What did your Dad used to sing?

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 04:22 PM

Let the Rest of the World Go By (his very favorite)
Shine On Harvest Moon
Quartermaster's Corps
Smile Awhile
Tavern in the Town
I've Got Sixpence
His primary occasions were on ski trips, when friend Harrison Taylor played guitar, and even better in his opinion was when his friend Jeff Herbert was playing our upright piano -- then he proved to have a big memory for 20s and 30s popular songs and would harmonize on them better than I ever could: When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day, Lazybones, Old Man River, oh anything.
I think he was a bit surprised when I turned out to be a folkie, but rallied finely, and finding that what I wanted to do more than anything was go on song collecting trips in the south, he took me there two years running. Best memory I have of him.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 12:52 PM

My parents both sang odd snatches of songs; I don't think I ever heard either of them come out with a complete song. In my mother's case, these were mostly poular songs of various eras, and some Irish songs, often learned from her mother or her aunt, who came from Clonmell. My father would come out with bits of operatic songs, often in parody form; bits of G&S: or army songs. Often these would be only one or two lines, sometimes with odd 'missing' or substituted words, which were obviously cleaned up for the sake of us children. One such was another version of 'Horsey, Keep Your Tail Up' (mentioned above by Jim Dixon). It had a different tune, which I can't identify. It ran:
All the monkeys in the zoo
Have their noses* painted blue;
Horsey, keep your tail up
Or I'll do the same to you
* I realised in later life that this was an example of the 'cleaning up' mentioned above, and that this word should have been... well, use your imagination.
Another was :
Do ye ken John Peel? Yes, I ken him very weel.
This one never went any further, and I always assumed it was just a silly rhyme. However, a serious stroke in 1998 (when he was in his 89th year) left him with vascular dementia - a form of dementia caued by brain damage after a stroke - which, among other things, altered some of his behaviour, including his sense of propriety. I looked after him until he died at 93, and it was only during this period that I waas treated to the full version, which went:
Do ye ken John Peel? Yes I ken him very weel.
Though he lies with his wife, but he canna get a feel,
'Cos she lies on her side, so he canna get a ride
And he rises with the horn in the morning.
He then turned to me and said: "That's a folk song - you should sing that!" (Vulgar Boatman please note!)
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Desdemona
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 01:01 PM

"Stone Cold Dead in the Market!"

http://www.rhapsody.com/louisjordan/letthegoodtimesrolltheanthology19381953/stonecolddeadinthemarket/lyrics.html

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Janie
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 01:36 PM

Snippets of "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up your Nose" was his favorite for many years.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 02:27 PM

Mostly my dad loved to listen to us sing. Tho on Friday nights and for "shaloshudos" or the third sabbath meal he would join in singing "zemirot" (sabbath songs). Occasionaly songs from his youth in Manchester England would pop up.

Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes
I'm 'enery the eighth I am
The Walloping window blind
etc.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 02:44 PM

Que sera, sera

Something about "...poor little lambs have lost their way(?), sheep(?)..." - anyone recognise this??!!

Cigarettes and whisky and wild wild women (tee hee!!)

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 03:43 PM

Land of Hope and Glory.

Umberella Man.

The Little Boy Who Santa Clause Forgot.

Sadly he's gone now.

Rog

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: AllanW
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 03:44 PM

My dad was actually in the audience when Lonnie Donegan recorded "My Old Man's A Dustman" at Doncaster's Gaumont Theatre, so I'm told. So I guess he sang that. Unless of course Donegan was like Christy Moore and didn't allow people to sing along!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 07:15 PM

Suegorgeous,

That's the WHIFFENPOOF SONG. When I was little (pre-school) it always made me cry for the poor lost lambs.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Barbara
Date: 02 Feb 08 - 09:46 PM

My dad was born in 1917 and is still alive.
He sang us to sleep, he and Mom together often; and that was usually Toora Loora Loora
or Goodnight Irene (only the chorus)
or Tavern in the Town.
He also sings many hymns. He loves Let the Lower Lights be Burning,
and Come to the Church IN the Wildwood
South of the Border, Down Mexico Way
Wiffenpoof song
Miss Otis Regrets (yaas?)
The whole town's talking about the Brown Boys (he's a Brown)
the Cannibal King (his father sang it)
Polly Wolly Doodle (")
Froggy went a Courting (")
Don't send My boy to Harvard
I've got Sixpence
Oh What a loverly Bunch of Coconuts
Camptown Races
Tenting tonight
Whispering Hope (duet with Mom)
He walks With Me and He Talks with Me (")
And the Engine in the Ford Made the Wheels go Round

I'm sure there are more.
We sang in the car and we sang in the evenings at the lake. Mom played the pump organ and sang harmony; Grandpa played the one string fiddle he'd made. We sang in canoes and while hanging out the wash.

