{"id":10884,"date":"2021-05-23T09:43:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T09:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=10884"},"modified":"2025-06-05T16:22:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T16:22:33","slug":"fred-w-leigh","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/fred-w-leigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh, Fred W"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fred W Leigh (1871-1924)  was born in London as William Frederick Bridgen.  As FW Leigh he was a prolific lyricist who worked with many of the  great names of early 20th century Music Hall song writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As far as I can tell he was never a performer in the halls. He began his professional life as a writer at <em>Punch <\/em>magazine, and also wrote children&#8217;s stories. In 1901 he became literary editor of the most successful publishers of Music Hall songs: <em>Francis Day and Hunter<\/em>. Some of his more famous songs include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/dont-dillydally-on-the-way\/\">Don\u2019t dillydally on the way<\/a> (with Charles Collins, sung by Marie Lloyd)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/jolly-good-luck-to-the-girl-that-loves-a-soldier\/\">Jolly good luck to the girl that loves a soldier<\/a> (with Kenneth Lyle, sung by Vesta Tilley)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/a-little-bit-of-what-you-fancy-does-you-good\/\">A Little bit of what you fancy does you good <\/a> (with George Arthurs, sung by Marie Lloyd) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/little-bit-off-the-top-a\/\">A Little bit off the top<\/a> (with Fred Murray, sung by Harry Bedford) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/waiting-at-the-church\/\">Waiting at the church<\/a> (with Henry Pether, sung by Vesta Victoria and Florrie Forde)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given the impact of these songs its surprising don&#8217;t know more about him&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following songs by Leigh have been collected from the singing of traditional singers and might therefore be considered to be folk songs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/amateur-whitewasher-the\/\">Amateur whitewasher, The<\/a> (1754)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/arry-arry-arry\/\">Arry, Arry, Arry<\/a> (23566)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/father-mother-and-an-apple\/\">Father, mother and an apple<\/a> (24212)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/fol-the-rol-lol\/\">Fol-the-rol-lol<\/a>! : Limerick song (9484)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/galloping-major-the\/\">Galloping Major, The<\/a> (25342)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/go-way-good-massa-bee\/\">Go &#8216;way, good Massa bee <\/a>(10236)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/horse-the-missis-dries-the-clothes-on-the\/\">Horse the missis dries the clothes on, The<\/a> (5661)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I never work upon a Monday (23500)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/mary-ann-shes-after-me\/\">Mary Ann, She\u2019s after me<\/a> (5391)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/more-work-for-the-undertaker\/\">More work for the undertaker<\/a>(13201)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/shes-proud-and-shes-beautiful\/\">She\u2019s proud and she\u2019s beautiful<\/a>: the plough-boy (16652)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/shift-up-a-little-bit-farther\/\">Shift up a little bit farther<\/a> (5662)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/they-wont-know-oi-coom-from-the-coontry-thats-what-makes-oi-larf\/\">They won\u2019t know Oi coom from the Coontry (That\u2019s what makes Oi larf)<\/a> (RN10715)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/they-were-very-very-good-to-me\/\">They were very very good to me<\/a> (22665)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/that-gorgonzola-cheese\/\">That Gorgonzola Cheese<\/a> (13670)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/wire-in-my-lads\/\">Wire in, my lads<\/a> (21960)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Richard Baker <em>British Music Hall <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-page pdfprnt-bottom-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10884?print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/folksongandmusichall.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png?w=840\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fred W Leigh (1871-1924) was born in London as William Frederick Bridgen. As FW Leigh he was a prolific lyricist who worked with many of the great names of early 20th century Music Hall song writing. As far as I can tell he was never a performer in the halls. He began his professional life &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/fred-w-leigh\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Leigh, Fred W&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10884","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-writers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leigh, Fred W - FOLK SONG AND MUSIC HALL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/fred-w-leigh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leigh, Fred W - FOLK SONG AND MUSIC HALL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fred W Leigh (1871-1924) was born in London as William Frederick Bridgen. 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