Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy

Subject: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: MMario
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 09:00 AM

this is a query from a friend:

I am looking for the name and a possible recording of
a song that I only know as being from the Victorian
era with a chorus that goes something like this....

"Shy, shy, shy, shy
Oh I'm so dreadfully shy
Shy, shy, shy, shy
I can not look a girl in the eye
For I'm so dreadfully shy"anyone recognise it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 06:57 PM

George Withers sings a song with the words "I be terrible shy...", but I'll have to check the rest of the words to see if there's any relation to the requested lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 01:35 AM

Shy, shy, dreadfully shy, I expect: a music hall song associated with George Leybourne, who is perhaps best remembered for Champagne Charlie and The [Man on the] Flying Trapeze, which he wrote with Albert Lee.

At Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Shy! shy dreadfully shy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 05:07 AM

"I'm shy Mary Ellen I'm shy" was a big music hall hit. The BBC TV show "Black & White Minstrels" used to do it.

Can't give any more help at the moment, the memeory is not consistent -

Parody Error! Squawk!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 04:26 PM

Search quirk alert- shy, shy or dreadfully shy doesn't work. Has to be shy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 07:08 PM

Is it this one? I'm Shy, Mary Ellen

Subject: Lyr Add: SHY! SHY!! DREADFULLY SHY! (from Bodleian
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Dec 04 - 02:46 PM

From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, 2806 c.16(172) and Harding B 11(3776).

SHY! SHY!! DREADFULLY SHY!
------------------------------------
T. Pearson, Printer,
4 & 6. Chadderton St., Oldham Road,
Manchester
------------------------------------
Sung by George Leybourne.
Music at Hopwood and Crew's, London.
[between 1850 and 1899]

Had I been a monk or a hermit that dwelt
In a cave where the world could not see,
I then might be quiet, collected, and cool;
But fate has not will'd it to be.
I'm thrown on the world with its troubles and trials.
To avoid them I ev'ry day try.
I'm nervous, fidgety, very reserved.
In fact, I'm most awfully shy.
I can't look a girl in the face but I blush,
For I feel most awfully shy.

CHORUS: Shy, shy, shy, shy,
Oh! I'm shy—dreadfully shy.
Shy, shy, shy, shy,
I can't pass a stay shop, because I'm so shy.

Some people go to the theatre each night
To see actresses dress'd "comme il faut,"
But I never will cast my eyes on the stage,
Unless the footlights they're put low.
There's the ballet girls too, so graceful to view.
To see them is stretched ev'ry eye.
To some this is good, but 'tis not to me,
For I feel most awfully shy.
Ballet girls' movements are all very well,
But I feel so wretchedly shy.

CHORUS: Shy, shy, shy, shy,
Oh! I'm shy—dreadfully shy.
Shy, shy, shy, shy,
I would if I could, but I can't, I'm so shy.

For all I'm so shy, I once fell in love;
To my sweetheart no question could pop;
For hours I would sit by my loved one and say
Nothing! and then I would stop.
She put the question. I blushing said "yes,"
Got married, felt I should die;
To think of the future, tears came to my eyes.
I felt so terribly shy.
Yes, to think of the future, tears came to my eyes,
For I felt so uncommonly shy.

CHORUS: Shy, shy, shy, shy,
Oh! I'm shy—dreadfully shy.
Shy, shy, shy, shy,
When I put on the ring, I was awfully shy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 16 Feb 09 - 06:47 AM

I swing the bells louder
till my ears go quite deaf
and the pigeons and pilgrims
act decidedly rough
but I can't date Esmeralda,
for all that I try
because, like coconuts, I'm immovably shy -
I'm just so dreadfully shy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Shy x3
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 03:14 PM

Hey..fresh from Xmas..

Charles Dickins' A Christmas Carol..

This is called 'Topper's Song' from the UK TV Soundtrack..u can get it on Amazon.

My sis, her kids and her hubby..we love this one. Very funny. And somehow...true..

Llewellyn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 10:08 AM

It's a song called Topper's Song and available on the CD soundtrack of A Christmas Carol. The with Scrooge played by Patrick Stewart.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Brian McInnis
Date: 01 Aug 12 - 03:08 PM

What was a stay shop?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Aug 12 - 03:16 PM

Stays were a type of corset made of whalebone and laced tightly all down the back and front. One bought a 'pair of stays' because it came in two sections. The shy man felt embarrassed even going past these corset shops, as they probably had some of their wares on display in the window.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Brian McInnis
Date: 01 Aug 12 - 03:28 PM

Arigato, Eliza.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shy Shy Dreadfully Shy
From: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
Date: 02 Aug 12 - 09:18 AM

The Electropathics used to do a song called "Very Shy" ...

Batteries Not Included

... track 2.