Come in the parlour, Charley
AKA | Come in the parlour, Charlie |
First Published | 1909 |
Writer/composer | Orlando Powell / JP Harrington | Roud | RN29962 |
Music Hall Performers | Florrie Forde |
Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Buckingham, Billy; England : Gloucestershire; 1979 |
Charley was one of the boys, you know, Charley was one of the best He loved a dear little thing in a skirt, awfully pert, Little Miss Burke One night he waited outside her house, her father was down on him In less than a second she said as she beckoned him into the doorway dim Come in the parlour Charlie, come in the parlour do Everybody is out tonight except myself and you When they opened the door, love, it rings the electric bell While as for the dear old sofa it squeaks but it never tells Charlie was fickle and proved untrue, Charlie was fickle sometimes She got her own back and she took him to court, action she brought, damages sought 'What did he say to you? What did he do?' The judge asked the blushing Miss She said 'Why the duffer, made my sofa suffer as soon as I murmured this: Chorus x2
Florrie Forde sang this song in the period before World War 1 – it was written by Orlando Powell and JP Harrington. It was recorded both by Forde and in a shortened form, by Harry Kenrick.
Billy Buckingham sang it for Gwilym Davies in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire in the late 1970s.
Harry Kenrick’s version:
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%3A29962
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: Transcribed from Harry Kenrick recording
- Glostrad site on Billy Buckingham