"Lavender's Blue" (also called "Lavender Blue") is an English
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...
and
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From t ...
from the 17th century. Its
Roud Folk Song Index number is 3483. It has been recorded in various forms and some pop versions have been hits in the U.S. and U.K. charts.
Lyrics
There are as many as thirty verses to the song, and many variations of each verse. A typical version, described by James Halliwell in 1849,
[ is:
:Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
:When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen:
:Who told you so, dilly dilly, who told you so?
:'Twas mine own heart, dilly dilly, that told me so.
:Call up your men, dilly dilly, set them to work,
:Some with a rake, dilly dilly, some with a ]fork
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...
;
:Some to make hay, dilly dilly, some to thresh corn,
:Whilst you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm.
:If you should die, dilly dilly, as it may hap,
:You shall be buried, dilly dilly, under the tap;
:Who told you so, dilly dilly, pray tell me why?
:That you might drink, dilly dilly, when you are dry.[
]
Origins
The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside
Broadside or broadsides may refer to:
Naval
* Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare
Printing and literature
* Broadside (comic ...
printed in England between 1672 and 1679,[ under the name ''Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers''. The broadside indicates it is to be sung to the tune of "Lavender Green", implying that a tune by that name was already in existence. The lyrics printed in the broadside are fairly bawdy, celebrating sex and drinking.][
According to Robert B. Waltz, "The singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same". Waltz cites Sandra Stahl Dolby as describing this broadside version as being about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.][
Here is the first of ten verses:
Lavender's green, diddle, diddle,
:Lavender's blue
You must love me, diddle, diddle,
:cause I love you,
I heard one say, diddle, diddle,
:since I came hither,
That you and I, diddle, diddle,
:must lie together.][
]
Both Waltz (citing Eloise Hubbard Linscott) and Halliwell have noted the song's association with Twelfth Night
''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...
and the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities of that holiday.[
]
"Lavender's Blue" emerged as a children's song in ''Songs for the Nursery'' in 1805 in the form:
:Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
:When I am king you shall be queen;
:Call up my maids at four o'clock,
:Some to the wheel
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...
and some to the rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
;
:Some to make hay and some to shear corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
,
:And you and I will keep the bed warm.
[
Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the 19th century.][
]
Revival
1949
A version of the song, titled "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)", was featured in the 1948 Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
film ''So Dear to My Heart
''So Dear to My Heart'' is a 1948 American live-action/animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Its world premiere was in Chicago, Illinois, on November 29, 1948. Like 1946's ''Song of the South'', the film comb ...
'', where it was sung by Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...
. This version was nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...
in 1949. This version of the song was credited to Eliot Daniel Eliot Daniel (January 7, 1908 – December 6, 1997) was an American songwriter and lyricist who worked primarily in motion pictures. His most well-known composition is the theme from the television sitcom '' I Love Lucy''.
Daniel was born in Boston ...
(music) and Larry Morey (lyrics). "Lavender Blue" was one of 400 nominees for the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
's "100 Years... 100 Songs" list of the 100 greatest film songs, which was presented on a television program of that name which aired on June 22, 2004, but it didn't make the final list.[ The appearance of "Lavender Blue" in the Disney film sparked a revival of interest in the song.
Ives' version of "Lavender Blue" was recorded in December 1948 and released as a single in January 1949.][ As was common for pop songs in those days,][ several other singers released versions at near the same time. ]Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye (born Samuel Zarnocay Jr.; March 13, 1910 – June 2, 1987) was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the Big Band Era. The expression springs fr ...
also released a version in 1949, which charted at No. 5,[ as did ]Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...
(her version went to No. 1 on the Australian chart[ and was the title track of her album ''Lavender Blue'').][ ]Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the " Forces' Sweetheart", having giv ...
's version of "Lavender Blue" was issued on the B side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...
of her single "Again
Again may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Again'' (video game), a 2009 adventure game for the Nintendo DS
* '' Again!!'' manga
* ''Again!'', a 2011 children's book by Emily Gravett
* ''Again'' (film), a 2015 Japanese film
Music
* Again (band), a ...
",[ which reached the '']Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' magazine Best Seller chart on January 21, 1949.
