Sweet Rosie O’Grady

From 1896 sheet music/monologues.co.uk:

Just down around the corner of the street where I reside,
There lives the cutest little girl that I have ever spied;
Her name is Rose O'Grady and I don't mind telling you,
That she's the sweetest little Rose the garden ever grew.

Sweet Rosie O'Grady,
My dear little Rose,
She's my steady lady,
Most ev'ryone knows.
And, when we are married,
How happy we'll be;
I love sweet Rosie O'Grady,
And Rosie O'Grady loves me.

I never shall forget the day she promised to be mine,
As we sat telling love tales in the golden summer time.
'Twas on her finger that I placed a small engagement ring,
While in the trees, the little birds this song they seemed to sing!

A song from the 1890s, a hit both sides of the Atlantic. It is remembered by a range of traditional singers across the English-speaking world.

Sweet Rosie O’Grady was a hit on the American vaudeville stage for its writer and composer, Maude Nugent, though some sources suggest it was written by her husband William Jerome. The song was first performed in the British Halls by Lil Hawthorne (see short bio below). Songs produced by British songwriters tended to be licensed to be sung by a single stage performer (occasionally one performer would hold the licence for London whilst another held it in the provinces). This song, imported from Tin Pan Alley does not appear to have been licensed in this way and was performed by a range of different singers in the UK including: Lil Hawthorne, Walter Munro, Pat Rafferty, and Marie Kendall.

A variant of the lyrics crops up amongst some traditional singers, it is set out in a British Broadside held in the Keith S Goldstein Collection, which suggests this version was sung by with British Music Hall performers The Sisters Levey, a trio of singers/burlesque dancers active in the 1890s and early 1900s.

SWEET ROSIE O'GRADY
Sung by the Sisters Levey

Within a charming cottage near the place that saw my birth,
There dwells the sweetest little flower that ever grew on earth,
This flow'r is known as Rose — 'tis her lovely Christian name
But had she any other name, I'd love her just the same.

Sweet Rosie O'Grady, my beautiful Rose'
She's my little lady, that everyone knows, 
And when we are married, how happy we'll be!
I love sweet Rosie O'Grady, and Rosie O'Grady loves me.

I never shall forget the day she promised to be mine, 
As we sat telling love-tales with a happiness divine, 
Upon her finger then I placed a small engagement-ring
While in the trees the little birds this love-song seemed to sing	

The song led to at least one sequel The daughter of Sweet Rosie O’Grady (pub 1918) and a well-known parody usually called Sweet Rosie Levinsky (RN9608)