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Origins: Sweet Forget Me Not (Bobby Newcomb, 1877)

28 Jan 99 - 03:53 PM (#56138)
Subject: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: schmuze (inactive)

Help I need the words to this by next week, that is committed to memory with chords and harmony all sorted out!! I heard Dolores Keane sing it with De Dannan, but I don't have the album or even remember which one it's on, help me Mudcatters!!!

28 Jan 99 - 04:26 PM (#56151)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: Joe Offer

Hi, schmuze - the database is back up, and you can find it by putting forget me not in the search box. Or, you can be lazy and click here. I hope that's the song you're looking for. If not, come back to this thread and give us more information.
-Joe Offer-

28 Jan 99 - 04:28 PM (#56152)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: Tiger

Hi, schmuze.....

I'm after this one, too. Pretty song.

I do know it's on the "Ballroom" album and there are sound clips available from the major on-line CD sellers.

I first heard a bit of it on "A Celtic Sojourn", liked it so much I called the station and got them to check the playlist to find out the name.

I hope someone comes up with the words, but I'm gonna get the CD anyway.

.....Tiger

28 Jan 99 - 04:33 PM (#56155)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: Tiger

That's it, Joe. Thanks

28 Jan 99 - 05:21 PM (#56162)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: Dale Rose

The notes to Ballroom properly attribute the origin of the song.

Dolores learnt this song some years ago in Newfoundland, where it's so popular it's almost a second national anthem. In fact, it is an American song, collected in the late nineteenth century in Ohio, but it has only survived in oral tradition in Newfoundland.

To be more specific, it was copyrighted in Cincinnati in 1877, with words and music by Bobby Newcomb. Whether it was a reworking or an original by Newcomb, I don't know.

Good album, Tiger, you can't go wrong with it.

28 Jan 99 - 06:22 PM (#56168)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: Tim Jaques tjaques@netcom.ca

Ryan's Fancy from eastern Canada also recorded a version.

19 Jul 04 - 06:12 PM (#1229291)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

It's really funny that the Search can't find this thread when looking as Sweet Forget Me Not, but it will find it when I look for the words "Bobby Newcomb".

Anyway, the Sheet Music can be found in the Library of Congress

Sweet Forget-Me-Not

19 Jul 04 - 06:32 PM (#1229312)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: GUEST,Dale

In addition to the before mentioned recordings by De Dannan/Dolores Keane and Ryan's Fancy, you might look for versions by Eddie Coffey and A. Frank Willis, two more Newfoundland performers.

19 Jul 04 - 07:05 PM (#1229348)
Subject: Lyr Add: SWEET FORGET-ME-NOT (Bobby Newcomb)
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

The words in the DT are slightly different than what is found in the sheet music from 1877. The amazing thing is how much of it is the same!

Sweet Forget-Me-Not
Words and Music by Bobby Newcomb, Ohio, 1877

SWEET FORGET-ME-NOT
(Bobby Newcomb)

Oh fancy brings a thought to me,
Of flowers sweet and rare,
With grace and beauty there combined
And brightest hues so fair,
So like a maiden that I loved,
I was my happy lot,
I whispered where we party last,
Oh, you'll forget me not.
 
Chorus
Graceful and as charming
as a lily in the pond
Time has passed so swiftly for
of her I am so fond
Daisies and the roses too,
they grow around the spot,
Where we parted and I whispered
"You'll forget me not"
 
We met I really don't know where,
But still 'tis all the same,
For love walks in the busy streets
As well as in the lane.
I gently pressed her tiny hand,
She glanced at me a shot,
She dropped a flower, I picked it up,
A sweet forget me not.
 
At last there came a happy day,
And something that I said,
Just caused her lips to murmur, yes,
And shortly we were wed.
A little garden by the brook,
And a tiny garden spot,
Where grows a little flower called
A sweet forget me not.		 THE SWEET FORGET-ME-NOT
(DT Lyrics)

Fancy brings a thought to mind
Of a flower that's bright and fair
Its grace and beauty both combine
A brighter jewel more rare
Just like a maiden that I know
Who shared my happy lot
She whispered when we parted last
"Oh, you'll forget me not"

She's graceful and she's charming
Like the lily in the pond
Time is flying swiftly by
Of her I am so fond
The roses and the daisies
Are blooming 'round the spot
Where we parted, when she whispered
"You'll forget me not"

We met, I really don't know where
But still it's just the same
For love grows in the city streets
As well as in the lane
I gently clasped her tiny hand
One glance at me she shot
She dropped her flower, I picked it up
'Twas the sweet forget-me-not

And then there came a happy time
When something that I said
Caused her lips to murmur "Yes"
And shortly we were wed
There is a cott' down in the land
And a tiny plot
Where grows a flower, I know it well
It's the sweet forget-me-not.

19 Jul 04 - 08:44 PM (#1229410)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: kendall

Ian Robb also recorded it

20 Jul 04 - 01:51 PM (#1229998)
Subject: RE: Sweet Forget Me Not, Lyrics please
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

Ian's name is the one shown in the DT's file.

It is certainly interesting that this lovely song from Ohio does NOT survive in the states, but is still sung in Newfoundland, about 2000 miles away!

17 Aug 05 - 02:54 PM (#1544224)
Subject: Sweet-Forget-Me-Not
From: GUEST,fobyrne@nl.rogers.com

This song is listed as a traditional song in the lyric's pages. It was in fact, written and published by a Booby Newcomb from Cincinnati.

History: "composed in 1877 by Bobby Newcomb of Cincinnati who published it in sheet music as a "Song with Waltz Chorus." It appeared in a late 19th century "Irish Songster" published in the United States. By the middle years of the twentieth century it was in oral tradition in Newfoundland. It was particularly popular in the St. Mary's Bay area. In the 1970s a hit recording of it by Branch native Eddie Coffey gave it even more popularity" (Rosenberg in West 1: 56).

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/leach/songs/NFLD1/1A-3.htm

17 Aug 05 - 03:10 PM (#1544235)
Subject: RE: Sweet-Forget-Me-Not
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Link to website given above; collections, Leach:
Sweet Forget-Me-Not

17 Aug 05 - 06:18 PM (#1544352)
Subject: RE: Sweet-Forget-Me-Not
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

fobyrne, you should check the information in the Forum as well. We'd already covered that information

Sweet Forget Me Not in Forum

PLEASE check the forum as information quite often is already here.

18 Aug 05 - 11:52 AM (#1544928)
Subject: RE: Sweet-Forget-Me-Not
From: R. Padgett

It is interesting how songs get about

I have a lovely cassette recording of the late Tom Brown and Bertha (Bertha still alive) singing this together UK living in Worksop, but originally a traditional singer from Norfolk!

Some years ago now