Oui! Tray Bong!

AKA Tres Bien
First Published 1893
Writer/composer Norton Atkins Roud RN000

Music Hall Performers Charles Chaplain Snr
Folk performances None? 

Oui! Tray Bong! : or my Pal Jones / written & composed by Norton Atkins ; arranged by John S. Baker; Sung by Charles Chaplin

Jones and I, with two good boys, Tom and Harry
Have returned from a visit to Gay Paree
We thought we would see the sites of it,
But we've made some fair old nights of it,
Still I can assure you we've enjoyed ourselves immense:
I say boys!,,,

Through the streets we marched along
Shouting every comic song
Hip hurray let's be gay!
Boom diddy ay, Ta-ra-ra!
To each little Frenchy dove
Standing drinks and making love
We fairly mashed the ladies with our
Oui! Tray Bong!

My pal Jones said, "Let's bite a bit of something"
Off we went to get some grub, but what a rum thing;
Clearly there had been a blunder done—
They had brought us horseflesh underdone!
Then Jones seized the dish and slung it at the waiter's head.
And once more —

Some young girls to us started parley vooing,
I could see plainly there was mischief brewing ;
One of them commenced a-hugging me,
To her residence was tugging me,
But I said, "I'll see you blowed first, I'm a bashful man."
Ta-ra-ra!
 
My pal Jones, full of cognac, started prancing,
Then said he, "Let's go and see the ladies dancing."
To this place we'd never been before, 
And such sights I'd never seen before;
Well, you'll understand me when I say it made me blush.
Oh, Great Scott!

A big hit in the Halls for the debonair comic, Charles Chaplain Snr, father of Charlie Chaplin. It was written and composed by Norton Atkins (see brief biography below). As far as I know not a song which has passed into traditional singing.

Not to be confused with an earlier song from 1886 which has been found several times in cheap street literature: Tres Bien (RNV15622).The 1886 song was written and composed by WH Phillips and performed by Lizzie Vallrose, its first line was: Last summer time I went away, and the chorus was: 

Tray Bong! Tray Bong! Tray Bong! Tray Bong!
That's what this French girl said all along
Whatever did I could never do wrong,
She only said Tray Bong! Tray Bong!

The Charles Chaplin Snr song was written by the prolific Norton Atkins, and I’ve constructed a brief biography of him from Victorian newspapers sources:

Norton Atkins (real name: Ernest Wragg, 1862-1902) was a prolific songwriter in the 1890s, producing hundreds songs for the British Halls. He often worked in collaboration with Felix McGlennon Only one of his songs seems to have passed into traditional singing: Oh! What a difference in the morning. Towards the end of his career he seemed to suffer from financial difficulties, and this report from the Daily Mail makes it clear that the system was still very brutal at this late stage in the 19th-century.

Document image of Spoiling the Harmony. On-screen plain text may be available through the Tab Panel View options. If available, please select "View plain text."
 Sept. 3, 1897; Daily Mail 

Sources: