{"id":4446,"date":"2020-07-27T19:47:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T19:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=4446"},"modified":"2025-12-17T10:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:10:34","slug":"little-annie-rooney","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/little-annie-rooney\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Annie Rooney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Annie Body’s Rooney
Annie Rooney<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td> 1889<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>Michael Nolan<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>Michael Nolan\/George LeBrunn<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>4822<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Lottie Gilson
Michel Nolan
Vesta Tilley<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of<\/strong>
Howes, Ernest Albert 1880s Canada : Ontario
Atchison, Tex & his Lone Star Rangers 1934 USA
Swain, Alice \/ Frances Repetto; 1937-38 Tristan da Cunha
Short, Mrs. Lillian 1941 USA : Missouri
LeBarr, John 1957 Canada : Ontario
Breckon, Jack 1969 England : Yorkshire <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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As sung by Lottie Gilson and Michael Nolan<\/strong>\n\nA winning way a pleasant smile\nDress so neat but quite in style\nMerry chaff your time to while\nHas little Annie Rooney\nEvery evening rain or shine\nI make a call twixt eight and nine\nOn her who shortly will be mine\nLittle Annie Rooney.\n\nShe's my sweetheart, I'm her beau\nShe's my Annie, I'm her Joe\nSoon we'll marry, never to part\nLittle Annie Rooney is my sweetheart.<\/em>\n\nThe parlour's small but neat and clean\nAnd set with taste so seldom seen\nAnd you can bet the household queen\nIs little Annie Rooney\nThe fire burns cheerfully and bright\nAs a family circle round each night\nWe form, and everyone's a delight\nIs little Annie Rooney.\n\nWe've been engaged close on a year\nThe happy time is drawing near\nI'll wed the one I love so dear\nLittle Annie Rooney\nMy friends declare I am in jest\nUntil the time comes will not rest\nBut one who knows its value best\nIs little Annie Rooney.\n\nAs sung by Vesta Tilley (1st pub 1891, words George Dance):<\/strong>\n\nNow little Annie Rooney is the most loved one on the earth\nIn every clime and latitude they chant her peerless worth\nIn England she's at least a million lovers at her feet\nFor every other fellow warbles as he walks the street\n\nShe's my sweetheart, I'm her beau\nShe's my Annie, I'm her Joe\nSoon we'll marry, never to part\nLittle Annie Rooney is my sweetheart.<\/em>\n\nIn bonnie, bonnie Scotland she is worshipped everywhere\nFrom John o' groats to Glasgow Town her name floats in the air\nFor when each brawny Scotsman takes the liquor he likes best\nAnd drinks unto his lady love, this always is the toast\n\nShe's my lassie, I'm her chiel\nShe loves porridge, cakes and meal\nOn heath and heather our lives will pass\nAnnie McRooney is a braw wee lass.'<\/em>\n\nThe gallant Frenchman loves her too, and sounds her charms on high\nFrom cafe and from Boulevard her praises rend the sky\nSome scores of duels have been fought, and while one man lies dead\nHis rival halloes this refrain as he walks home to bed\n\n'She's ma cherie, I'm her beau\nShe's so charmant, comme il faut\nWe kiss and cuddle the whole day long\nLa petite ma'm'selle Rooney is bonne, bonne, bonne.'<\/em>\n\nOur heroine has sweethearts far across the rolling sea\nAnd 'mongst the suitors for her hand is found the bland Chine Fe\nWith thumbs upturned he trots about the streets the whole day long\nAnd like a porter staggers 'neath the burden of his song.\n\nShe's my chang chang, I'm her ching\nMe putty question, she buy ring\nChinaman love little girl, lots of cash\nLittle Annie Rooney am Chinaman's mash.'<\/em><\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sentimental ballads were popular in the Halls, though they were often parodied. Little Annie Rooney<\/em> was a big hit in the British Halls for the man who wrote it, Michael Nolan (a brief biography is given below). Within months of it first being sung, it was being parodied by the Vesta Tilley<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lottie Gilson (1869 \u2013 1912), a.k.a. The Little Magnet<\/em> popularised the song in the United States, where it went down a storm. Nolan was said to harbour a bitterness that he never profited from the song success in the States, due to the lack of international copyright laws at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The song was published in a number of broadsides in the UK, and a large range of songbooks\/songsters in the US and Canada: often appearing in collections of minstrel songs. The song  became a staple of North American traditional (and popular) singing and has been collected from singers across the US and Canada. It was in the repertoire of a number of early country singers including the Sons of the Pioneers<\/em>. It seems to have only been collected once in the UK and is difficult to say whether it might not be a song that has crossed back over from the States\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes sung using the name Annie Laurie (Laury), the subject of an older song from Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the United States and elsewhere, interest in the song may have been increased in 1925 after the success of the film Little Annie Rooney<\/em> and subsequent newspaper cartoon strip. These took the name from the song, but little else, telling the story of a mischievous tomboy and a multiracial gang of misfit kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Nolan<\/strong> (1869-1910), billed as The Prince of Irish Comedians<\/em>, was born in Ireland but by the age of 10 was a chorister at Bradford Catholic Cathedral. His professional career seems to have started at the Star Music Hall, Bradford in 1880 where he was taken under the wing of George Leybourne, the famous Lion Comique. Nolan performances combined comic songs and patter with more sentimental songs like Your eyes have told me so<\/em>. He was renowned for singing Irish ballads and had success in the UK and Ireland, and in his later years toured Australia and South Africa. He also wrote songs for himself and others: Little Annie Rooney<\/em> was his most famous song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another song written and performed by Nolan which has an impact on traditional singing is I whistle and wait for Katie<\/a> (Roud 37172)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little Annie Laurie<\/em>, from a Sons of the Pioneers<\/em> Radio show in the early 1950s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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