They still sing. I visited them a couple weeks ago in assisted living in Michigan. They've been married 63 years.

Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 03:20 AM

My dad is a little guy, five-foot-six tall; and about as nice an gentle a person as you'd ever hope to meet - and at the age of 88, he still has a strong, clear singing voice. Somehow, he ended up getting drafted into the Marines during WWII, and he was commissioned an officer just before the war ended. He sure was proud of having been a Marine, and the one song of his I remember above all was The Marine Hymn. I also remember him singing "Adeste Fideles" at Christmas, and suspecting he thought it had something to do with Semper Fidelis.*
A good man, that dad of mine - even if he WAS a Marine.

-Joe-

(*the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps)

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Jay
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 01:04 PM

When I was a child, dad used to sing me to sleep with little gems like: The Pub with no Beer, Tom Dooley, and (my favourite) Hang on the Bell, Nellie!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Gulliver
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 06:57 PM

He couldn't really sing but played the piano--loved the boogy-woogy of Winifred Atwell, and when the Beatles became popular he did stride versions of their early songs. His favourite slow piece was "The Spinning-Wheel".

He died when we were kids. I think his favourite songs were "Goodbye (I'll Join the Legion...)" (his family were military men), "Making Whoopee", a couple of humorous Irish songs like "Reilly's Daughter" and "Maginty's Goat", "Frankie and Johnny", "Kevin Barry" (after he'd had a Guinness or two), some Nat King Cole songs (also my mother's favourite).

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 07:08 PM

The Bold Fenian Men.Joe Hill.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 08:42 PM

Father really loved folksongs but the only one I remember him leading was Leadbelly's "Yellar Gal" which he did with gusto. When he died a few years ago at the age of 98 we had friends sing some of his favorite songs:

When You and I were Young, Maggie
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
New Wood (Gone, Gonna Rise Again)
Lonesome Dove

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 08:53 PM

Grab your coat and get your hat
leave your worries on the doorstep
just direct your feet
to the sunny side of the street

A fine voice my father had.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Kaleea
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:19 PM

Daddy sang with his terrific Tenor voice too many songs to list here! He loved the old time, gospel, western, traditional, country, early rock, blues, what he referred to as "Western Swayng," and "Hank" was a category unto himself.
In addition to the love of singing, what Daddy best passed on to my brother & I (on this subject) was the preference to sing incorrect lyrics on purpose. My mother was not amused when he began teaching us, as small children, the old standard: "Gorilla My Dreams I Love You . . ." Had she been a cursing woman, she would have cursed. Instead, she vehemently told us not to imbibe--which made us all the more fervent to learn this unique method of lyricism. Yes, this talent which is appreciated by some, yet abhorred by others ensures that sing-a-longs with us will not soon be forgotten. A strategically placed incorrect word or two can bring down the house amongst the revelers at a party. As children, we especially loved when he would sing in the style of the Irish tenor:

My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank;
More clearly its contents to see;
I lighted a match to assist her;
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me.

& for those of you old enough to know the difference, one of my alltime favs:

"I'll be feeling you in all the old familiar places . . .

. . .& when the night is through,

         I'll be looking for some love,

                        & I'll be feeling---you"

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,sandynewlap
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:28 PM

As a lullaby, my Dad sang:

Theres a long, long trai a winding
Into the land of my dreams
Where the nightengale is singing
And the pale moon beams
Theres a long, long night awaiting
Until my dreams all come true
Till the day that I'll be walking
Down that long, long trail with you.

That's all there was. Anybody know any more verses?

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: janemick
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:09 PM

We (mum, dad & elder sister) all used to sing in the car.
I was interested to see that Schantieman and Bob Coltman both included
I've Got Sixpence

In this song we used to sing the lines:
"happy as the day when the airman gets his pay
rolling rolling rolling rolling home, blind drunk!"
though I think most people sing soldier rather than airman. Something to do with him being in the RAF I suppose.

We also sang:
The Quartermasters Store
Ilkley Moor baht tat
Billy Boy

Got me interested in singing from an early age...

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Forsh
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 08:26 PM

Forsh the 1st, as I recall, was always singing, but the first one I recall him singing, and making us sing, was "When I was a little bitty baby, my mama would a-rock me in ma cradle.." etc.
He was from Ruddy NORTHALLERTON for Chrissake!
He also used to do a fine rendition of the Bernard Cribbins thing, "Right Said Fred" Loved that one, as he put on the Cockney Accent, which to me, as a Geordie, was quite hilarious in 1962/3 (?)
I only hope some of what I sing stays with my children & grandchildren.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 08:44 PM

This thread says more about the posters than their dads, especially their ages! I find it a bit worrying that I recognise a lot the songs that their Dads were singing as being of my generation!

My Dad, now over 90, used to sing:
Here's to the good old whisky, drink it down, down, down, (x2)
Here's to the good old whisky,
That makes you so frisky,
Here's to the good old whisky, drink it down.

Chorus:
Drink it down, drink it down,
By the light of the silvery moo-oo-oo-oon,
Happy shall I be with the bottle on my knee,
And the shadow of the glasses on the wall.

And many other verses about other alcoholic beverages, even though my Dad was not really a big drinker!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: mattkeen
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 08:36 AM

The Sun has got his hat on

and

ghost riders in the sky

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 08:38 AM

Valencia stick yer 'ead between yer legs and whistle up yer Barcelona.

Sorry, but you did ask and he was more prone to courseness than my mum (see the what mum sang thread)

Dave

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 02:34 PM

A dour auld Scot, Faither's favourite---"Home in Pasadena"!!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Bert
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 03:44 AM

LOL! Tattie Bogle, I was thinking the same thing.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Granny In Wales
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 06:49 AM

note for Sandynewlap. "The Long, Long Trail" is a very well-known First World War song, sung by British Soldiers.

I'm sure that you will find it in the ether somewhere.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Jeri
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 06:55 AM

Long, Long Trail (Stoddard King) is in the DT. My dad sang the same thing, and also only the chorus.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Schantieman
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 02:37 PM

Tattie Bogle:

My dad did both the 'I've got Sixpence' and 'Here's to Good Old Whisky' versions and i'm in the process of passing both (and others) on to my daughter.

We used to sing mostly in the car to pass the time and to relieve the intellectual exercise of 20 Questions!

Steve

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 08:54 PM

Oh and "I spy with my little eye".
I remember when my dad got his first car radio, but wouldn't use it while driving in case it distracted him: smokers and moby users, take note!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 09:42 AM

Thanks to all for your contributions. I have added four new songs to my dulcimer repertoire because I saw them here:

Que Sera, Sera
I've Got Sixpence
Kerry Dancing
Sidewalks of New York.

My father used to sing one line of a song as he worked about the house, then suddenly stop singing. I wonder if someone once told him he had an ugly voice. I remember

I'm Sending You a Big Bouquet of Roses
Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown
Oh, the Moonlight's Fair (Bright?) Tonight Along the Wabash.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 01:01 AM

Oh, the Moonlight's Fair Tonight Along the Wabash.
Though the fields there comes the breath of new mown hay
Though the sycamores the candelights are gleaming
on the banks of the Wabash far away.

and

Oh I works just like a N**** (Navvy) though I isn't over strong
I'm mostly on me trotters all the time
soze I'm glad when Easter Sunday or a Whitsun comes along
for a day of perfect rest I'm really prime

Nah I lately took it in me 'ead I 'ad a day to spare
Wiv the wife and kiddies in their Sunday Clo'es
'Twarz a treat to make me mind up for a little country air
the pleasures of a quiet day's repose

There was me and the missus and the 'arf a dozen kids
a starting in the mornin' for the zoo
We played at Jack and Jill as we sampled Greenwich Hill
and then we went to Eppin' Forest too,

'ampstead, 'igate, Kilburn, Kensal Green
A loaded wiv the lilacs and the may
we got weary on our pins and we lorst the bloomin' twins
but I'm glad we 'ad a nice quiet day.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 10:48 PM

Call 'round any old time
make yourself at home
put your feet on the mantleshelf
go to the cupboard and help yourself
I don't care if your friends
have left you all alone
Rich or poor, knock at the door
and make yourself at home.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 04:33 AM

My dad was a semi-professional singer ( the Liverpool UK area) in his younger days. His three big music heroes were Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and Jimmie Rodgers; indeed, his rendition of those performers classic songs amounted to impersonations. I loved him singing the Jimmie Rodgers stuff, complete with great yodelling. My favourites were "Hobo Bill's last Ride" and "Me and My old guitar".

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 11:52 PM

My father was not musical. He used to sing about half a verse of "The Crash on the Highway," just because he particularly hated it. Talk about reverse psychology.

I had to skip a generation. I had a great-uncle who played banjo and harmonica. He was renowned for "Turkey in the Straw." Maternal grandfather liked "The Wedding of Lili Marlene." And how 'bout Mom, you chauvinist? "Be Still, My Soul (Finlandia)." She needed it, I guess, with all those other characters around.

