The Male "Wish I Was Single" song in the DT is I Wish I Was Single Again (Oh Then). Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy days when he was single. He recalls marrying a wife, "the plague of my life." She died and was buried, so he went and married again, to find that he "wished for the old one again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: funeral marriage shrewishness wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Randolph 365, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 329-331, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 365A)
Eddy 69, "When I Was a Young Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 204, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 19, "When I Was Single" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 13 more, though most of the omitted texts are single stanzas)
Chappell-FSRA 75, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 47-50, "I Wish I Was Single Again"; "I Wish I Were Single Again" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner 127, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 437-439, "When I Was Single" (3 texts, plus a text of "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Fuson, pp. 85-86, "Oh Then" (1 text, in which the second wife apparently plans to hang the husband before she, like the first, falls sick)
Sandburg, p. 47, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 215-217 , "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 169-171, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 177, pp. 181-182, "The Married Man" (1 text)
Lomax-FSUSA 13(B), "When I Was Single (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 156-158, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 2 tunes)
LPound-ABS, 98, pp. 207-208, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 274-275, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 276-277, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 172, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
DT, WISHSNGL
Roud #437
RECORDINGS:
Foster & James, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Gennett 6434/Supertone 9260, 1928)
Riley Puckett, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Columbia 15036-D, 1925) (Bluebird B-8066, 1939)
Arthur Tanner, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Silvertone 3515, 1926)
Welby Toomey, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Gennett 3202, 1926)
Tom Watson, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Silvertone 3263, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925) (OKeh 45045, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Single (II)"
cf. "Poor Married Man" (theme)
Notes: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, my money would jingle;
I wish I were single again.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 22) has a slightly different form, allegedly from 1880:
When I was young and single,
I could make the money jingle
And the world was well with me, O then!
The world went well with me then. - RBW
File: R365Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index InstructionsThe Ballad Index Copyright 2005 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.