{"id":2304,"date":"2020-04-17T22:11:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T22:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=2304"},"modified":"2025-12-14T10:03:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T10:03:32","slug":"if-you-were-the-only-girl-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/if-you-were-the-only-girl-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"If you were the only girl in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>First published<\/td><td>1916<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Lyrics<\/strong><\/td><td>&nbsp;<strong>Clifford Grey<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/td><td><strong>Music<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Nat D. Aye<\/strong>r<\/td><td><strong>Roud<\/strong><\/td><td>RN25963<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Music Hall performers<\/strong><\/td><td>George Robey and Violet Lorraine (duet) 1916<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Folk performances<\/strong><\/td><td>Hall, Mabs 1989  England: Sussex<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Sometimes, when I feel bad and things look blue\nI wish, a girl I had, say one like you...\nSomeone, within my heart to build her throne\nSomeone, who'd never part, to call my own\nI'll try, a love to teach, dear, fond and true\nI sigh, a world to reach, dear, just made for me and you\n\n<em>If I were the only girl in the world\nAnd you were the only boy\nNothing else would matter in the world today\nWe could go on loving in the same old way\nA Garden of Eden just made for two\nWith nothing to mar our joy\nI would say such wonderful things to you\nThere would be such wonderful things to do\nIf I were the only girl in the world\nAnd you were the only boy.<\/em>\n\nNo one, I'll ever care for, dear, but you\nNo one, I'll fancy, therefore love me do\nYour eyes, have set me dreaming all night long\nYour eyes, have set me scheming, right or wrong\nAll days, we'll be together, side by side\nAlways, in any weather, whatever else betide,\n\n<em>If I were the only girl in the world\nAnd you were the only boy\nNothing else would matter in the world today\nWe could go on loving in the same old way\nA Garden of Eden just made for two\nWith nothing to mar our joy\nI would say such wonderful things to you\nThere would be such wonderful things to do\nIf I were the only girl in the world\nAnd you were the only boy.<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like <em><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/song-page\/\">Another little drink <\/a><\/em>the song was sung as part of a hugely successful review at the Alhambra Theatre in London in 1916:&nbsp;<em>The Bing Boys are Here<\/em>&nbsp;(soon to be followed by the equally successful&nbsp;<em>Bing Boys on Broadway<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Bing Girls are There<\/em>). The initial production followed the adventures of wide-eyed boys from the provinces, Oliver and Lucifer Bing, in London, played by George Robey and Alfred Lester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not aware of this song being taken up by many traditional singers, but Roy Palmer did record <a href=\"http:\/\/sounds.bl.uk\/World-and-traditional-music\/Roy-Palmer-collection\/025M-C1023X0101XX-1000V0\">Mabs Hall singing it in 1989<\/a>. Nevertheless, a song can still heard in many public singarounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Violet Lorraine<\/strong> (1887-1956) was an actress and singer who appeared in the Halls, theatrical revues and musicals. She made her stage debut in the pantomime <em>Mother Goose<\/em> at Drury Lane in 1902, and for many years was a highly successful principal boy in pantomime. She married and retired from the stage in 1921, but subsequently made a number of &#8220;comeback&#8221; appearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How it sounded originally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"George Robey and Violet Loraine - If You Were the Only Girl in the World (1916)\" width=\"840\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lAPeGQ3lEkg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A recording or download of this song can be purchased from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musichallcds.co.uk\/cdr64_page.htm\">Windyridge CDs.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lyrics: <a href=\"http:\/\/monologues.co.uk\/musichall\/Songs-I\/If-You-Were-The-Only-Girl.htm\">monologues.co.uk<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kilgarriff: <em>Sing us<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-page pdfprnt-bottom-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2304?print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/folksongandmusichall.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png?w=840\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First published 1916 Lyrics &nbsp;Clifford Grey&nbsp; Music Nat D. Ayer Roud RN25963 Music Hall performers George Robey and Violet Lorraine (duet) 1916 Folk performances Hall, Mabs 1989 England: Sussex Sometimes, when I feel bad and things look blue I wish, a girl I had, say one like you&#8230; Someone, within my heart to build her &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/if-you-were-the-only-girl-in-the-world\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;If you were the only girl in the world&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2304","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-classics","category-songs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>If you were the only girl in the world - FOLK SONG AND MUSIC HALL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/if-you-were-the-only-girl-in-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If you were the only girl in the world - FOLK SONG AND MUSIC HALL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First published 1916 Lyrics &nbsp;Clifford Grey&nbsp; Music Nat D. 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