Silver Bell

AKA
First Published 1910
Writer/composer Edward Madden / Percy Weinrich Roud RN24627

Music Hall Performers Gertie Gitana
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Hibbler, Miss Charlotte; USA : Pennsylvania : 1928
Carmack, Effie; USA : California : 1951
Woods, Eula; USA : Arkansas : 1960
Janzen, Mrs. Otto; USA : Arkansas : 1962 

Beneath the light of a bright starry night
Sang a lonely little Indian maid:
“No lover’s sweet serenade
Has ever won me.”
As in a dream, it would seem, down the stream,
Gaily paddling his tiny canoe,
A chieftain longing to woo
Sang her this song:

“Your voice is ringing, my Silver Bell,
Under it’s spell
I’ve come to tell you of the love I am bringing
O’er hill and dell,
Happy we’ll dwell, my Silver Bell.”

For many moons, many spoons, many tunes
Woke the echoes of the still Summer night,
As down the stream gleaming bright
They floated dreaming.
In his canoe, only two, sat to woo,
And they listened to the sigh of the breeze,
That seemed to sing in the trees
This sweet refrain:

A popular Tin Pan Alley song published in 1910. The words were written by by Edward Madden, who was responsible for a number of extremely popular songs, not least By the light of the silvery moon. It was one of a number of songs in that period which drew on romanticised racial stereotype of Native Americans. The song was imported from the States and became a key part of the repertoire of former child star Gertie Gitana in the British Music Halls. In America it was adopted by bluegrass players, and was also collected from several traditional singers in the Appalachians. It doesn’t seem to have entered the traditional repertoire in the British Isles or Ireland.

As sung by Gertie Gitana:

An instrumental version by Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys:

Sources: