Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 May 20 - 02:27 PM

One of the Mudcat threads on
British Music-Hall Songs
features a Frank Leo original,
but sung by Alf Gibson rather than Wilkie Bard:

"I've Got to Get Back to Work"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 May 20 - 02:22 PM

From about 1917, Who's Who in the Theatre, including a section devoted to "variety,"
has a short entry for songwriter Frank Leo.

I did look online for sheet music for Frank Leo songs.
"Come Up in My Balloon" is the only one I can find.
But reading the Who's Who article leads to the conclusion
that this 'peculiar thing' piece is a song,
for all that the music is not to be found in online searches.
Let me see how well I can reproduce this entry here.

LEO, Frank, lyricist, composer and entertainer;
born Chatham, 10 Sept. 1874;
son of Vincent Gregory Peers and his wife Cordelia (Holmes);
married Sable Fern [you don't say?!];
was formerly engaged as a fine arts decorator;
for many years was popularly known as
the writer and composer of hundreds of songs,
and especially of those sung by Wilkie Bard,
which helped to form that artist's peculiar style;

Among the songs which he composed for that artist may be mentioned:

I Fell Off the 'Bus
Do You Know Any More Funny Stories?
I Wish I'd Bought Ducks
That's Where She Sits All Day
There's A Peculiar Thing
Is There Anything Else You'd Like?
I'd Like To Go Halves in That
I Think We Shall Have Some Rain
Has Anyone Seen Our Cat?
I'm Not Such a Goose as I Look
You, You, You!
One and a Penny a Day
The Night Watchman
The Cowslip and the Cow
My Little Deitcher Girl
Let Me Sing
When the Bugle Calls   
etc.

After twenty years of writing for others,
decided to appear on the stage himself,
and made his first appearance on the music-hall stage at
The Palace, Bath, March 1915, singing his own songs;
first appeared in London at
The Bedford, Camden Town, 3 May, 1915.


(It seems the songwriter was still alive when this was published.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 18 May 20 - 10:05 AM

https://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-T/Theres-A-Peculiar-Thing.htm

??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 May 20 - 06:10 AM

Does it have a tune? The first post said song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 17 May 20 - 09:37 PM

https://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-T/Theres-A-Peculiar-Thing.htm

This it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 17 May 20 - 12:51 PM

I haven't made a link to it,
but there is now a website that did not exist
when this thread was started,
specializing in English musical hall,
with a special set of pages for monologues.

Wilkie Bard is prominently featured at that site.
And by now, of course,
he has his own Wikipedia article.
His birthname was William Augustus Smith,
and he was a native of Lancashire.
One online note states that his forehead
was similar to the famous portrait of William Shakespeare,
the receding hairline with the broad domed forehead,
and was one justification for "Bard" as a stage name.

Jim Dixon was, as he usually is, on the right track.
The music-hall website has all the verses in this lyric,
and they agree with what Jim Dixon posted.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 17 May 20 - 10:44 AM

https://archive.org/details/summeringirlscam00coal/page/104/mode/2up

The lyrics on p.104 were put to the melody, 'Now That's a Peculiar Thing.'   

The book was I think in a third printing back in 1917.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,Elizabeth
Date: 17 May 20 - 10:02 AM

I recall a variation of this from summer camp:

I went to town to buy a watch,
A beautiful Ingersoll
And though it kept the regular time,
It did me no good at all.

When Daylight Saving came around
We rose an hour too soon,
And (missing words here)
.........To bed in the afternoon.

Now that's a peculiar thing, (bis)
If anyone here doesn’t hear what I say,
I say it’s a peculiar thing!


I’d so love to remember what the missing words are.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing / There's a..
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 06:13 PM

My mother used to sing a song the only words I can remember were

We kept some hens in our back yard and regular every morn
We used to get up at six o'clock an feed them on Indian corn.
Now one old hen wouldn't eat it - kept pecking at bits of wood
So we fattened her up on sawdust and it did her a deal of good

Chorus
Now that's a peculiar thing
Now that's a peculiar thing
Is there anyone here didn't hear what I said
Now that's a peculiar thing

I don't know if this is the same song - I think it was probably Welsh in origin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:03 PM

I found this one:

THERE'S A PECULIAR THING!
Words and music by Frank Leo
London : Francis, Day & Hunter, ©1898.
Sung by Wilkie Bard

First line: Oh, what a comical thing is love.
First line of chorus: There's a peculiar thing.

Both Oxford University and the British Library have the sheet music, but it's not viewable online.

I found an article about Wilkie Bard in The Irish Playgoer and Amusement Record, Volume 1, No. 14, Feb. 8, 1900, page 6, but it doesn't throw much light on the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing
From: RunrigFan
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 06:28 PM

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858700875/?

Only close I could find :)

Subject: Lyr Req: Now That's a Peculiar Thing
From: boldreynard
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 11:02 AM

My mother is trying to remember the words of her own mother's favorite song, which has a chorus and possible title of "Now That's a Peculiar Thing." The only lyrics I turn up online are from St Nicholas magazine, in an article on New England summer camps by Anna Worthington Coale (in Google Books)

They run as follows:

I planted a radish in my garden,
And reg'larly every morn,
I got up sharp at five o'clock,
to water it 'fore the dawn.
I raked and weeded and spaded an hoed,
Though told to let it alone,
But, after weeks of labor spent,
All that came up was a stone.

Chorus
Now that's a peculiar thing.
Now that's a peculiar thing.
I planted a radish, I planted a bean,
But neither of these has ever been seen.
Now that's a peculiar thing,
Now that's a peculiar thing,
If any one here doesn't hear what I say,
I say it's a peculiar thing.

The verse I think was written by the summer campers, and are not the original lyrics. Does anyone remember this song and, if so, know where I might find it?

Many thanks for any leads.