Origins: White Cliffs of Dover

Subject: There'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cli
From:
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:15 AM

I play accordion for nursing homes and want this song for some of the older English patients. 'There'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover' or is it just called 'The White Cliffs of Dover'? Also have big accordion for sale w/three sets of reeds, nice musette Frenchy sounds too. Like new for $800 (was over $1500 new)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER (Burton/Kent)^^
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:23 AM

(THERE'LL BE BLUEBIRDS OVER) THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER

There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow; just you wait and see.

I'll never forget the people I met,
Braving those angry skies.
I remember well, as the shadows fell,
The light of hope in their eyes;
And though I'm far away,
I still can hear them say:
"Thumbs up!"
For when the dawn comes up—

There'll bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow; just you wait and see.
There'll be love and laughter, and peace ever after,
Tomorrow when the world is free.

The shepherd will tend his sheep.
The valley will bloom again,
And Jimmy will go to sleep
In his own little room again.
There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow; just you wait and see.

There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see

---

Full title: (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover
Words: Nat Burton
Music: Walter Kent
published: 1942

(attribution notes added by Joe Offer)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: There'll Be Bluebirds Over The Whit
From: Bugsy
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:24 AM

Here you Go.

white cliffs of Dover

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Tune Req: There'll Be Bluebirds Over The Whit
From: Pene Azul
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:25 AM

There's a MIDI file on this page.

(also emailed)

Jeff

Subject: RE: Tune Req: There'll Be Bluebirds Over The Whit
From: GUEST,thanks to all who helped
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 02:13 AM

Thank you. I did finally get the midi song file. Loved it and will try to learn it by ear from midi. Will probably keep looking for the sheet music, just to make sure of chords. Sincerely, Carole V [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: There'll Be Bluebirds Over The Whit
From: MMario
Date: 19 Oct 00 - 08:46 AM

Carole - there are a number of free downloadable programs that will take that midi and convert it to sheet music for you, some even will set chords to it. you might want to think about it.

Subject: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 03:50 AM

No doubt this song will get quite a few airplays over the weekend during the 60th anniversary of the D day landings.

There was interesting programme on Radio 4 last Saturday explaining how the song had been deliberately put together to boost the campaign to get the USA to join in the war. Taking elements of "over the rainbow" (bluebirds, similar chord structure and feel)which had been a hit shortly before, the writers added imagery to evoke poor little Britain battling away on their own etc in order to touch the American conscience.

It was a hit in the States but when Vera Lynn got hold of it and recorded it for the UK market the British Government tried to have it banned because it would make the troops homesick and undermine morale!

Rog

---

I moved this message here from another thread on the same topic.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 07:06 AM

"White Cliffs Of Dover", sung by Vera Lynn

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST,abitthick
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 08:16 AM

I don't know how true this is but I heard that World War II was started by Vera Lynn's agent in order to boost sales of her record. Now that's what I call a good agent.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Rain Dog
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 01:07 PM

Look forget this Vera Lynn business.
I live in Dover and I know that the cliffs were here a long time before Vera appeared on the scene.You could probably trace their origins back 65 - 80 million years ago

More details can be found here : The White Cliffs of Dover

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jun 04 - 02:07 PM

Ah, but Vera Lynn made those white limestone cliffs known throughout the English-speaking world.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 05 - 09:16 PM

Does anyone have any information on the suthor of this song "White Cliffs of Dover"?

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Jan 05 - 09:37 PM

I smile, seeing the title of this song. There's an a capella version of this by the rhythm and blues group of the 60's, the Del Vikings (who had hits with Come Go With Me and Whispering Bells). It was done as an audition tape and the base singer sings the lines of the second verse. It is one of my all-time favorite rhythm and blues recordings. I remember the Vera Lynn recording, too, which was very sentimental and romantic, and I liked it a lot too, as a little kid.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jan 05 - 10:36 PM

Words Nat Burton, music Walter Kent, 1942 (see note near top of thread.
Nat Burton was an American who had never seen the White Cliffs.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Billy Weeks
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 04:54 AM

Yes, obviously an American who had never seen the white cliffs. We don't get bluebirds in this part of the world.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Rain Dog
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 05:33 AM

Billy Weeks wrote : Yes, obviously an American who had never seen the white cliffs. We don't get bluebirds in this part of the world.

