Its funny when you feel that way

AKA Funny when you feel that way
First Published c1870
Writer/composer GW Hunt Roud RN3693

Music Hall Performers Fred Coyne
Folk performances Source Singers
Carter Family; USA : Virginia 1937
Hill, Miss Corrie; USA : Virginia 1941
Bennett, Henry; USA : Missouri 1959
Reid, Charles Fiddes; England ; Surrey 1960
Kelly, Gerald; Canada : Quebec 1977 (2 Aug)		 

From  National Library of Scotland English Ballads
 
Printed by T. PEARSON, 
Machine Printer, 4, and 6, Chadderton Street, Manchester.

Sung by FRED COYNE, the Sterling Comique.
Music at HOPWOOD AND CREW'S, Bond-st. London.

I SHA'NT forget how queer I felt,
When first I fell in love;
I had a most severe attack.
Through squeezing a lady's glove,
But a lovely hand was in it,
As I waltzed with her so gay,
I thought myself in paradise,
It's funny when you feel that way.
 
I felt as though I'd tumbled into honey,
And somebody had left me all their money,
The feeling's so peculiar and funny,
Oh ! it's funny when you feel that way.

I took her down to supper,
And I sat down by her side,
I helped her to the "nicey's"
And I filled her glass, with pride.
In fact, paid such attention,
That she viewed me with dismay,
For I moved my chair so close to hers.
Oh ! it's funny when you feel that way.

When the affair had broken up,
Behind I yet did linger,
Before I tore myself away,
I kissed her little finger ;
I threw 'phantom kisses at the house,
As I trippéd home so gay,
I'd have kissed the knocker on the door,
Oh ! it's funny when you feel that way.

We met again one afternoon,
And as we were alone,
I plucked up nerve, to ask if she
Some day would be my own:
She blushed and said, "Go see papa,
And ask him if I may ?"
I danced a can-can round the room,
Oh ! it's funny when you feel that way.

The old boy said that we might wed,
And so he crowned my bliss,
And I shall he a doubled man,
In about a month from this.
It seems as though the time somehow,
Would never passed away,
I long to hear the wedding bells,
Oh ! it's funny when you feel that way,

Spoken.— Being a Greenhorn in such matters I enquired of a happy married friend of mine what a honeymoon was like, he " Well, as near as possible I can only describe it as though."—

A music hall song from the early 1870s written by GW Hunt and sung most famously by Fred Coyne . The song appeared widely in 19th-century songsters and broadsides on both sides of the Atlantic. The earliest reference I can find to it being sung in the UK is 1873 (May 4, The Era).

In the early 20th century it appears to have been a popular part of the repertoire of Newfoundland singer Johnny Burke who included it in his 1920 Xmas songster

The song was adopted by The Carter Family in the 1930s and like most of the songs they sang was credited to the elder AP Carter, and as brilliant as they were, the Carters did have a tendency to claim songs that were not their own. Their song is sometimes credited to George Harris, but the best evidence we have is from the British Library catalogue which suggests that they hold sheet music dated around 1870 composed and written by GW Hunt .

The Levy collection has sheet music published as part of a series Blume’s Comic Songs, credited to GW Hunt, which they date as 1856, but I think this date is an error. The sheet music contains adverts for several songs which were not written until much later, for example: Down in a coal mine (1872) and 10,000 miles away (c1870). This leads me to believe that the Blume sheet music can be dated as at around 1873 or later. We know that the song was already a hit in America at that time, being sung by the famous early vaudevillian Tony Pastor who toured widely and had success with several of Hunt’s songs, but tended not to credit the composer/author.

You can hear an Ozark version from the singing of Harry Bennett as collected by Max Hunter at the University of Arkansas site, and a very different English version at the Tobar an dualchais site

As the Carters sang it:

Sources: