“My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”
Description
The singer laments that his bonnie is across the waves, and implores that someone "bring back my bonnie to me." He asks the winds specifically to carry her. (He dreams she is dead.) (He rejoices that the winds have blown his bonnie to him.)
Notes
Fuld notes an 1882 printing of this song allegedly written by H. J. Fulmer (Charles E. Pratt). This text, however, disagrees with the 1881 printing, and Fuld suspects that Pratt is responsible only for the adaption.
The song obviously has spawned a number of parodies and borrowings. It itself, however, seems relatively constant, and the parodies are all recent. It thus seems likely that the song is fairly recent, and that most known versions derive from the 1881 printing.
It has been theorized that this is a derivative of the song we index as "Bring Back My Johnny to Me." The tunes aren't the same, but there are similarities, and a few lyrics also cross, as well as the theme. But there is no evidence of an intermediate form; it seems nearly certain that there was a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line. - RBW
Same tune
- Tom Twist (File: FlBr171)
- My Children Are Seven in Number (Greenway-AFP, p. 166; on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
- Bring Back My Neighbors to Me (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 119)
- Yuck! Cats (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 67)
- Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 121)
- My Body Has Tuberculosis (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 131)
- Zekey Looked into the Gas Tank (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 133)
- My Barney Lies Over the Ocean (Nora Bayes, Columbia A-2678, 1918; Louis Winsch, Pathe 22061, 1919; Ada Jones, OKeh 1218, 1919; Billy Murray, Victor 18530, 1919)
Cross references
- cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (tune)
- cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
- cf. "Tom Twist" (tune)
- cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (tune)
- cf. "Shine Your Buttons With Brasso" (tune)
- cf. "Shaving Cream" (tune)
- cf. "Bring Back My Johnny to Me"
Recordings
- Ella Fitzgerald, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Decca 28375, 1952)
- Haydn Quartet, "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" (Victor A-123, 1900)
- Leake County Revelers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Columbia 15227-D, 1928)
- Ella Logan, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Brunswick 8196, 1938; Columbia 36313, 1941)
- Mobile Strugglers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (on AmSkBa)
References
- Silber-FSWB, p. 143, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" (1 text)
- Fuld-WFM, p. 381, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
- DT, MYBONNIE*
- BI, DTmybonn