Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Oct 15 - 10:57 PM

The son was performed by Kenneth Horne on his BBC Radio comedy series "Round the Horne" series 4 episode 7 "The Celluloid Jungle" first broadcast 7 April 1968.

It's on YouTube here (11minutes in):
http://youtu.be/bijzefUhQS0

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 12:08 PM

I have sheet music of this song arranged for quartet. The lyrics are very similar to those posted by Jim Dixon above. I have three brothers and we have sung this song at each others wedding receptions with our Dad filling in the fourth. We have substituted other names in to fit the intended audience and it is always hugely popular. I'd love to find a copy in better condition as mine is pretty beat up, but you can still read it and sing it. If anyone is interested in a copy I could email you a scan of what I have, I'll check to see it doesn't violate anyone's copyright.
Send me a request at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 05:23 PM

http://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-L/Lucky-Jim.htm

Formby's lyrics are at that site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: maeve
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 02:08 PM

I haven't found a midi or chords yet Steve, but you must see this- a fragment sung by a gentleman at 96 years: Mr. Robert Hill sings "Oh Lucky Jim"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,Steve Maddern
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 01:39 PM

Hi
I just noticed this tread from 2007. I am looking for a MIDI of Lucky Jim if anyone has one, or maybe the guitar chords.
Many thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 12:41 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,JACK
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 09:34 AM

I read a kids story when young,

Jim took a "cow" or something to market and barters it.
The item at first seen as a good swap becomes tiresome - he barters that for something else.
This continues for several swaps, each swap becoming tiresome, till he swaps his latest 'item'for a large lump of gold.
As he carries it home it is very heavy and he stops by a well to drink, balancing the heavy lump of gold on the wall of the well.
It falls in to Lucky Jims delight, for he now skips home unburdoned.
ah Lucky Jim.
I would love to get the original of my mangled version.
THe message, I think was that things are a burden, even gold.

jack

Subject: Lyr Add: LUCKY JIM (recitation)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 07:59 PM

I found this as a poem, published the same year as the song (also in 3 other anthologies). The story is the same but the words, except for the refrain, are entirely different. Which do you suppose came first?

From Werner's Readings and Recitations, Volume 15 compiled and arranged by Caroline Earnest Dickenson (New York: Edgar S. Werner & Company, 1896), page 116:


LUCKY JIM.

Jim was my friend, till one unhappy day
The usual cause—a pretty girl—came in our way.
From that day on we seemed to drift apart,
For each aspired to win her maiden heart;
But, though I tried each art and winning wile,
'Twas not on me she gave her sweetest smile.
Each day I saw my chances grow more dim,
Until—to my despair—one day she married Jim.
Ah, lucky Jim!
How I envied him!

Three years passed on—long years they seemed to me—
And then Jim died, and once more "she" was free.
Before me rose the bright hopes of the past;
I wooed, I sued, and married her at last.
I've got my way; and, now she is my wife,
I know just what there is in married life;
And when I think of Jim, though under ground,
Enjoying peace and quiet most profound,
Ah, lucky Jim!
How I envy him!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,Bruce Grimes
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 09:35 AM

Ian Whitcomb did a version of the song in the 60's on an album entitled "Yellow Underground" (Capitol Records). Pretty much the original lyric, though he credited "F. Arthur Nouveau" also (one of his "nom de plumes".
I would guess this to be the source for the MP3 file.
This has been an "earworm" for me ever since.
There is a youtube video of a professor at UC Davis, apparently performing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--pk2Lsj0hE

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,Paul F. Anderson
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:44 PM

Charles Widdén recorded "Lycklige Jim" in 1913 for Columbia Records. This was a Swedish version of "Lucky Jim". The translator is not known.

LYCKLIGE JIM

Jim och jag var vänner alla dagar
från den tid vi två i vaggan låg.
Jim han hade aldrig skäl att klaga,
alltid tur att flyta ovanpå.
Lycklige Jim och stackars, stackars mej!
Lycklige Jim, vad jag avundas dej.

Jim och jag blev kär i samma flicka,
Jim fick ja och jag fick flickans nej,
Jim var skön och visste sig att skicka,
men det sköna icke föll på mej.
Lycklige Jim men stackars, stackars mej!
Lycklige Jim, vad jag avundas dej.

Tiden gick och Jim gick till de döda,
blott en änka efterlämna han.
Jim vilar nu under rosor röda,
jag har blivit Jimmys änkas man.
Lycklige Jim men stackars, stackars mej!
Lycklige Jim, vad jag avundas dej.

Ord: Charles Horwitz
Musik: Fred V. Bowers

The Cylinder Preservation Project web site has two recordings of "Lucky Jim": one by The Lotus Quartet from 1902 and one by The Criterion Quartet from 1921. These can be downloaded as mp3 files at no charge.

