Origins: I've Got Sixpence, Jolly, Jolly Sixpence

Subject: RE: Origins: I've Got Sixpence, Jolly, Jolly Sixpence
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Jul 20 - 06:53 PM

I had thought of singing this in the singaround last week...

Subject: RE: Origins: I've Got Sixpence, Jolly, Jolly Sixpence
From: Stevebury
Date: 18 Jul 20 - 02:11 PM

I learned the common version above (more or less the DT version) at camp and in Boy Scouts. (New England, 1950’s.) But my dad sang a different version which looks most closely related to the one Malcolm Smith cites above (June 2014). I’ll have to pull out The Dollymopps CD and check how close the tune is.

I don’t now whether my dad learned it in college, in the Army (WWII) or from his family.

I’ve got six pence, jolly, jolly sixpence,
I love sixpence as I love my life.
I spent a penny of it, I lent a penny of it,
I’ll send four pence home to my wife.

May the pipe and the bowl never leave us,
Kind friends may they never deceive us.
Happy is the one that shall greet us,
As we go rolling home.

Rolling, reeling, rolling, reeling, rolling home,
Reeling, rolling, reeling, rolling, reeling home.
Happy is the one that shall greet us,
As we go rolling home.

I’ve got four pence,   … etc.

-- Stevebury

Subject: RE: Origins: I've Got Sixpence, Jolly, Jolly Sixpence
From: GUEST,singdown
Date: 19 Sep 21 - 07:17 PM

I also learned the campers/counselors version posted by Mrrzy on 22 Dec 2010, although we sang “sassy” instead of silly.
But I originally learned it from my father who was in the US Navy in 1944. He sang “happy is the day when the sailors get their pay” and the refrain “Rolling home (dead drunk!)”.
Most importantly, the tune I learned both from my dad and repeated later at camp (in Michigan) was similar to, but noticeably different from the DT sheet music posted early in this thread. Everyone I know learned it the way I learned it but I have no way to post it. I haven’t seen that in print.