CC

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 12:38 PM

My Dad since Deceased, taught me so little on his guitar. Acoustic. He played at all the weare NH. Dances, back awayw. Age did not deter
his talent, nor did arthritis in his fingers and hands.   ':( You are my Sunshine ) was the first song he taught me, now i take lessons and still can't tune my own giutar Might I say very Frustrating.......... He sang all the old songs taht can be thought up . I never went to the dances I was tooo young Darn it.
"


Alice of Manchester NH.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: goatfell
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 12:51 PM

my father sang quite a lot of songs some of which I now sing and so did my mother sing songs a well and they are being sung by me as well.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: babypix
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 12:59 PM

Little Tom Tinker
The Leatherwing Bat
Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'
The Whiffenpoof Song
It's a Sin to Tell a Lie

Still sings 'em, too...beautifully. I had a wonderful time at a recent family reunion, singing songs together with my father. Probably the best bonding experience we ever had. Only took 40-some years. It's never too late to have a happy childhood! ; )

Deborah Robins
www.themusicofamerica.org

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 01:29 PM

My dad used to sing, while shaving:

"Go back to your mother you bald-headed bugger,
You don't belong to me.
He couldn't play rugger, the poor little bugger,
He hadn't the strength, you see."

to the tune of a Sousa march - and I must find the correct title...

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Bert
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 01:42 PM

Hey Will, that must be related to another one my Dad used to sing to the tune of Blaze Away.

Ain't it a pity she's only one titty
to feed the baby on
The poor little bugger will never play rugger
he won't be big and strong.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Noreen
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 02:37 PM

The Old Bog Road
Kevin Barry
The Rose of Tralee...

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,CupOfTea, no cookies
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:20 PM

My father was a perfect reflection of his times singing. He looked like Fred Astaire, and had a perfect crooner's voice. He could also whistle with great volume and intonation anything he'd a mind to. His favorite piece had to be his version of "My Blue Heaven" with my mother's and my names dropped in (just Ferny and me, Joannie makes three) which made me cringe by my high school years.

Very unfortunately, his repertoire was exceedingly small. Like any music, no matter how wonderful, the 2,000th repetition of it that month leaves you running for the other room. He was likley to come out with something from a Bing Crosby or Fred Astaire musical if he'd heard it recently, but it would fade out fast. His top 6 (In heavy rotation) were:

Peanut sat on a railroad track/Ain't gonna rain no more
The Sunday School song (AKA the "Darkie's Sunday school, but without the minstrel show dialect "Adam was the first man ever invented..")
Down by the Old Mill Stream (I thought all drunks knew this song when I was a kid)
Toura loura loura
My Blue Heaven
When Irish Eyes are Smiling

I so regret that I didn't have the smarts to try singing with him, and learning songs with him or teaching him the ones I came to love at camp.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:25 PM

The only song I remember my dad singing was down at the Aston Villa matches. The song that they sung in those days was "Its a long way to tipparary" adapted to "Its a long way to go to Wembley", the year they beat Manchester United at Wembley in the FA Cup (When it meant something) in 1957.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:34 PM

He didn't.

Jerry

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:37 PM

He did

Les

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 06:46 PM

I even remeber the words to thisday. Not sung anymore

Its a long way to go to Wembley
Its a long way to go
Its a long long way to go to Wembley
But we'll get there yes we know

Goodbye Bristol City
Goodbye Burnley too

Its a long long way to go to Wembley
But we'll get there yes we know


No swearing then or fighting etc. :-)

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 07:07 PM

Bert:
Hey Will, that must be related to another one my Dad used to sing to the tune of Blaze Away.

Ain't it a pity she's only one titty
to feed the baby on
The poor little bugger will never play rugger
he won't be big and strong.

Aha - "Blaze Away" is indeed the tune! Ta, Bert. My dad got a lot of his odd ways, including silly songs and phrases from his war years as a navigator in the RAF - trained in Canada and served in Egypt and other areas such as India, Pakistan, etc.

A lot of postwar slang was actually services slang. I can remember dad saying "Let's have a shufti" when he meant "Let's have a look". and "Time for a charp" when he meant time for a nap. ("Charp" from "charpoy" - Indian word for a day bed). Did your dad have wartime or national service?

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 08:01 PM

Hm..can't see that I answered before but maybe I missed it. Anyway, I only remember him singing Jim O'Shea was cast away, McNamara's Band and Kkkkkkaty. But my sister insists he sang Paddy from Cork Paddy from Cork holes in his britches as big as New York...his father died when he was very young but was supposedly a great singer and friend of Bing Crosby's father so I always wonder if Bing Crosby was at all influenced ever by my grandfather. Oh I think he also sang wait till the cows come home. mg

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Betsy
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 08:34 PM

Nice to see this thread revived - maybe the thread should have read "What did your Dad (or Mam)used to sing"
My Mum on washing days 1950's when boiling the whites used to sing " Has any body here seen Kelly - Kelly from the Isle of White?"
That was IT, - nothing else - did I miss-out on some subtledy / an in-joke about boiling, and Isle of White, or, was there ever an actual song about "Kelly from the Isle of White

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Noreen
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 09:54 PM

'Kelly from the Isle of Man' was the song, Betsy.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Noreen
Date: 26 Mar 09 - 09:58 PM

Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (Wikipedia)