| AKA | The boy I love is up in the gallery |
| First published | 1885 |
| Lyrics | George Ware | Music | George Ware | Roud | RNV40136 |
| Music Hall performers | Jenny Hill Nelly Power Marie Lloyd |
| Folk performances |
I'm a young girl and have just come over Over from the country where they do things big And amongst the boys I've got a lover And since I've got a lover why I don't care a fig. The boy I love is up in the gallery The boy I love is looking down at me There he is, can't you see, waving of his handkerchief As happy as the Robin that sits in the tree. The boy that I love, they call him a cobbler But he's not a cobbler allow me to state For Johnny is a tradesman and he works in the Boro' Where they sole and heal them whilst you wait. Now if I were a duchess and had a lot of money I'd give it to the boy that's going to marry me But I haven't got a penny so we'll live on love and kisses And be just as happy as the birds in the tree.
George Ware (1829-1895) started out as a singer-songwriter in the Halls, but later made most of his money as an agent. Aside from The Boy I Love, he also wrote The House that Jack Built for Sam Cowell and The Whole Hog or None for EW Mackney. Richard Baker summarises his career before he became an agent:
In his younger days, Ware had been a singer too; before that, he was a sailor and for a time, a soldier, who entertained his barrack-room mates with ballads he had written himself. He made his first stage appearance in 1845 at Moy’s Music Hall, now the Victoria Palace, but it was not until the late 1850s that he made a name for himself as ‘the extraordinary three-voiced singer’ on account of his ability to sing alto, tenor and bass
Richard Baker: British Music Hall, p234
He originally sold the rights to sing The Boy I love to Nelly Power whilst he was acting as her agent, though at some point it featured in the repertoire of Jenny Hill. Ware later made the biggest discovery of his life when he heard a 15 year old Marie Lloyd singing it. He quickly signed her up, but made it clear that the song belonged to Nelly.
Marie Lloyd never had much problem in finding hit songs though! I have heard this song sung a number of times in singarounds and sessions, and its often described as a Marie Lloyd song, perhaps reflecting its presence in the plays, films and novels that have featured Lloyd over the years.
When folks sing this they tend to recognise it as a Music Hall Song, so it falls into the category “Classics” in my schema…
Sources:
- Lyrics monologues.co.uk
- Richard Baker British Music Hall
- Kilgarriff Sing us
A modern rendition:
Last Updated on August 31, 2021 by John Baxter | Published: February 23, 2020
