaning crazy. It has also been suggested that it is rhyming slang. "Banana split" = "twit".

A "Gorblimey' was a common term in the early 1900s for an unwired, floppy, field-service cap worn in defiance of army Dress Regulations. It comes from a mild oath meaning "God blind me!"

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

No Nuts

This rude little song about the English language is from Marty Feldman's only LP, I Feel a Song Going Off. Feldman did not write his own songs. They were written by Dennis King, John Junkin and Bill Solly.

For anyone that doesn't know him, Martin Alan Feldman (1934 – 1982) was an English writer, comedian and actor, notable for his bulging eyes, the result of a thyroid condition known as Graves' disease.

Here is my rendition. The lyrics are here.

Oh, No John

This song, also known, in different variations, as No Sir No, The Spanish Merchant's Daughter, The Dumb Lady, and No no not I seems to have originated as a bawdy ballad in the seventeenth century. It was published as Consent at Last in Thomas D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth or Pills to Purge Melancholy in 1700.

The bowdlerised version I sing was collected by Cecil Sharpe.

Here is No Sir No, sung by Pete Seeger, with Patrick Sky and The Pennywhistlers, and The Spanish Merchant's Daughter, sung by The Stoneman Family.

You can see our performance at the top of this page, and the lyrics are here.

Once I Had a Sweetheart

This song, found mainly in America, appears to be a fragment of an early English ballad. Other versions are known as Soldier's Sweetheart and As Sylvie Went Walking.

It has been recorded by Cynthia Gooding, Carolyn Hester, Joan Baez and Pentangle.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Paddy McGInty's Goat (R. P. Weston, Bert Lee, B. Adams, and B. Allen)

Robert Patrick Weston was a prolific English songwriter, who wrote popular music hall songs. He and co-writer, Bert Lee, are said to have written a song a day. Two of his songs which I have uploaded before are Ann Boleyn (With her head tucked underneath her arm!) and I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am.

This song, written in 1917, with two other writers known as "the two Bobs", has become part of the folk tradition as it can now be found in several different versions, and has also been adopted as an Irish session tune.

Val Doonican had a hit with his recording of the song in the 1960s. I remember hearing an excellent rendition by Scottish folksinger, Jean Redpath.

Here is my rendition.

Paper of Pins

This song is a variant of Keys of Canterbury, which goes back to at least 1849. Many versions have been collected in England, Scotland and America, including three from the Ozarks, one of which is called The Keys of Heaven. Another variation was used in the Marilyn Monroe movie Bus Stop (1956), sung by The Four Lads. It is often considered a children's song.

It has been recorded by Oscar Brand and The Tossers among others.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics