Old Book - Jingle Bells, Blue-Tail Fly, etc.

Subject: Old BoJingle Bells, Blue-Tail Flyok
From:
Date: 20 Oct 97 - 06:11 PM

This is a recent addition to the alt.english.usage FAQ. (Now let's see whether that worked.)

"Jingle Bells" --------------

This song by James Pierpont was fist published in 1857 by Oliver Ditson & Co., with the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh". In 1859 Ditson reissued it with a new cover, and the title "Jingle Bells, Or the One horse open Sleigh." The book _Popular Songs of Nineteenth-Century America_ (ed. Richard Jackson, Dover, 1976, ISBN 0-486-23270-0) reprints this second edition in facsimile. There is no comma between "Jingle" and "bells" in either the title or the chorus. The first verse has "Bells on bobtail ring" (not "bobtails"). The word "fun" appears nowhere in the song: the first verse has "Oh what sport to ride and sing / A sleighing song tonight", and the chorus has "Oh! what joy it is to ride / In a one horse open sleigh." The verse tune and the words of both the verse and the chorus are nearly identical to those familiar today. The chorus tune is much less monotone than the chorus tune familiar today, but would have been too difficult for children to sing: it must have been corrupted by generations of schoolchildren into what we have now.

In the same volume are facsimiles of "Jim Crack Corn" (the words "Jim crack corn I don't care" have no "and", and "don't" rather than "I" on the downbeat), and "Oh My Darling Clementine" (said to be originally a serious song; the original does not include the verse with "And her shoes were number nine").

Subject: RE: Old BoJingle Bells, Blue-Tail Flyok
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 20 Oct 97 - 06:13 PM

Looks like the html worked, but the TITLE was supposed to be "Old Book w/ Jingle Bells, Blue-Tail Fly, etc." Oops.

Subject: RE: Old BoJingle Bells, Blue-Tail Flyok
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 21 Oct 97 - 01:11 PM

Oops again. I forgot to give Mark Israel credit for writing that FAQ that I excerpted. (WHEN will we be able to edit posts that haven't been responded to yet? Although the server is slow enough as it is.)