{"id":21950,"date":"2023-07-14T08:24:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T08:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=21950"},"modified":"2023-07-14T12:34:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T12:34:34","slug":"australian-girls-are-good-enough-for-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/australian-girls-are-good-enough-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian girls are good enough for me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This song uses racist and misogynist language, drawing on stereotypes in a way that was commonplace at the time but is no longer acceptable today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AKA<\/strong><\/td>New Zealand girls are good enough for me
Canadian are good enough for me
Dixie girls are good enough for me
Ulan girls are good enough for me<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1923<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Harry Lauder<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN22663<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Harry Lauder<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Oakley, Bill; Australia; 1980s<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From sheet music:\n\nAustralian\/New Zealand girls are good enough for me<\/strong>\nWritten, composed and sung by Harry Lauder\n\n[For \"New Zealand\" version, replace \"Australian\" for \"New Zealand\" throughout]\n\nYou've heard about the Yankee girls, with all their dare and dash,\nAnd of the Frisky girls from Frisco you've been told,\nThe Fame of France's daughters has been wafted o'er the waters\nAnd that English girls are worth their weight in gold,\nTo wander wi' a Scottish lass is just like being in Heaven,\nSome love an Irish colleen on their knee,\nBut you just give me an Australian girl and they can have the rest,\nAustralian Girls are good enough for me.\n\nFor the Australian girls are good enough for me.\nOh, the Australian girls are good enough for me,\nThey are sweeter than the peaches on the tree,\nThey are just the Dinkum Dears I've been cuddlin' them for years,\nOh the Australian Girls are good enough for me.<\/em>\n\nI know there's lots of fellows very fond of foreign blood,\nAnd rave about the Asiatic charms,\nSome think there's nothing finer than to hug a girl from China,\nOr hold an Abyssinian in their arms,\nSome chaps are only happy when they're jinkin with a Jappy,\nOr dangling a Spaniard on their knee,\nThey can have the blooming lot, everything can go to pot\nIf not Australian they're no good to me.\n\nNow I have a sweet wee lass, she is my very own,\nShe simply is the sunlight of my life,\nOne night in the moonlight as we wandered all alone,\nShe promised me that she would be my wife,\nUnderneath the Southern Cross last night at ten to ten,\nI never thought such happiness could be,\nWhen she said she would be mine, the atmosphere became divine\nI kissed her underneath a wattle tree.\n\n[Patter]\nOf course, as I say, there are beautiful girls everywhere \u2013 North, South, East, West \u2013 but there is something about this girl I'm telling you about. Well, in the first place, she's well off and her dad has a racehorse \u2013 it's running next week; it started last week. Oh, he has tons of money! But it's not his money after. I'm after something money can't buy nor make \u2013 a bonny lass!\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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By the 1920s Harry Lauder was regularly touring Australia, Canada, America and other parts of the English-speaking world. Most of his songs continued to reflect a romantic and\/or comic vision of Scottishness. He sang a small number of songs which reflected his international appeal and this is one of them. Songs which could be adapted for any locality had been around in the Music Halls since the 1860s, and Lauder’s dubious song of praise to women of various nationalities varied only slightly from place to place. The Australian and Dixie versions are included here, see Sources below for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A variant was collected as a song fragment in Australia in the 1980s by John Meredith from the singing of Bill Oakley who sang the chorus of the Lauder song, substituting “Ulan” for “Australian”. Neither collector nor singer seem to have been aware of Lauder’s song.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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