CYLINDER PRESERVATION PROJECT
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/

iTunes sells an mp3 file of Ian Whitcomb singing the song from 2005.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: Peace
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 05:04 PM

'I just found a record of "Lucky Jim" (as opposed to "Sunny Jim")--the song that inspired the title of the satirical novel of academia by Kingsley Amis. "Oh, Lucky Jim--How I envy him--" It was a comic song done in rather straight-faced fashion by the Criterion Quartette on an old purple label Brunswick. I'd like to hear it sung "funnier."'

Found the above on a site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lucky Jim (How I Envy Him)
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 15 Sep 07 - 04:57 PM

i sure would love a midi file for this. chas. horwitz was my gfather.
john. [e-mail]

Subject: Lyr Add: LUCKY JIM (C Horwitz, F Bowers)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Sep 07 - 01:39 PM

This has a special interest for me, since the hero of Amis' novel was coincidentally named Jim Dixon. I can't say how much I resemble him, though.

Here are the lyrics, from the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music:

LUCKY JIM (HOW I ENVY HIM)
Words, Charles Horwitz. Music, Fredrick V. Bowers.
New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1896.

1. Jim and I as children played together.
Best of chums for many years were we.
I alas, had no luck, was a Jonah;
Jim my chum was lucky as could be.

CHORUS: Ah! Lucky Jim, how I envy him!
Ah! Lucky Jim, how I envy him!

2. Years passed by. Still Jim and I were comrades.
He and I both loved the same sweet maid.
She loved Jim and married him one evening.
Jim was lucky. I unlucky stayed.

3. Years rolled on and death took Jim away, boys,
Left his widow and she married me.
Now we're married, oft I think of Jim, boys,
Sleeping in the churchyard by the sea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: Inukshuk
Date: 02 Sep 07 - 11:45 AM

I've just about got the sheet music sequenced. If anyone is interested in getting the midi just PM me. Thanks again for all your help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: Inukshuk
Date: 31 Aug 07 - 10:03 AM

The framed cover of "Lucky Jim" is sure to cheer Bad Luck Jim up a whole lot. I'm going to get to work on the rest of the sheet music and see if I can learn it to go along with the presentation. My thanks to the original Guest and all of you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 31 Aug 07 - 05:56 AM

I've always known this song as 'Oh Lucky Jim'.
Kingsley Amis borrowed the title for his first novel,'Lucky Jim', in the fifties and the film version, starring Ian Carmichael, used the song as its theme and incidental music, sung by what sounds like a College Choir.
I have the film on DVD somewhere. I haven't watched/listened to it for ages but I'll dig it out and see if any additional words are discernible.
But all I can recall without actually watching the film is 'Oh Lucky Jim,, how I envy him' sung in various keys and various styles throughout.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 31 Aug 07 - 05:23 AM

The plot of the Lucky Jim ballad is very similar to Kitty O'Toole (How I envied McGinty)- a version was recorded in 2003 by Jim Hancock, apparently (see link). I was given a similar version by Mary O'Connor nee Hinds, who learnt it as a child in Offaly in the mid 1930s.

http://www.jimhancock.com/htmfiles/music-lyrics-lovesong-kitty.htm

Les Sullivan http://howlingtoad.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/
has written (but not yet recorded)"The Sad Tale of Lucky Jim Cooke": - the verses explain why the chorus runs:

They bashed me on the 'ead with a lump of lead
And dragged me off to sea
I 'aven't got an eye, I 'aven't got a leg
And I've an 'ook where me 'and used to be
I don't know why I find that I
Am back in the Royal Navy
(They must be short of sailors if they're gathering the likes of me)

Not sure this would cheer up Inukshuk's friend though!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Aug 07 - 07:13 AM

Possibly this is the song (click on the title).

Title: Horwitz & Bowers' Latest Comic Novelty. Lucky Jim. Mock Ballad.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words by Chas. Horwitz. Music by Fredrick V. Bowers.
Publication: New York : M. Witmark & Sons
Date: 1896
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Jim and I as children played together
First Line of Chorus: Ah! lucky Jim, how I envy him
Advertisement: ads on inside back and on back covers for M. Witmark & Sons stock
Subjects: Friendship; Spouses; Widows; Death

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: Inukshuk
Date: 30 Aug 07 - 06:31 AM

I'd love to get the words to this song. I know a Jim that has had incredibly bad luck for the past ten years. A song like this could just break the streak for him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lucky Jim
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 12:08 AM

Refresh.

Subject: Old Lucky Jim
From:
Date: 27 Dec 99 - 09:49 AM

I'm looking for the lyrics of a song a great Aunt who lived in Boone, NC in the '40s & '50s used to sing. The only words I know are: "Old Lucky Jim, How I envy him."