Hold out your pudding for jam

Lyrics

Jason

Music

Locke

Roud Index

V53402

Though happy days are here again; it's hard to raise a cheer.
The cupboard's bare; there's nothing there but half a pint of beer.
Bend your backs and pay your tax and smile; you're bound to do.
Think of that old saying mother used to bawl at you.

Let us have the happy days when mother used to say:
"Hold out your pudding for jam; you've been a good boy today."
Let us have the happy days when we were bright and gay,
And hold out your pudding for jam; you've been a good boy today.

 We don't want jam tomorrow for we might be dead, you know,
 Stone cold, under the mould, making the daisies grow.
 Oh, life's to short to miss the sport so now's the time to say:
 Hold out your pudding for jam; you've been a good boy today.

 Happy days are again. Oh, what a jolly lark!
We've got no pennies for the gas, we're whistling in the dark.
 We’d put our worries through the mangle and be quite content.
 But we haven't got a mangle; it was sold to pay the rent.

 
 Some get all the sweets of life; I'm sure I don't know why.
 Others get a smack in the blinking eye.
 But duff's the stuff when things are rough to drive the blues away,
 So hold out your pudding for jam; you've been a good boy today.

 Gooseberry or strawberry, we like it nice and thick.
 Plum and apple, give us a spoon to lick.
 Raspberry can be very nice when done a certain way,
 So hold out your pudding for jam; you've been a good boy today. 
              

Not related to any folk song I know - just here because I like it ..
"Take a cup and half of sunbeam, Pour it into a Deep blue sky, Add a couple of drops of love dreams, and make yourself a happiness pie" 
"Put your worries through the mangle like mother did on washing day"
"Happy days are here again"..
The depression years seemed to spawn a series of popular songs about "keeping your pecker up". Lesley Sarony is either adding another to the list, or perhaps kicking back... 

Sources:

Lyrics Transcribed from John Wright’s 78 RPM Record Collection by Bill Huntley -September 2013:

Lesley S sings it:

Last Updated on May 8, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: December 7, 2019