Felix McGlennon (30 January 1856 – 1 December 1943) was a British songwriter and publisher, whose

seriocomic Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

songs were popular in the music halls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Biography

McGlennon was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, the son of an Irish shoemaker. He settled in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, and by about 1880 was established there as a printer of penny

song book A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano manuf ...

s. He emigrated to the United States in the mid-1880s, and began writing

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

songs, some of which, such as "His Funeral's Tomorrow", "Comrades" – a patriotic song about the friendship of two old soldiers written with George Horncastle, published in 1887 and popularised by Tom Costello – and "And Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down Her Back" (written with

Monroe Rosenfeld Monroe H. "Rosey" Rosenfeld (c.1861 – December 13, 1918) was an American songwriter and journalist. Biography Rosenfeld was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of German immigrants. By the early 1880s, he was working in New York City as a ...

, 1894, and popularised by

Seymour Hicks Sir Edward Seymour Hicks (30 January 1871 – 6 April 1949), better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and p ...

), also became successful in British music halls. Although McGlennon wrote both words and music of some of his songs, he also worked with other lyricists, including Tom Browne, George Bruce, W. A. Archbold and Edgar Bateman. McGlennon returned to live in Britain, and continued as a prolific songwriter. He wrote a wide variety of material, including settings of

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

verses such as "The Irish Rebel Emigrants"; and patriotic British nationalist songs such as "The British Bulldogs", "The Song That Will Live Forever", " Sons of the Sea", and "We Mean to Keep the Seas". According to the writer Dave Russell: "If McGlennon's texts were to be taken at face value, they illustrate perplexing ideological inconsistency, not least a sympathy with

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

mingled with a regard for the very imperialist ethos that shaped Ireland's destiny. In fact, his subject matter is merely testimony to his commercial wisdom." In 1909, McGlennon set up his own company in London, to publish collections of his songs, and other material including

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s. He had no musical training, picked out his tunes on a

toy piano The toy piano, also known as the ''kinderklavier'' (child's keyboard), is a small piano-like musical instrument. Most modern toy pianos use round metal rods, as opposed to strings in a regular piano, to produce sound. The U.S. Library of Congress ...

, and had a poor opinion of their qualities, saying:

Assume, if you like, that what I write is rubbish. My reply is "It is exactly the sort of rubbish I am encouraged by the public to write"... All my life I have tried to produce an article for which there is a public demand. If I visit a music hall, it is with the single object of instructing myself as to the class of thing that is pleasing the public. Then, I try to write it – and write nothing else.

On another occasion, he said: "I would sacrifice everything – rhyme, reason, sense and sentiment – to catchiness. There is, let me tell you, a very great art in making rubbish acceptable." He was married twice, and had four children; one of his sons, Felix Cornelius McGlennon, was killed in action in 1918 during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Felix McGlennon died in London in 1943 aged 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGlennon, Felix 1856 births 1943 deaths British songwriters