Up in a Balloon

Original version
One night I went up in a balloon
On a voyage of discovery to visit the moon
Where an old man lives, so some people say
'Through cutting of sticks on a Sunday'
Up went the balloon quickly higher and higher
Over housetop and chimneypot tower and spire
I knocked off the Monument's top very nigh
And caught hold of the Cross of St Paul’s going by.

Up in a balloon, up in a balloon
All among the little stars sailing round the moon
Up in a balloon, up in a balloon
It's something awfully jolly to be up in a balloon.

Up, up I was borne with terrible power
At the rate of ten thousand five hundred an hour
The air was cold, the wind blew loud,
I narrowly escaped being choked by a cloud
Still up I went till surrounded by stars
And such planets as Jupiter, Venus and Mars
The Big and the Little Bear, loudly did growl
And the dog star on seeing me set up a howl.

Whilst up in a balloon, up in a balloon
All among the little stars sailing round the moon
Up in a balloon, up in a balloon
It's something awfully jolly to be up in a balloon.

I met shooting stars who were bent upon sport
But who 'shot' in a very strange manner I thought
And one thing beat all by chalks I must say
That was when I got into the Milky Way
I counted the stars, till at last I thought
I'd found out how much they were worth by the quart
An unpolite 'Aerolite' who ran 'gainst my ear
Wouldn't give 'e'er a light' to light my cigar.

Whilst up in a balloon, up in a balloon
All among the little stars sailing round the moon
Up in a balloon, up in a balloon
It's something awfully jolly to be up in a balloon.

Next a comet went by 'midst fire like hail
To give me a lift, I seized hold of his tail
To where he was going I didn't enquire
We'd gone past the moon, till we couldn't get higher
Yes, we'd got to the uppermost! Don't think I joke
When somehow I felt a great shock - I awoke
When instead of balloon, moon and planets, I saw
I'd tumbled from off my bed to the floor.

There was no balloon, there was no balloon
There were not any planets, and there wasn't any moon
So never sup too heavy or by jingo very soon
You're likely to fancy you are going up in a balloon.
 

First sung by George Leybourne, as written and composed by GW Hunt, a hit of the 1870s still remembered 50 years later by traditional singers in the United States. Leybourne was singing it as early as May 1868, though it was not published until 1869 (The Sunday Times May 10, 1868).

The song was widely published in broadsheets and songbooks in the late 19th century, and only rarely credited to Hunt, much to his annoyance! It’s been suggested that the song’s success was a result of a public obsession with balloons after 102 people used 66 balloons to escape from the Siege of Paris(1870-71) and after the first Aeronautical Exhibition was held at Crystal Palace.

Almost every song that achieved a degree of success in the halls at that time would be rewritten in a “ladies version “. In the 1840s and 1850s ladies’ versions were often written to “spare their blushes ” but as time went on the ladies’ version was often simply an opportunity to benefit from the success of the original song . In this case I can’t see very much that’s offensive in the original version, so we have to assume that the ladies’ version, written by Agnes Power for her daughter Nellie Power to sing, was an attempt to cash in. We might draw similar conclusions about the third version that was written for American audiences by HB Farnie. The Ladies’ Version Starts with:

Some  time ago I,  with dearest Papa,
Went down to a fete and fancy bazaar,
At the great Crystal Palace, a very fine day,
And the gardens were filled with the great and the gay;
Among other sites on that fine afternoon,
Was a Captain’s ascent in his giant Balloon
A handsome young fellow and brave to be sure,
Such a Beau as the ladies must really adore

[spoken: As he went…]
Up in a Balloon, girls, up in a Balloon,
Sailing through the air, on a summer afternoon,
Up in a Balloon, girls, up in a Balloon,
What a happy place now to spend your honeymoon.

archive.com

Nellie Power (1854-87) was an early female serio-comic, the 1st to have success with The Boy I Love is up in the Gallery, later a huge success for Marie Lloyd. Her other best-known song was Lardy-Dah! She was considered very daring, as she dressed as a (male) jockey. Cross dressing was one way in which Music Hall performers challenge the rigid moral codes of the day.

The chorus lives on as a children’s song, popularised by Canadian folksinger Alan Mills.

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A4882
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Original Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
• Sheet music: Levy Collection
• Sheet music for Ladies Version: archive.org
• Christopher Pulling: They were singing

Alan Mills sings the chorus:

Last Updated on December 1, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: September 25, 2020