“Goodnight Ladies”
Description
"Goodnight ladies (x3), We're going to leave you now." "Merrily we roll along, Roll along, roll along, Merrily we roll along Over the deep blue sea." "Farewell ladies, (x3), We're going to leave you now." "Sweet dreams, ladies, We're going to leave...."
Notes
The notes in Fuld indicate a complex history for this song. "Farewell Ladies," containing the first verse of the piece, was printed in 1847 and credited to E. P. Christy. It seems likely enough that the Christy Minstrels used it to close programs.
The complete text, with the "Merrily We Roll Along verse" (which shates a melody with "Mary Had a Little Lamb") was published in 1867.
Fuld says that the melody is that of "I've Been Working on the Railroad," but if so, there has been a lot of embellishment along the way. 0 RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (partial tune)
References
- Hugill, pp. 179-180, "Goodnight, Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Silber-FSWB, p. 258, "Goodnight Ladies" (1 text)
- Fuld-WFM, pp. 255-256, "Goodnight Ladies"
- BI, FSWB258A