"Lavender's Blue" (also called "Lavender Blue") is an English folk song and nursery rhyme from the 17th century. Its Roud Folk Song Index 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,[1] 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.
The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside printed in England between 1672 and 1679,[2] under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers.[3] 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.[4]
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 as describing this broadside version as being about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.[2]
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.[5]
Both Waltz (citing Eloise Hubbard Linscott) and Halliwell have noted the song's association with Twelfth Night and the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities of that holiday.[2][1]
Lyrics and illustration for Lavender's Blue in The Baby's Opera A book of old Rhymes and The Music by the Earliest Masters
"Lavender's Blue" emerged as a children's song in Songs for the Nursery in 1805 in the form:
Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the 19th century.[5]
Revival
1949
A version of the song, titled "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)", was featured in the 1948[A]Walt Disney film So Dear to My Heart, where it was sung by Burl Ives. This version was nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1949. This version of the song was credited to Eliot Daniel (music) and Larry Morey (lyrics). "Lavender Blue" was one of 400 nominees for the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Songs" list of the 100 greatest film songs, which was presented on a television program of that name which aired on June 22, 2004, but it didn't make the final list.[6][7] 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,[8] several other singers released versions at near the same time. Sammy Kaye also released a version in 1949, which charted at No. 5,[9] as did Dinah Shore (her version went to No. 1 on the Australian chart[10] and was the title track of her album Lavender Blue). Vera Lynn's version of "Lavender Blue" was issued on the B side of her single "Again",[11] which reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on January 21, 1949.
So Dear To My Heart was first released for public viewing in late 1948,[citation needed] but widespread release did not begin until January 19, 1949.[17]
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