Aahhh not quite true. In an effort to help boost the tourism business, a plan was hatched to paint or dye some of the local seagulls blue. It was not a great success mainly because the seagulls spend most of their time in the town now rather than on the cliffs.
The powers that be are now considering using remote controlled replica blue birds instead.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 04:28 PM

My Canadian-born Dad was brought up in England, and served in the Royal Navy from 1939 to 1946, when he was demobbed and returned to Canada. During the 1970s, when nostalgia for the 1940s first became fashionable and Dame Vera Lynn was touring as "The Forces' Sweetheart", he would snort at the very mention of her name and announce loudly how much she was disliked by everyone in his ship. Dad was a well-brought-up individual famous for his douce personality and diplomatic manners, but any airing of "The White Cliffs of Dover" would provoke loud gagging noises and a stormy exit from the room. My grandmother liked to play it on the piano (and would require me to sing!), so I was treated to this display several times.

Would any of our resident Brits care to comment on what their parents thought of this song? Or was my Dad the only bluebird-loather in square rig?

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Feb 05 - 04:50 PM

One part of the background to the song was a long narrative poem called The White Cliffs of Dover, by an Anglophile American called Alice Duer Miller, about Britain at war, which was published in 1949, and was very widely read and quoted in both countries.

In 1944 it was turned into a film with the same name. Here's an online text of the poem.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST,Barrie Roberts
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 04:48 PM

The version published above has the beginning missing, It begins:

I'll never forget the people I met,
Facing those angry skies,
I remember well when twilight fell
The light of hope in their eyes,
And when the dawn comes up
They still can say 'Thumbs up!'

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 03 Feb 05 - 04:40 AM

The White Cliffs are made from the shells of sea creatures, the lime shells of dead sea creatures fell to the bottom of the sea. They were compressed by the ocean and turned into sediment approximately 80 million years ago.
http://www.doverpages.co.uk/white_cliffs_dover.htm
love Robbie

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST,NicP
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 11:05 AM

Chalk!

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 06:13 PM

I've met an Englishman who doesn't know the name Albion.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 10 Feb 05 - 07:33 PM

I grew up in England in the next village to Vera Lynn. In the mid 60's while working at my first job ever, in a Key Markets supermarket, she would shop at the store with her husband on a regular basis. I always found her to be one of the nicest people you could meet, very down to earth and not the least bit snooty. Which is more than I can say for some of the other people who shopped there.

So whenever I hear the song, I think of her fondly.

Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Jim McLean
Date: 11 Feb 05 - 05:59 AM

My mother sang this when I was a lad, 7 of us living in a 'single end'. a room and kitchen in a tenement. I always smiled at the line 'and Jimmie will go to sleep in his own little room again' and wondered if it would ever come true!
Jim(mie) McLean

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST,Virginia Benson
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 11:05 PM

Did Nat Burton ever give permission for his lyrics to enter the public domain?

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: Folknacious
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 09:55 AM

Did Nat Burton ever give permission for his lyrics to enter the public domain?

Just a slow meander on the floral path from Anon to Trad. Arr. ;-)

Devon Sproule & Paul Curreri did a wonderful version of this song to close the Roots At The Roundhouse gig last week, accompanied by members of Oysterband and others including Billy Bragg at the piano! Bearing in mind Vera Lynn recently standing up to the BNP about their attempted hijacking of it, and the line "tomorrow, when the world is free", the song probably has greater significance these days than for quite a while.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 07:17 AM

For Bluebirds - read the blue painted underside of the Spitfires

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 07:50 PM

That's an interesting idea Andy - I've always assumed the bluebirds were s a lift from Over the Rainbow, but Spitfires would fit well, and add an extra frisson to the words.

I'm not sure about blue painted underside, since there aren't too many pictures showing the u derside, and the ones I've seen don't generally seem blue. But here's a picture of the topside, looking blue enough.

Subject: RE: Origins: White Cliffs of Dover
From: GUEST, Guest ....Eric Fry : Perth Western Austral
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 11:29 AM

Can I please ask, for confirmation on who wrote the lyrics to "There'll Be Blue birds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover."

According to Wikipedia on "Norman Wisdom", comedian, musician, stage, TV & Film personality, Norman wrote the words in 1941, although Nat Burton and Walter Kent also get mentioned as composers.

So who did write the lyrics ??

Thanks