Fabulous '50's Tune for Friday, July 31st, '09

"Lavender Blue", also called "Lavender's Blue", is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the seventeenth century, which has been recorded in various forms since the twentieth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3483.

Lyrics

Although there are as many as thirty verses to the song, and many variation most modern versions take this form:

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 my 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.
Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn.
While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue,
If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.
Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play;
We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way.

I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing;
When I am queen, dilly, dilly, You'll be my king.
Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so?
I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.

Origins

The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside printed in England between 1672 and 1685, under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers, with the first of ten verses:

Lavenders green, Diddle, diddle,

Lavenders blue

You must love me, diddle, diddle,

cause I love you,

I heard one say, diddle, diddle,

since I came hither,

That your and I, diddle, diddle,

must lie together.[1]

It 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 and some to the rock;
Some to make hay and some to shear corn,
And you and I will keep the bed warm.[1]

Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the nineteenth century.

Recordings

A hit version of the song, sung by Burl Ives, was featured in the Walt Disney movie, So Dear to My Heart (1949). It was Ives' first hit song, and renewed the song's popularity in the twentieth century. Another hit version of the song was recorded by Dinah Shore.

This song became popular again during the 1950s rock and roll era, when it was sung by Solomon Burke. Whilst he did change some of the words, the lyrics are generally the same. Sammy Turner released it in 1959 and it hit number 14 on the U.S. R&B chart and number 3 on the Pop chart.

Glyn Poole recorded another version that was included on his 1973 album, Milly Molly Mandy.

On their 1985 album Misplaced Childhood, the English progressive rock band, Marillion, recorded a song called "Lavender", which was derived from the folk song.

Smooth R&B singer Sammy Turner's classy remakes of the standards "Lavender Blue" and "Always" lit up the pop charts in 1959. Signed to Big Top Records and given lush production by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Turner also hit with "Paradise" in 1960. He turned up on Motown later in the decade.