Moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin, The

Sheet Music published by B Feldman and Co (1916)

You've sung of the boys in blue.
You've sung of their girls so true.
You've marched to the strain
Of the well-known refrain
Of "Who's Your Lady Friend?" and "Tipperary" too.
Our Tommies so brave and strong
Have sung every kind of song,
But what is the lay
They're singing today
As they go marching along?

When the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His boots are cracking for want of blacking
And his little baggy trousers they want mending
Before we send him to the Dardanelles

Some day there will come the time
To wind up "The Watch on the Rhine"
And Tommy and Jack
Will come marching back
And take a cup for the sake of Auld Lang Syne,
But ere that happy day,
The Germans have got to pay.
When we march in
To capture Berlin,
We'll sing them this little lay

Oldham Tinkers version
And the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His boots are cracking for t' want of blacking
And his old fusty coat is wanting mending
Until they send him to the Dardanelles

Charlie Chaplin had no sense.
He bought a fiddle for eighteen pence.
The only tune that he could play
Was Ta-ra-ra-boom-di-ay.

Charlie Chaplin, meek and mild, 
Swiped a sausage from a child
When the child began to cry, 
Charlie socked him in the eye

Charlie Chaplin went to France 
To teach the ladies how to dance
First your heel and then your toe; 
Lift up your skirts and 'round you go

Charlie Charlie Chuck Chuck Chuck
Went to bed with three white ducks.
One died. Charlie cried.
Charlie Charlie Chuck Chuck Chuck.

One, two three, a lera,
I saw my auntie Sarah
Standing at the door, a lera
Kissing Charlie Chaplin.

The chorus of this song was sung by British troops in World War 1 and it was reprised in the great 1969 film and the earlier stage musical, Oh! What a Lovely War. The chorus has been remembered and sung by traditional singers throughout the English-speaking world….

The earliest reports I can find, starting with one in the Daily News, 15 November 1915, suggest that the song was being whistled and sung by just about everyone and that it had come originally from children on the streets of London. The reports recognised the tune as belonging to an earlier Music Hall hit, Red Wing. On 28 November a story appeared in Reynolds’s Newspaper suggesting the song had been written by the 12 year-old son of a soldier, Edward Stanning, commenting:

It came along when no one was looking… it caught on right away:

The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin
His boots are cracking for want of blacking
And his little baggy trousers they want mending
Before we send him to the Dardanelles

… All London and the provinces, as well as our soldiers in the trenches and our sailors on the sea are now gaily humming [it].… but it was not until it was in everybody’s mouth … that questions were asked as to the authorship … Miss Lily Lena, the popular comedienne ran the real author to earth.

He is Edward Stanning, a lad of 12, whose father is [fighting] in the Dardanelles… He dressed himself in his father’s old clothes and shuffled about in the style of our old friend Charlie [singing] “The moon shines bright ..”

Reynolds’ Newspaper, 28 Nov 1915.

The newspaper article goes on to suggest that Lily Lena tried to arrange for the boy to perform the song on stage at the Chiswick Empire, even gaining permission from the music copyright holders (Feldman’s) for him to do so. The article goes on to suggest that as an unlicensed child performer, Stanning was not allowed on the stage, and so as not to disappoint the boy, Lily Lena had sung the song herself whilst the boy joined in from the balcony. The article ends with the news that Feldman’s had produced a new arrangement which would be printed in a future edition of Reynolds’ Newspaper. This was all excellent publicity for the publishers and newspaper…. and the attribution of the lyrics to a named individual meant Feldman’s could claim copyright , so its difficult not to be suspicious about the truth or otherwise of the claims.

Whatever their origin, the lines quoted by Reynolds’ Newspaper are a close parody on the original chorus of Red Wing:

Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
The breeze is sighing, the night bird’s crying,
For afar ‘neath his star her brave is sleeping,
While Red Wing’s weeping her heart away.

Whether the short ditty emerged from street children or soldiers in the trenches, it had to be tidied up before music publishers could make any money from it. This is exactly what Feldman did, adding a couple of non-descript verses to the catchy chorus.

This sheet music shown here associates the song with the performer Lillie Soutter but Feldman’s advertising initially stated it was sung by Lily Lena, before eventually suggesting it was being sung by “everybody”. Contemporary reports suggest this was not far from the truth – it was in virtually every pantomime of the 1915/16 season.

Whilst contemporary reports suggest the song emerged spontaneously out of youthful adoration (Daily News 12 Nov 1915), others felt it reflected bad feeling over his suggested lack of patriotism – Chaplin certainly felt threatened and is quoted as saying: I really thought they were coming to get me. It scared the daylights out of me

Feldman’s version sung by unknown recording artist:

The Oldham Tinkers took the chorus and added a selection of other children’s rhymes – making a far better song I think:

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A10558
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Feldman Lyrics and Sheet Music: Silent Film Sound and Music Archive also in Reynold’s Newspaper, Dec 19, 1915, p11
• Oldham Tinker’s lyrics: OldhamTinkers.Com
• Ballad Index entry
• Mudcat Thread
• For Chaplin’s response see Kevin Brownlow, Chaplin and World War I
• https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Red_Wing

Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: March 13, 2023