Lavender Blue
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"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 ca ...
and
nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European 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. Fr ...
from the 17th century. Its
Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...
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 '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 tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...
; 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 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 Sandra Stahl Dolby aka Sandra K. D. Stahl (born 1946) is a professor in Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and the American Studies Program. Academics Dolby earned her BA in English at Manchester College (Indiana), ...
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 entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...
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 rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn 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 machin ...
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 Wale ...
; Some to make hay and some to shear
corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
, And you and I will keep the bed warm.
Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the 19th century.


Melody

\header \layout global = melody = \relative c'' verse = \new Lyrics \lyricmode classicalGuitar = \relative c' \score \score Source


Revival


1949

A version, 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, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
film '' So Dear to My Heart'', where it was sung by
Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
. 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 Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...
in
1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...
and was credited to Eliot Daniel (music) and
Larry Morey Lawrence L. Morey (March 26, 1905 – May 8, 1971) was an American lyricist and screenwriter. He co-wrote some of the most successful songs in Disney films of the 1930s and 1940s, including " Heigh-Ho", " Some Day My Prince Will Come", and " ...
(lyrics). 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 in 1949, which charted at No. 5;
Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the ...
, whose 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 1917 – 18 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is Honorific nicknames in popular music, honorifically known ...
's version of "Lavender Blue" was issued on the
B side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
of her single " Again", 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 advertis ...
'' magazine Best Seller chart on January 21, 1949.


Later 20th century

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...
wrote ''Lavender's Blue'' into his 1954 opera '' The Turn of The Screw'', where it is sung by the two children, Miles and Flora. In 1959, Sammy Turner 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 within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...
version produced by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Leiber and Stoller were an American songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerome Leiber (; April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933). As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wr ...
which reached #3 on the
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the 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), ...
. In 1985, the British rock band
Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...
included a song called "
Lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...
" 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.Simply Eighties
/ref>


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 Songs with unknown songwriters English children's songs Traditional children's songs