{"id":14254,"date":"2022-01-13T16:48:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T16:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=14254"},"modified":"2022-01-13T16:55:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T16:55:12","slug":"oui-tray-bong","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/oui-tray-bong\/","title":{"rendered":"Oui! Tray Bong!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Tres Bien<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1893<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Norton Atkins<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN000<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Charles Chaplain Snr<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>None?<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Oui! Tray Bong! : or my Pal Jones \/ written & composed by Norton Atkins ; arranged by John S. Baker; Sung by Charles Chaplin\n\nJones and I, with two good boys, Tom and Harry\nHave returned from a visit to Gay Paree\nWe thought we would see the sites of it,\nBut we've made some fair old nights of it,\nStill I can assure you we've enjoyed ourselves immense:\nI say boys!,,,\n\nThrough the streets we marched along<\/em>\nShouting every comic song<\/em>\nHip hurray let's be gay!\nBoom diddy ay, Ta-ra-ra!\nTo each little Frenchy dove\nStanding drinks and making love\nWe fairly mashed the ladies with our\nOui! Tray Bong!<\/em>\n\nMy pal Jones said, \"Let's bite a bit of something\"\nOff we went to get some grub, but what a rum thing;\nClearly there had been a blunder done\u2014\nThey had brought us horseflesh underdone!\nThen Jones seized the dish and slung it at the waiter's head.\nAnd once more \u2014\n\nSome young girls to us started parley vooing,\nI could see plainly there was mischief brewing ;\nOne of them commenced a-hugging me,\nTo her residence was tugging me,\nBut I said, \"I'll see you blowed first, I'm a bashful man.\"\nTa-ra-ra!\n \nMy pal Jones, full of cognac, started prancing,\nThen said he, \"Let's go and see the ladies dancing.\"\nTo this place we'd never been before, \nAnd such sights I'd never seen before;\nWell, you'll understand me when I say it made me blush.\nOh, Great Scott!\n<\/em>\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Not to be confused with an earlier song from 1886 which has been found several times in cheap street literature: Tres Bien<\/em> (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<\/em>, and the chorus was: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tray Bong! Tray Bong! Tray Bong! Tray Bong!\nThat's what this French girl said all along\nWhatever did I could never do wrong,\nShe only said Tray Bong! Tray Bong!<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0Felix McGlennon<\/a> Only one of his songs seems to have passed into traditional singing: Oh! What a difference in the morning<\/a>. 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 Sept. 3, 1897; Daily Mail <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n