{"id":14412,"date":"2022-01-20T16:54:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T16:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=14412"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:28:15","slug":"and-her-golden-hair-was-hanging-down-her-back","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/and-her-golden-hair-was-hanging-down-her-back\/","title":{"rendered":"And her golden hair was hanging down her back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Her golden hair was hanging down her back<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1894<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Monroe H. Rosenfeld & Felix McGlennon <\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN21393<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Alice Leamar<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
unknown, in the Ken Stubbs field collection<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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UK Sheet Music version from monologues.co.uk<\/a><\/strong>\n\nThere was once a country maiden came to London for a trip\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nShe was weary of the country so she gave her folks the slip\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nIt was once a vivid auburn but her rivals called it red\nSo she thought she could be happier with another shade instead\nAnd she stole the washing soda and applied it to her head\nAnd her golden hair came streaming down her back.\n\nBut Oh Flo, such a change you know\nWhen she left the village she was shy\nBut alas and alack she\u2019d gone back\nWith a naughty little twinkle in her eye.<\/em>\n\nShe had a country accent and a captivating glance\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nShe wore some little diamonds that came from sunny France\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nShe wandered out in London for a breath of evening air\nAnd strayed into a palace that was fine and large and fair\nIt might be in a circus or it might be in a square\nBut her golden hair was hanging down her back.\n\nAnd London people were so nice to artless little Flo\u2019\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nThat she had been persuaded to appear in a tableau\nWhere her golden hair was hanging down her back\nShe posed beside a marble bath upon some marble stairs\nJust like a water nymph or an advertisement of Pears\nAnd if you ask me to describe the costume that she wears\nWell, her golden hair is hanging down her back.\n\nShe met a young philanthropist, a friend of Missus Chant\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\nHe lived in Peckham Rye with an extremely maiden aunt\nWho had not a hair a hanging down her back\nThe lady looked upon him in her fascinating way\nAnd what the consequences were I really cannot say\nBut when his worthy maiden aunt remarked his coat next day\nWell, some golden hairs were hanging down the back.\n\nVersion from US broadside<\/strong>\n\nThere was once a simple maiden, came to New York on a trip,\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\nHer cheeks were like the roses, she'd a pout upon her lip,\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\nWhen she landed at the station here she took a little stroll,\nAt everything she wondered, till she lost her self-control;\nSaid she, \"New York is quite a village, ain't. it? Bless my soul!\"\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\n\nBut, oh Jane! Doesn't look the same;\nWhen she left the village she was shy,\nBut alas! and alack! She's gone back\nWith a naughty little twinkle in her eye. <\/em>\n\nShe toddled down Broadway, a bashful smile upon\ther face,\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back;\t\nA bit of nice blue ribbon kept her ringlets in their place,\nFor her golden hair was hanging down her back.\t\nOf course, she knew her manners, she'd been taught to he polite;\nSo when a gent said \" Hem, good evening!\" she said \"Hem,good night!\"\nSaid she, \"I am a stranger here, I hope you'll treat me right.\"\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\n\nShe took his arm in confidence, she liked his pleasant ways, \nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back;\nAt all the damsels passing by she stared in great amaze, \nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\nShe told hint she was thirsty; 'Oh, all right,\" said he, \"good biz.\"\nHe took her to Delmonico's and treated her to fizz; \nSaid she, \" I think it's nicer than a glass of milk, it is.\" \nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\n\nThey drank until the artless man so very weary grew,\nAnd golden hair was hanging down her back:\nShe took his chain and ticker, and his diamond breastpin, too,\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back.\t \nThen silently she left him as he slumbered in a chair,\nInto the street site wandered with a very simple air \u2014\nShe would have carried off the stove if there had been one there,\nAnd her golden hair was hanging down her back\n\nNow, gentle folks, I warn you all to shun the simple maid, \nWhen her golden hair is batwing down her back;\nIf any such you run across just don't you be afraid, \nWhen her golden hair is hanging down her back.\nJust skip the gutter, cross the street, or take another lane,\nOr dodge the corner, take a cab, or catch a railway train:\nAnd as you're flying up the street just sing her this refrain:\n\"Oh, your golden hair is hanging down your back\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
First written as a song for the Halls and sung in Britain by Alice Leamar in early 1894, And her golden hair was hanging down her back<\/em> only really took off when a revised version was sung by Seymour Hicks in The Shop Girl <\/em>at The Gaiety theatre in London. The original version is usually credited to British songwriter Felix McGlennon (words) and American Monroe Rosenfield (music). The revisions for  the Shop Girl<\/em> version were made by Adrian Ross – the words given for the UK version above are almost identical to the Shop Girl <\/em>version<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some years later Seymour Hicks, who sang the song in The Shop Girl,<\/em> wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I was lucky enough to pick up a song in America called Her Golden Hair was hanging down her back<\/em> which materially assisted in establishing me at the Gaiety. It had been heard in England before I sang it, but had not succeeded ; nor should I have made it the furore it was if I had not seen a little sedate woman sing it at a music-hall in New York. She rendered it in a most reserved and quiet manner, her very gentleness making all the lines appear to have, if not a double entendre, at least the hope, or should I rather say the fear, that things did not quite mean what they seemed.<\/p>\nTwenty-four years of an Actor’s life (1910)<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
At least one contemporary source suggested the song had a much older origin:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall and Theatre Review – Friday 20 September 1895, p9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A recording or download of this song can be purchased from Windyridge CDs.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alice Leamar herself sings a snatch of it at a Royal variety performance in the 1930s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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