Origins: My Gal's a Corker/...Girl's a New Yorker

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:46 PM

We used to sing this one at camp. By the way, Abby, you are not descended from the semi-immortal "Chick Sale," are you?

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:40 PM

Oh dear- the japanese strike. must now add initial 'k'- gracyk.com

Tim Gracy's website at KCTMC

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:35 PM

The earliest reference I can find to "My Girl's a Corker is c. 1898, in the catalogue of the Kansas City Talking Machine Company, cylinder 4208, sung by tenor Frank Butts.

General link to website-
http://www.gracy.com

"The Kansas City Talking Machine Company And Its "Original" Recordings of 1898," by Tim Gracyk.
KCTMC

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:21 PM

University of British Columbia Colours- Songs at UBC

My girl's a hullabaloo
She wears the Gold and Blue, ...

"...reprinted every year in the 1920's and 1930's in the predecessor of the "Inside UBC," known then simply as the "Student Handbook."

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 04:07 PM

Sorry- wrong number-
My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 04:03 PM

The idea behind "My Girl's a ..." could go back a ways. This song was mentioned in James Joyce. Lyrics posted by Jim Dixon - "My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl."
Look at the chorus- Different melody to this music hall song.

My girl's a Yorkshire girl-
Yorkshire through and through.
My girl's a Yorkshire girl,
Eh! by gum, she's a champion!
Though she's a factory lass
And wears no fancy clothes,
Still I've got a sort of a Yorkshire relish
For my little Yorkshire rose.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 03:20 PM

The only one I didn't see was...

"She has a pair of lips, just like two poker chips."

"Hey man, that's where my money go-oe-oes."

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 07:37 PM

Posted in another thread.
Played by the University of Texas marching band.

My girl's a hullabaloo
She goes to Texas U
She wears her colors true
I'll say she do.
And in my future life
She's gonna be my wife-
(Shouted)-
How the hell you get that way?

She told me so!

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 06:02 PM

I learned the song when I was around 5 years old, and I think my day camp teachers used to say:

"That's where all the money go-o-oes!
Oom-pa oom-pa oom-pa-pa
Oom-pa-pa
Oom-pa-pa
Oom-pa Oom-pa Oom-pa pa
Oom-pa-pa-pa-pa HEY!
"

after each verse. Probably something they added on, but I was disappointed to see that it isn't part of the original lyrics.

Tim

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:01 AM

Here's another version, used on Petticoat Junction. The character (Steve Elliot) was singing about his daughter Kathy Jo:

That's where my money goes, to buy my baby clothes
I buy her everything, to keep her in style
She's just about 1 year old and she's worth her weight in gold
Yes sir, that's where my money goes
Believe me, all for my little Kathy Jo

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,An old Navy Chief
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 09:38 PM

Forgot the following verse to My Girl's a Vegetable:

One day I played a joke,
Pulled the plug and watched her croak

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Jim Lad
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 05:27 PM

Oh it's folk! I still remember the wee girls skipping to this one when I was a lad. One girl on either end of the rope and the rest waiting in line at one end. they would each jump for one verse and then run through to take their place in line at the other end. The chorus of twenty or so young girls singing at full volume and never missing a note could have put many choirs to shame.
Great stuff. Thank You.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Bert
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 02:21 AM

She's got a pair of thighs
just like the bridge of sighs
Gee Ma that's where my money goes

She's got a pair of ears
just like two foaming beers

She's got a pair of knees
just like two bamboo trees

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,rosalie
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 10:22 PM

I learned "My girl's a corker, she's a New Yorker" as a kid in Washington,D.C. with many of the words cited above. When I moved to New York City in 1956, they sang it as "There's where my money goes, to buy my baby clothes..."
My friend from the Ozarks sings, "She wears silk underwear, I wear my last year's pair." which I thought matched the phrase "that's where my money goes" better than any of the verses we sang as kids. She learned the song from a record (maybe Burl Ives?)
I looked in "The New Song Fest." They have the Vassar Hygiene Song followed by the parody of my girl's a corker with 14 college verses including those cited above (pages 54-55.)
We also learned "Marching to Pretoria" in school (probably in D.C. -more singing in the schools there.) The words are about doing things together, "as we march along."

