{"id":3538,"date":"2020-06-08T19:09:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T19:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=3538"},"modified":"2020-10-22T14:51:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T14:51:21","slug":"awfully-jolly","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/awfully-jolly\/","title":{"rendered":"Awfully Jolly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The Christmas party<\/td><\/tr>
First published<\/td>1868<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>Harry Clifton<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td> Harry Clifton<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN24480<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Harry Clifton<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td> Source Singers<\/strong>
Submitted as words to “old song” for “Sprite’s Article”, Eastern Evening News (25 Sep 1929), Norfolk England<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I sat in my chamber one cold Christmas Eve,\nA bachelor wretched and dreary,\nA friend of mine bearing the name of Jack Reeve,\nCall'd on me with greeting so cheery;\n'Old fellow, it's Christmas, so shake off that frown,\nYou certainly look melancholy,\nPack up, I've an invite from friends out of town,\nAnd I know 'twill be awfully Jolly!'\n\nIt's a poor heart that never can rejoice they say,\nAnd fretting is nothing but folly,\nAs Christmas it doesn't come ev'ry day,\nWe'll try to be ' awfully Jolly !'<\/em>\n\nJack call'd a Hansom\u2014-we started direct,\nFull speed to the Paddington station,\nAnd met with a misshap we didn't expect,\nAnd not to our gratification;\nThe horse it fell down and over its back\nI was thrown, and Jack roar'd frantically,\nAs I rose from the gutter, all cover'd with black,\n\"Old boy, you look Awfully Jolly.\"\n\nArriv'd at our friends in the country, we found,\nThere were visitors there by the dozen,\nThe Smiths and the Whites, the Joneses and Browns,\nAnd many a country cousin.\nSuch a bevy of girls--with beautiful curls,\nTo flirt with beneath the green holly,\nAnd kisses bestow 'neath the bright mistletoe,\nSays Jack, \" This is Awfully Jolly.\"\n\nBut really and truly the 'cream of the fun,'\nTo you I will now be relating,\nWas when old Major Johnson who weighs sixteen stone,\nInsisted on going out skating.\nThe ice being thin the old fellow slipp'd in,\nWhich made us at first melancholy,\nBut the sight that he look'd-\u2014as Jack with a hook,\nFish'd him out\u2014-it was \" Awfully Jolly.\"\n\nThe mistletoe soon was brought into the room,\nAnd oh! what a laugh and a giggle,\nWhen jolly old Sprig, who wore a brown wig,\nInsisted on kissing Miss Maggie;\nA sour old miss-\u2014so prim and so staid\u2014-\nWho frown'd on such innocent folly,\nIn the struggle, the old fellow's wig it came off,\nAnd of course he look'd ' Awfully Jolly.\"\n\nThus merry and gay, a week soon pass'd away.\nWe wish'd it had lasted much longer,\nFor Jack he declar'd, as to town we repair'd,\nIt made him feel seventy years younger;\nSo may ev'ry one here spend, a happy new year,\nAnd with fun drive away melancholy,\nAnd dull care defeat\u2014-until we next meet,\nAgain to be ' Awfully Jolly.\"<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A less well-known Harry Clifton<\/a> song which appeared in only one 19th-century songster listed in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library. It appears in a local newspaper article of 1929, so clearly someone remembered it. However we don’t have strong evidence that it was sung at the time, so whilst this is a borderline case, I suggest it should not be classed as a song which has “become traditional”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n