Later 20th century
A decade later, in 1959, Sammy Turner
Sammy Turner (born Samuel Black, June 2, 1932, Paterson, New Jersey) is an American singer, who was popular at the end of the 1950s.
Career
He was born and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, developing an early interest in singing and songwritin ...
released a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
version produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" ( ...
which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
.[
"Lavender's Blue" continued to be recorded by pop artists throughout the rest of the 20th century. Jazz pianist ]Jack Pleis
Jack K. Pleis (May 11, 1917 – December 5, 1990) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, conductor, composer and producer. He recorded on London and Decca Records in the 1950s, and Columbia Records in the 1960s. During the course of his career, ...
recorded ''Lavender's Blue'' for his 1955 album '' Music from Disneyland''. Tommy Bruce
Tommy Bruce (16 July 1937 – 10 July 2006) was an English rock and roll singer who had most of his success in the early 1960s. His cover version of " Ain't Misbehavin'" was a number 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1960.
Life and career
H ...
made a single of it in 1963, and The Fleetwoods
The Fleetwoods were an American vocal group from Olympia, Washington whose members were Gary Troxel (born November 28, 1939), Gretchen Christopher (born February 29, 1940), and Barbara Ellis (born February 20, 1940).
Early history
The band mem ...
recorded a version in 1965. In 1975, the song was interpreted by Leon Russell and Mary Russell for their '' Wedding Album'', and the next year the British early music revival
:''See Historically informed performance for a more detailed explanation of this topic.''
The general discussion of how to perform music from ancient or earlier times did not become an important subject of interest until the 19th century, when E ...
group The City Waites recorded the original 17th-century bawdy broadside version of "Lavender's Green, Lavender's Blue" on their album ''Pills to Purge Melancholy''. In 1988, Broadway singer Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook (October 25, 1927 – August 8, 2017) was an American actress and singer who first came to prominence in the 1950s as the lead in the original Broadway musicals '' Plain and Fancy'' (1955), ''Candide'' (1956) and ''The Music Man'' ( ...
recorded a version for her release ''The Disney Album''. In 1991, The Wiggles
The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Ca ...
included this song on their albums ''The Wiggles
The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Ca ...
'' and '' Pop Go The Wiggles''.
Other 20th-century works have incorporated the song or parts of it, or used it as a motif or base for a title. Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
wrote ''Lavender's Blue'' into his 1954 opera ''The Turn of The Screw
''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in ''Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmill ...
'', where it is sung by the two children, Miles and Flora, and in Brad Fraser
Brad Fraser (born June 28, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator.Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof"Fraser, Brad" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', June 2, 2019. He is one of the most widely pr ...
's 1989 play ''Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love
''Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love'' is a 1989 stage play written by Canadian playwright Brad Fraser. Set in Edmonton, Alberta, the comedy-drama follows the lives of several sexually frustrated "thirty-somethings" who try ...
'', lyrics from the song are repeatedly sung by the character Benita. And the song was a prominent motif in M.M. Kaye's 1980 children's novel '' The Ordinary Princess''.
In 1985, the British rock band Marillion included a song called "Lavender
''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...
" on their album '' Misplaced Childhood''. The song had lyrics derived from "Lavender's Blue" and became a number 5 hit on the UK singles chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...
's 1975 novel, ''Lavender-Green Magic'' and Kathleen Lines' and Harold Jones's 1954 collection of nursery rhymes and songs ''Lavender's Blue'' took their titles from the song, as did several other books.
21st century
In the 21st century, 2015, Disney revived "Lavender's Blue" as a signature song for another film, ''Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'' and
Reinhard Mey
Reinhard Friedrich Michael Mey (born 21 December 1942) is a German "Liedermacher" (literally "songmaker", a German-style singer-songwriter). In France he is known as ''Frédérik Mey''.
By 2009, Mey had released 27 German albums, and generally ...
recorded another version for his 2016 album ''Mr. Lee''.[
]
Notes
References
External links
*
{{authority control
17th-century songs
English folk songs
English nursery rhymes
Burl Ives songs
Dinah Shore songs
The Fleetwoods songs
Disney songs
Number-one singles in Australia
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
English children's songs
Traditional children's songs