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,catherine yronwode
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 01:42 AM

Unlike Abby Sale's "latest pair," we sang it this way in California, in the mid 1950s:

   She wears silk underwear, i wear my last year's pair

As for "Marching to Pretoria" -- we were taught that in school as well, and my mother, who was quite left-leaning, was shocked and proceeded to give me a long lecture about the evils of apartheid.

cat yronwode

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 11:05 PM

Guest: That refrain is stolen from another song, which I could have sworn I had the text of, but now I can't find it. Anyway, it begins "She's got eyes like Jezebel, teeth like pearls". And "sure enough true black" used to be "honest-to-God shoe-black".

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: A millihelen is the amount of facial beauty required to launch one ship; a microhelen, to arouse one sailor. :||

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 03:38 PM

My father used to sing a variant of My Girl's a Corker.We think he learned it while at Georgia Military Academy (now Georgia Military College) in Milledgeville, Georgia in the 1940s.He may have learned it at Fort Benning, Georgia. He said they used it as a marching song. He has been gone now 8 years, and we occasionally think of that tune, but can't remember the rest of the words in his version. Anybody out there know?

I walk upon the track
She drives a Cadillac
I work both day and night
To keep her satisfied

......

Refrain

She's my one black, two black sure enough true black
Chocolate to the bone.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 11:14 PM

Toadfrog et al.: The college stanzas belong to a distinct song, the Vassar Hygiene Song, which appears in The New Song Fest. It has a different tune. The first stanza is:

Oh, we never used to bathe till we heard the doctor rave In the lectures that she gave how to behave;
Now we take our daily bath even though we miss our math.
How in the world did you know that?
She told us so.

When we grow older, then we'll be bolder,
We'll take it colder, up to the shoulder.
This we must do every day, even though we pass away.
How in the world do you know that?
She told us so.

There are four more stanzas on that pattern, and then it launches into "She goes to Vassar, none can surpass her", "My girl's from Thmith, thhe talkth like thith", etc., etc., ending with

My man's from Yale, he lands in jail, From drinking too much gin--ger ale. And in my future life I'm gonna be his wife. How in the world does he know that? I told him so.

Those stanzas may well have floated back & forth between the Vassar Hygiene Song, My Girl's a Corker, and perhaps others.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: Whatever is worth doing is worth doing badly. :||

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Jul 06 - 01:19 AM

True-love (roots in the American Midwest) sang a chorus too. He learned it from his sister's friends in the 40s.
It was:

Ring ling a-ling ding who told you so. (three times)
Better days are commin' by and by.

Also, just for the record, the verses of Woody Guthrie's Do-Re-Mi use this tune.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 09 Jul 06 - 09:25 PM

From summer camps in Victoria (Australia) in the '40s the song was always called (from its first line) "My girl's a corker, she's a bushwalker." Almost all the versions were much as described in the thread above but I suspect the tune is different because it always was sung with a chorus that seems not to scan but then, I cant't read music let alone write it. Other Australian contributors who can read and write will probably help you out though. The following couplet made up the opening lines to each verse;

"My girl's a corker, she's a bushwalker,
I buy her everything to keep her in style."

Then the various contributions such as
"She has two lovely hips, just like two battleships,"
with each verse concluded by the line
"That's where all my money goes."

And always the Chorus
Oompah, oompah, oompah pah!
Oompah, oompah, oompah pah!

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Joybell
Date: 09 Jul 06 - 09:01 PM

hildebrand here: has anybody else noticed the similarity between "my gal's a corker" and certain versions of "nobody's business what i do"?
(particularly hillbilly versions). any information, any theories?
H

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 06 - 05:00 PM

I have been singing and teaching this song for forty years. (C-D7-G7-C). My students and I have made up some dandy verses.

She's got her teeth so bright/ They come out every night
That's where my money all goes.

She's got a pair of feet/ Take up the whole damned street
That's where my money all goes.

Subject: ADD Version: My Gal's a Corker
From: GUEST,Ray Valdes
Date: 09 Jul 06 - 01:39 AM

Was I surprised to read all those letters about the origins of "My Gal's a Corker"! The reason for the surprise is because I wrote that song and lyrics in 1941. Here is the story: My parents sent me to camp Marquette in Brattleboro, Vermont for three summers. The summer of 1941 it rained for thirty out of the 40 days we were there. A friend of mine, Billy Byrnes, and I put together a few skits that we presented to the rest of the gang. My family lived in Manhattan and I had a girlfriend that attended Marymount (91st and Fifth Ave.). I went to Loyola at 83rd and Park. I wrote the song and kept it a few years. In 1948 I typed it and saved it until the computer age. At that time, I saved it to the computer. If you find it strange that I have kept something for so long, please know that I still have stuff I wrote in grammar school. And here is exactly the way I wrote it:

MY GAL'S A CORKER

My gal's a corker,
She's a New Yorker.
And I do everything to keep her in style.

She's got a mop of hair
Just like a grizzly bear---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of eyes
Just like two lemon pies---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a big, long nose
Just like a fireman's hose---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of lips
Just like potatoe chips---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of tits
Just like two ice picks---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a swivel back
Just like Jaimaca track---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of hips
Just like two battleships---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of legs
Just like two whiskey kegs---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of feet
Just like the Navy's fleet---
Yes boys, that's where my money goes.

My gal's a corker,
She's a New Yorker.
And I do everything to keep her in style.


Unfortunately I can't reproduce the music here but it was a fast Dixieland Rag beat (like "Toot Toot Tootsie, or "Sitting On The Levee"

Bestest, RAY

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Cool Beans
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 03:24 PM

Now that I'm thinking about it, there were verses about sororities, too. My girlfriend, now my ex-wife, taught me this one at Syracuse University in the late 1960s:

My girl's in SDT (Sigma Delta Tau)
She is in love with me.
We are in love to stay.
We do it twice a day...

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Cool Beans
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 02:42 PM

My girl's from Holyoke
She taught me how to smoke.
She knows a dirty joke.
Now I know one, too.


(I bet my daughter never heard this song. She goes to Hampshire College, right in the middle of that Smith-Amherst-Mount Holyoke area.)

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Peace
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 10:03 AM

"Origins: My Girl's a Corker"

Worked in a winery did she?

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Abby Sale
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 09:28 AM

Maybe not - "We are marching to Pretoria" was quite popular in the Revival. Great, rousing tune. Contrary to popular opinion, people rarely get much into the politics of any song unless they're strong believers or protestors of the topic in the first place.

If it's upbeat or emotional and they like the tune they sing it.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From:
Date: 15 Mar 06 - 11:44 PM

my girl's from bryn mawr
she won't get in my car
she says i go too far
maybe i do....

and in my future life..etc

my girl's from m.i.t.
she's a traversity
girls who study engineering
usually ain't so hot appearing

and in my future life...etc


my girl's from smith
she talks like thith
she tought me how to kith
i love her tho

and in my future life

my girl's from goucher
i'd like to couch her


etc.

dgm
lehigh. '61

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 May 05 - 10:22 AM

when i was in the cubs in the 1950's we used to sing it to the tune I got rhythm

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 May 05 - 06:43 PM

We had a slightly different version of this in England too in the early 60s:

My girl's a corker, she's a New Yorker
I'd do most anything to keep her in trim
She's got a ............ just like ............
That's where all my money goes.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Moose
Date: 07 May 05 - 05:06 PM

We sang this song in grade school music class! Only the final phrase of the chorus was "That's why I love her so".

I remember "She's got a pair of lips, just like two poker chips".

That teacher must have been a little eccentric looking back on it now. He also taught "We are marching to Pretoria", which is a Boer War song!

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: toadfrog
Date: 08 May 03 - 09:58 PM

Yeah, I had completely forgotten that one. Boy! Probably haven't heard it since 1950 or so.

The last time I thought of that song, I wondered, is it the same song, or the same tune, as:

My girl's from Vassar,
None can surpass her . . .

My girl's from Smith; She talkth like thith.
She taught me how to kiss, I love her tho,
And in my future life, she's going to be my wife.
How in the world do you know that? She told me so!

My girl's from MIT, she is a travesty!
Girls who go for engineering are not so hot appearing!
And in my future life, she's going to be my wife.
How in the world do you know that? She told me so!

That used to be in the college songbooks, but I've never heard it sung.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 03 - 07:56 PM

The verses my mom sang were:

She drives a Cadillac I walk to work and back



She rides a limosine, I buy the gasoline

She has a head of hair, just like a grizzly bear

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: fox4zero
Date: 08 May 03 - 07:35 PM

My late brother-in-law, whom I miss very much, returned from the army in 1945 with Malaria and these lyrics:

She's got a pair of hips, just like 2 battle ships
That's where my money always goes.

I buy her pink chemise, she buys me BVD's
That's where my money always goes.

Cheers, Larry

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: JudyR
Date: 08 May 03 - 03:33 AM

Wow, us oldies. We girls used to dance to this in the 50's, when we were early teens -- the dance was CALLED the New Yorker -- you know, a step, step, step-back-step-forward, step (you know, one, two, one-two three, one, two one-two three). You can even do the Charleston to it (which our mothers taught us).

The last line of the first verse was "Yessir, that's where my money goes..."

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 07 May 03 - 05:03 PM

When I was little we had segregated schoolyards (boys and girls) and the 'infant' boys (under 7) had to play in the girl's yard. I was made to sing this ditty as I twirled a skipping rope. I also twirled to "On a mountain stands a lady, who she is I do not know ... All she wants is gold and silver, all she wants is a nice young man ...' Ah, yes, it all comes back to me now ;o)

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 07 May 03 - 11:07 AM

Funny, I was thinking of this song the other day. We used it as a clapping song when we were children but said chorus girl rather than corker. In our version her hips were two battle ships and her lips were potato chips.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 07 May 03 - 08:45 AM

A march composition was used by the band at the University of Texas in he 1950s. Student parodies included:

My girl's- a porker
She's an- Arkansawyer

Sung when Arkansas was played in the old Southwest Conference.

Subject: RE: Origins: My Girl's a Corker
From: kendall
Date: 07 May 03 - 05:00 AM

But, is it folk?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 May 03 - 02:15 AM

As I read Ewen's American Popular Songs, it appears that words and music were written by John Stromberg in 1895, and the original song title was "My Best Girls' a New Yorker (or, My Best Girl's a Corker)"
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:54 AM

She's got a pair of tits
Just like two battleships.

She's got a pair of hips
Just like two potato chips

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

This should be good therapy for Alzheimers...I don't doubt that R.R. could toss in a couple, even in his adled state.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: Harold W
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 12:39 AM

She has a pair of tits
Just like two baseball mitts.

Subject: ADD: My Girl's a Vegetable
From: Abby Sale
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:31 PM

Rubber hose. Absolutely what we sang!
Didn't think of searching 'Gal.' Should have tried 'corker.' Same song as above.

Now I feel I have to add the Hash version. I've never actually been accused of having good taste but I admit I did hesitate on this one...

MY GIRL'S A VEGETABLE
Melody--My Girl's a Corker, She's a New Yorker

My girl's a vegetable,
She lives in a hospital...

CHORUS:
I'd do most anything
To keep her alive.

She has no arms or legs,
She looks like a pony keg...

She's got a new TV
They call it an EKG...

Her EKG does not rise,
But she still spreads her thighs...

My girl has long blond hair,
It's in patches here and there...

She can't get out of bed
Still she can give me head...

She's got no arms or legs,
She's got two wooden pegs...

I'm always guaranteed a blow,
Because she can't say no...

She has no feet or hands,
Her head's connected with rubber bands...

She might not live the night,
That means she won't fight...

My girl lives in an iron lung,
But she can still give real good tongue...

My girl has leprosy,
Parts are always landing on top of me...

She had an episiotomy,
That's a bigger hole for me...

