Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Feb 22 - 06:53 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n8jqR6VzUY
Performer - Deanna Durbin
Music - Fritz Kreisler
Lyrics - Alice Mattullath

This song was written in 1915 and dedicated to great Irish tenor John McCormack. He made the first recording in 1916.

THE OLD REFRAIN
(Kreisler & Mattullath)

I often think of home Dee-ol-ee-ay
When I am all alone and far away;
I sing an old refrain, dee-ol-ee-ay
For it recalls to me a bygone day

It takes me back again to meadows fair
Where sunlight's golden rays beam everywhere
My childhood joys again come back to me
My mother's face in fancy too I see

It was my mother taught me how to sing
And to that memory my heart will cling
I'm never sad and alone while on my way
As long as I can sing Dee-ol-ee-ay

Though years have passed and gone, dee-ol-ee-ay
And though my heart is young my head is grey.
Yet still the echoes ring, dee-ol-ee-ay
And dear old memories forever stay.

This song will bring me visions full of light
And sweetest dreams throughout the darkest night
Of all that life can give, that song is best
I'll take it with me when I go to rest

And when at last my journey here is o'er
'Twill ring more joyfully than e'er before
For up to heavens I will take my lay
The angels, too, will sing dee-ol-ee-ay

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Brakn
Date: 16 Jul 15 - 06:08 AM

Thanks Q - I didn't know this was on Youtube. It brought a tear to eye - more than one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n8jqR6VzUY

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 15 Jul 15 - 09:01 PM

This melody is the vamp Johnny Moynihan adds at the end of "Waxies Dargle" by Sweeney's Men. He has in recent concerts sung a bit of the last verse for comedic effect,
"For up to heavens I will take my lay
The angels, too, will sing... What'll you have, will you have a pint, will you have a pint with me sir,..."
In the original Waxies Dargle it's played on the mandolin and bouzouki with very heavy tremolo, many people maybe remembered the song and the last lines, which would have ended: "The angels too will say TIME, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Apr 14 - 11:50 AM

The Deanna Durbin vocal is on www.youtube.com
Others there include Grace Moore, Placido Domingo and Nelson Eddy. Several violin covers as well as the original Fritz Kreisler. Kreisler's genius captured a large audience.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 12:08 AM

The Internet Archive has a recording by John McCormack.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 12:00 AM

You can see the sheet music at Mississippi State University: Click for a PDF.

THE OLD REFRAIN
Viennese Popular Song
Words by Alice Mattullath. Arranged by Fritz Kreisler.
New York: Carl Fischer, ©1915.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Artful Codger
Date: 05 Aug 06 - 04:23 PM

Re: "He [Kreisler] had a habit of calling some of his compositions traditional..."

Rather, he often attributed them to composers of other eras. Others he labelled "in the style of" (after his little deceptions were uncovered?), and did many arrangements of pieces by other composers, properly credited, though sometimes his alterations were minimal.

As a side note, he did an arrangement of Grainger's "Molly on the Shore", which itself was an arrangement/alteration of two reels, Temple Hill and Molly on the Shore.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Artful Codger
Date: 04 Aug 06 - 08:27 PM

Kreisler based "The Old Refrain"/"Le vieux refrain" on Johann Brandl's "Du alter Stefansturm" from Der liebe Augustin, an 1887 operetta.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 05:18 PM

Fritz Kreisler wrote the short piece for violin titled "The Old Refrain." Alice Mattulath arranged some of his work (Cradle Song, based on Kreisler's Caprice Chinois), and may have written or helped with the words- can't find definite indication.

Fritz Kreisler- 1875-1962. Born Vienna. Probably the best loved of all 20th century classical violinists. He had a habit of calling some of his compositions traditional, but later admitted that they were his own. Became U. S. citizen in 1943. His compositions were all melodic, and were hummed by everyone who heard them. Different training, and he would have been a great musical show composer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Brakn
Date: 05 Jan 03 - 04:42 AM

Any more info on this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Brakn
Date: 21 Jan 01 - 07:41 AM

The Old Refrain was in a 1936 musical called The King Steps Out. I've heard Deanna Durbin sing it but my favourite is Paddy Reilly's version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 11:11 PM

frefresh - Somebody emailed me to ask me what "Dee-ol-ee-ay" means. I answered that it means "Mush-a ring dum-a do rum-a da."

And the process of researching all this, I found a recording of "Whisky in the Jar" by Metallica. And this is something I could not neglect sharing.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUOEWj2wrdQ

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Dale Rose
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:37 AM

No help from here. I have just one George Morgan album which I bought years ago ~~ probably one of my first five or six, I would think. I listened to the sound sample above, but it was completely unfamiliar to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Old Refrain - Dee-ol-ee-ay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 02:34 AM

I found a recording of the song on this album (click), "Candy Kisses," a very expensive 8-CD set by George Morgan. Apparently, the songwriters are Kreisler and Mattulath. Maybe Gene or Dale can help out. I'll e-mail them.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD REFRAIN - DEE-OL-EE-AY
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 02:16 AM

Somebody posted a request for this song. I found the lyrics on an Internet search and e-mailed it to the requester, but I can't find any reference to this song in the Digital Tradition, the UTK Song Index, at the Levy Sheet Music Site, or at the U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Collection. Can anybody give us background information and a tune?
-Joe Offer-

---

THE OLD REFRAIN

I often think of home Dee-ol-ee-ay
When I am all alone and far away;
I sing an old refrain, dee-ol-ee-ay
For it recalls to me a bygone day

It takes me back again to meadows fair
Where sunlight's golden rays beam everywhere
My childhood joys again come back to me
My mother's face in fancy too I see

It was my mother taught me how to sing
And to that memory my heart will cling
I'm never sad and alone while on my way
As long as I can sing Dee-ol-ee-ay

Though years have passed and gone, dee-ol-ee-ay
And though my heart is young my head is grey.
Yet still the echoes ring, dee-ol-ee-ay
And dear old memories forever stay.

This song will bring me visions full of light
And sweetest dreams throughout the darkest night
Of all that life can give, that song is best
I'll take it with me when I go to rest

And when at last my journey here is o'er
'Twill ring more joyfully than e'er before
For up to heavens I will take my lay
The angels, too, will sing dee-ol-ee-ay

JRO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfkjqqcyhI