Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere

Subject: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From:
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:38 PM

Does anyone know this song. It may have links to Old Time Musichall. Chorusis:- In a house very small that's ten miles from the railway station,no name, no number,noloversever call on the pretty little girl from nowhere,nowhere at all

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:49 PM

Phyllis Robbins sang it in the movie "Gaiety George", released in 1948 but I didn't find any lyrics.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:09 PM

You can find a cracking version of this song on the New Victory Band album (recently re-released on the Backshift label), "One More Dance and Then..."

All the best.........Harry.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 03:33 PM

Yes, but the New Victory Band album is worth getting for all the other tracks too (including the extra ones from live concerts that weren't on the vinyl).

Kitty

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 04:37 PM

Chris Coe sings this marvellously on the New Victory Band CD - as I recall from a review her singing was described as her "getting in touch with her inner Cockney sparrer!"

According to the sleeve notes this was one of Florrie Ford's songs written by Rogers/Neat, but a quick flick through Google hasn't brought anything up as yet, but there are some music hall sites which may yet turn up a clue.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 04:59 PM

Matthew

It's Helen Hockenhull (then Helen Watson) singing on the New Victory recording. You may be thinking of Chris Coe singing "It ain't all honey" - which is one of the tracks Pete Coe added to the CD, and which the sleeve notes say caused Chris to be concerned that it had ruined her reputation for good.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 05:17 PM

Herga (not Helga!), sorry to have compromised Chris Coe's reputation even further! She sang "It Ain't All Honey" which prompted Ian Anderson's comment about her "inner Cockney sparrer", while it was Helen Watson singing "Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere" as you correctly point out. I can't find anything about the song via Google, but a visit to a good library might be more helpful. See you at Sutton Bonington this weekend, Matthew

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 05:49 PM

Yes, well, Matthew, I was trying to avoid pointing out on the English National Folk Music Festival thread that Herga might well become Helga after 8 pints.... I wouldn't be at all surprised to find some former members of the New Victory Band at Sutton Bonington this weekend, so we might get some more clues there about the Pretty Girl from Nowhere. It does seem to have been Florrie Ford though (also famous for singing "Down at the Old Bull and Bush...)

Kitty

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: GUEST,IM-AN-ER
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:48 AM

Many thanks to everyone who has replied to this one, if someone can come up with the entire lyric i would be very grateful.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: quantock
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 12:45 AM

I would like to revive this thread, and ask if, in the 6 intervening years, anyone has managed to dig up the words and/or any additional background to this delightful song?

Rob

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: treewind
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 03:06 AM

You should be able to get the words for the NVB CD. I'll echo previous sentiments that it's worth it. Well, maybe not if you only listen to songs...

Anyway I've learned something - I didn't know (or maybe had forgotten) that Helen Watson of the original NVB is the same singer I now know as Helen Hockenhull. That's tied up a couple of loose ends (so to speak) for me.

Anahata

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PRETTY LITTLE GIRL FROM NOWHERE
From: gnomad
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 04:04 AM

Sorry, no background info, but I have this old transcript from the vinyl New Victory Band recording. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it looks OK to me.

Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere

There's a dainty little girl, one of the prettiest,
And you'll find her in a leafy country lane,
You ask her where she lives,
Her address she never gives,
She tries to tell the name of it, in vain,
"Well, it's just a cot," she'll answer, "on the boundary,
Of a stately English mansion, fine and grand."
Well, she lives there all alone,
And all around she's known,
As the little girl from No Man's Land.

She's a pretty little girl from nowhere,
Nowhere at all,
In a house very small,
That's ten miles from the railway station,
No name, no number, so lovers never call,
On the pretty little girl from nowhere,
Nowhere at all.

In her little handsome bonnet, and her cotton dress,
She's as fine as any lass of high degree,
Lads from far and near,
Come courting her, I fear
Her husband never one of them will be,
For a certain youthful lordling, who has lost his way,
Lost his heart to her, and soon I understand,
Titled single girls will mourn,
That the season's catch has gone,
To the little girl from No Man's Land.


I think the chorus then comes again, but haven't had time to check.

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: Megan L
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 04:16 AM

I found this at the sheet music warehouse Feldmans

Subject: RE: The Pretty Little Girl From Nowhere.
From: quantock
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 04:07 PM

Thank you so much. Myself and a friend had tried to transcribe the words from the NVB CD, but we hadn't quite got all of them, so there were a couple of places where it didn't seem to make sense. All is clear now! :)

Rob.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST,tina lina
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 07:49 AM

Do you know my Mum sang this to me as a child, at bedtime, about 45 years ago...and all I could remember was the chorus... It was driving me mad trying to remember was it a poem or what??? and how the devil did it start...Well Done for saving me wondering for long...???

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 09 - 03:56 PM

According to the British Library Integrated Catalogue:

THE PRETTY LITTLE GIRL FROM "NOWHERE"
Words by E.W. Rogers; music by John Neat.
London: B. Feldman & Co. [1909]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST,Dawn Gibson
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 05:06 PM

My grandad used to sing this song to me when I was a child. I'm 43 now and can only remember a few lines.   

"She's a pretty little girl from nowhere, nowhere at all.
She lives in a round house, not many miles from a railway station.
No name, no number, no knocker on the door.
She's a pretty little girl from nowhere, nowhere at all"

Awww, I can hear him now!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST,Julie
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 09:21 AM

It's so nice to read so many comments on an old song I know and love. My Dad always sang this to my sister and myself on his knee, over 40 years ago. And all of our children have grown up with him singing it to them while they were on his knee. We only ever sang the chorus though...I have never heard the rest. I must ask him to sing me the verses, if he can remember them! Thank you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 03:57 PM

I'm 59 now..and still remember my dad singing this to me! Would LOVE to 'hear' it again! I sing the chorus to my 2 year old grandaughter!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: treewind
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 05:30 PM

On the New Victory Band CD Available Here (EFDSS online shop) !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST,WindBlownSand
Date: 29 Dec 21 - 05:46 AM

My mum used to sing this song to us when I was about 4. I loved it. As a pro musician I suggested that The Beatles record it. I wish they had listened to me. I'm only 80 so I'm just a boy yet.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Pretty Little Girl from Nowhere
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jan 23 - 05:37 AM

A snatch of this is incorporated in The Fetterangus Rangers by Lucy Stewart. The sheet music was published in The Empire News & The Umpire and the original words (more or less as shown above) are here http://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/pretty-little-girl-from-nowhere-the/

john at folksongandmusichall