She can not hear, she can not see,
But she's got an oral cavity...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 11:07 PM

There are some verses in DigiTrad under "My Gal's A Corker"

Variants include "My gal's from Vassar, none cane surpass her"
and my favorite line is "She's got a movement like a two-dollar Ingersol"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: Metchosin
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 10:44 PM

come to think of it, I remember a verse we sang as

She's got a great big nose, just like a rubber hose,
Hot dog that's where my money go-o-oes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 10:11 PM

ABBY - thank you for a refreshing stroll down memory lane.

I had completly forgotten this one...and will now dash off to keyboard and clump it out.

Excellent addition. THANX!

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Girl's a Corker
From: Metchosin
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 10:06 PM

Wow! This was the first tune I learned to play on the piano when I was about 5 or 6,(and your right it was about 50 years ago) I'd forgotten all about it. Also learned I Love Coffee, I Love Tea around the same time. Sorry, all I remember is the verse about the battleships and the whiskey kegs.

Subject: ADD Version: My Girl's a Corker
From: Abby Sale
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 09:29 PM

MY GIRL'S A CORKER

My girl's a corker, she's a New Yorker
I buy her everything to keep her in style
She's got a pair of legs, just like two whiskey kegs
Hey boys, that's where my money goes-oes-oes

That's where my money goes, to buy my baby clothes
I buys her everything to keep her in style
She's worth her weight in gold, my coal black baby
Hey boys, that's where my money goes ...

When we go walkin', she does the talkin'
And when my arm's round her, how time does fly
She does the teasin', I do the sqeezin'
Hey boys,...

She's got a pair of eyes, just like two custard pies
And when she looks at me, I sure get a thrill
She's got a pair of lips, just like potato chips ...

She's got a pair of legs, just like two whiskey kegs
And when they knock together, oh what a sound
She's got a pair of hips, just like two battle ships

She's got a bulbous nose, just like a big red rose
And when the lights go out, it really does shine
She wears silk underwear, I wear my latest pair ...


In the closing years of the 19th century, John "Honey" Stromberg (1853-1902) gained fame as the composer for the Weber and Fields shows, staged at New York's Music Hall Theater. As a lad, he had taken music lessons with private tutors, and as a young man, he served as an arranger for Isidor Witmark's publishing house.

In 1895, when John was 42, Weber and Fields heard his song "My Best Girl's a New Yorker" or "My Best Girl's a Corker", (his own lyric). They engaged Stromberg to compose and direct for upcoming burlesques they were intending to produce in their own theater. Stromberg wrote the complete scores, and Edgar Smith was the principal lyricist.
(From American Popular Songs by David Ewen - also in Edward B. Marks collection: old time hits of the gay eighties--nineties.)

The song's kind of dumb but the tune's catchy. As a kid in the early 50's it seems all my friends knew a few verses. Still out there after 50 years. It just popped back into my head tonight. None of the verses or rhymes we sang were identical to the above. The tune was the same but the format was simpler than the above. We'd sing the burdon and a two-line rhyme for each verse:

My girl's a corker, she's a New Yorker
I buy her everything to keep her in style
She's got a pair of legs, just like two piano pegs
Hey boys, that's where my money goes

My girl's a corker, she's a New Yorker
I buy her everything to keep her in style
She's got a pair of thighs, just like ... ?
Hey boys, that's where my money goes

etc. But I cannot remember any more. If any remember any of the verses I used to sing, I'd appreciate it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: looking for words to 'My gal's a cork
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Dec 02 - 10:32 PM

The camp director I learned this song from, Ray Sonnenberg, was really old, probaby fifty or so; and we counselors were enlightened teenagers. Ray loved to sing this song for the campers, and we counselors stood around nervously when he did it.

The song still makes me uncomfortable, but it brings back good memories of Ray, who was like a father to me for five summers. Maybe you don't have to be "enlightened" to be a good person.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: looking for words to 'My gal's a corker,
From: Haruo
Date: 15 Dec 02 - 10:13 PM

Since it's in the 1954 (Dick & Beth Best) Song Fest, I'm really surprised I can't find "She told me so" either in the DT or the Forum. Anybody know where it's hiding or does it need to be Lyr Add ed?

Haruo