Fellow that looks like me, The.

Hunt's version
From Broadside ca1860?
 
I’m in a deal of trouble, yes!
The cause of it’s you see,
There’s some confounded fellow, who
The image is of me.
My Christian appellation’s “James”
The other fellow’s “Jim”
And they’re always taking him from me,
Or else taking me for him
 
But only let me catch him
By jingo if I catch him,
Oh shouldn’t I like to catch him,
That fellow that looks like me.

When out I’m often stopped and asked,
Some long account to pay,
And though I tell them I’m not him
They don’t care what I say,
Whilst walking with the girl I love,
Alas! I’d not gone far,
When a woman brings a babe to me,
And says ‘There! Kiss your Pa!’
 
SPOKEN: A splendid joke that, before ones affianced too, I said “Remove this infant immediately!” “Oh!” she says, “Don’t be cross Jim!
 
[Chorus]
 
I was out strolling the other day,
In peaceful frame of mind,
When I received to my dismay,
A terrible blow behind.
To see whom my assailant was,
Of course I soon turned round,
When my nose ran up against a fist,
And I went to the ground.
 
SPOKEN: To find an old gentleman in a towering passion saying “You rascal how dare you make love to my daughter,” Me? It’s not me! “It must be that other fellow Jim”
 
[Chorus]
 
Twas only yesterday I called,
To see my intended bride,
When oh! She told me such a tale.
I thought I should have died,
For when she opened the door she stared,
And as I gave her lips a smack,
Said she: “Why what has happened dear?”
and “What has brought you back?”
 
SPOKEN: “Brought me back love? Why I haven’t seen you for two whole days” – “You haven’t” says she “Well then someone the image of you’s been here kissing me” – that Jim again-
 
[Chorus]
 
Of course I’d like to marry, but
I really feel afraid,
For fear some very awkward kind of
Mistakes might be made.
I must linger in my misery,
Anxiety and woes,
Until this other fellow Jim
Turns up his wretched toes


As sung by Tony Pastor "to great applause" from a broadside ca1860-70
In sad despair I wander,
My heart is filled with woe,
When on my griefs I ponder,
What to do? I do not know;
For cruel fate does on me frown,
And the trouble seems to be,
There's another fellow in this ere town
That's just the image of me.

Oh! wouldn't I like to catch him,
Whoever he may be,
Oh! wouldn't I give him particular fits
That fellow who looks like me

With a lady fair I started,
To the Central Park to go,
But was stopped in the streets by a man,
Who said: Pay this bill you owe;
In vain I said, I know you not,
He wouldn't let me free
Till a crowd came round and the bill I paid,
For the fellow that looks like me. 

The other day--while walking
Through a narrow street up town,
I was seized by a man in a rage,
Who said: I've caught you Mr. Brown;
You know my daughter you have wronged,
Though this gal I never did see,
He beat me till I was black and blue,
For the fellow that looks like me.  

One evening I sat sparking
A girl as dear as life,
When a lady who had just dropped in,
Says: Brown how is your wife;
In vain I said I'm a single man,
Though married I wish to be,
They called me a swindler and kicked me out,
For the fellow that looks like me. 

Unto a ball one night I went,
And was just enjoying the sport,
When a Policeman grabbed me by the arm,
Saving: You're wanted down at court;
You're escaped me twice but this ere time,
I'll take care you shan't get free,
So I was arrested, and dragged to jail,
For the fellow that looks like me.

I was tried next day, found guilty, too,
And about to be taken down,
When another Policeman then brought in,
The right criminal, Mr. Brown;
They set me free and locked up him,
Oh! he was a sight to see,
The ugliest wretch that ever I saw,
Was the fellow that looked like me. 

The fellow that looked like me appears to refer to three distinct comic pieces performed in the Halls:

• a Music Hall song probably written in the early 1860s by GW Hunt – a prolific professional songwriter active 1860-90. A song that was popular at the time but seems to have largely disappeared.
• a song written in America, credited to John Poole, probably in the mid-to-late 1860s, that became very popular in American traditional music.
• a sketch performed on the Music Hall stage in the 1890s, that may or may not have included one or other of the two songs.

Hunt’s song, with the lyrics given above, was first printed in the British Isles in 1860 – according to the dating of a broadside held by the National Library of Scotland. It also appears in Pearson’s Original London and Provincial Champion Prize Song Book (New Series No.55) which according to information provided by Chetham’s Library is most likely of to have been published between 1860-65 and no later than 1866. There then seems to be a gap in its history.

It was not until October 1872 that I can find a first record of a song called The fellow that looks like me being performed in British Isles – it appears in the Glasgow Herald in October 1872 in a notice published by “Queen’s Minstrels” – a name used by one of the troupes at one time or another called the “Original Christy Minstrels“. A song of this title remained a feature of various Minstrel shows until end of century, though its never clear which version they sang and later references may also be to the sketch/play!

By October 1875, we can be certain that Hunt’s song had become part of Henri Clark‘s repertoire – he published a weekly series of notices in The Era announcing his “Songs of the Season”:

It may be the success of Clarke’s version that prompted its apparently first official publication as sheet music, in 1876 – a copy is held in the British Library.

Later references in British publications often described The fellow that looks like me as a “sketch” or a “farce”. This might be describing Hunt’s song with its combination of singing and spoken parts, but could be referring to something more substantial (see below).

The earliest reference I can find to a song called The fellow that looks like me being sung in America , is when the “Tony Pastor” version above was published in Hooley’s Opera House Songster (1864), but I’m not completely certain of this date. The earliest sheet music I can find for the American song is dated 1866 and gives JE Poole as author. Dwight’s Journal of Music, December 1867, advertises “The fellow that looks like me: song and chorus, published by Oliver Dixon and Co”. The same song appears in Tony Pastor’s Bowery Songster in 1867. By 1868 it was also in the repertoire of the American: William “The Great” Lingard, and appeared in his Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines : Songster. Lingard was an English entertainer who emigrated to America in 1868 and immediately became a huge success on the New York stage. In the late 1870s he toured England and Australia, but remained based in America.

All these publications give Tony Pastor’s Song/version or a close variant, and it is this song that has entered the tradition in America and Canada. They all seem to have Pastor’s chorus and start with something like “In sad despair”. In January 1888, the English local newspaper , the Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph, published an article recalling Lingard singing The fellow that looks like me when he toured in England, and it’s reasonable to assume this was the Pastor version.

If the dates in the above paragraphs are broadly correct (it’s difficult to be completely certain) then it is possible that the American version is derived in some way from the British one by Hunt. The words are substantially different, but the verse structure is very similar, and it’s possible that they were sung to the same tune (as yet I have not accessed the sheet music for Hunt’s version so I don’t know).

From 1875 on, multiple reports appear in local British newspapers of amateur performances of The fellow that look like me, but as we can be reasonably certain that both versions had been stung on the British stage by 1875, who knows which version they were singing!

To complicate things still further, a short play or sketch with the same title, performed at the Middlesex is described in The Era in 1899:

Later 19th references to The fellow that looks like me in The Era and other British newspapers may be referring to this sketch…

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Hunt’s song: from Ballads Online
• Broadside of Hunt’s song held at National library of Scotland
• Worldcat entry for Hunt’s song
• Tony Pastor’s version from KS Goldstein collection
• Sheet music for Pastor version (dated 1866): Levy collection
• Dwight’s journal
• http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/LH21.html

Harry Waugh sings the Pastor version in 1949:

Last Updated on February 24, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: September 27, 2020