Leybourne, George

not quite completed…

George Leybourne (1842-1884) was born in Gateshead in 1842 and started his working life as an engineer working only part time in the Halls. He rose to fame as the original Lion Comique – larger than life Music Hall comics who mocked upper class “swells”. He made some very early appearances in the 1860s under the name Joe Saunders , when he met the pianist Alfred Lee . In his eraly years he worked with a mechanical donkey. Together Lee and Leybourne wrote his first big hit Champagne Charlie (1865) gave a clue to his lifestyle: as well as drinking copious quantities of champagne on and offstage, he would ride around London in a grand carriage drawn by four white horses. By all accounts he cut a dashing figure, a tall handsome man with immense stage presence.

Whilst Leybourne wrote many of his own songs, he purchased just as many from other writers and composers, though where his name appears in the records next to a song is sometimes difficult to know whether he had any contribution to writing it or whether it simply featured in his constantly changing repertoire.

With that proviso in mind, here is a list of songs which we can be reasonably certain that he wrote the words and/or music that have later featured in the repertoire of traditional singers:

  1. The Basket of onions
  2. Come fill me a tankard
  3. Down in a diving bell
  4. The Man on the flying trapeze
  5. Mother says I mustn’t

Here is the list of songs from his repertoire which later featured in the repertoire of traditional singers. These were written by others:

  1. Blighted Gardener, The; Cabbages and Turnip tops (GW Hunt)
  2. Bold Fisherman, The (GW Hunt)
  3. Dark girl dress’d in blue, The (Harry Clifton)
  4. Jessie the belle at the bar (George Ware)
  5. My pretty Yorkshire Lass (FW Egerton)
  6. Polly put the kettle on
  7. Rock the Cradle, John!
  8. That’s where you make the mistake
  9. Ting! Ting! That’s how the bell goes
  10. Turkey Rhubarb
  11. Up in a Balloon
  12. nTailor and the crow, The https://archive.org/details/5552496/page/n34/mode/1up?q=tailor

Last Updated on December 1, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: November 27, 2022

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