I've Got Rings On My Fingers

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1909 sheet music cover IveGotRingsOnMyFingersCover1909.jpeg
1909 sheet music cover

"I've Got Rings On My Fingers" is a popular song written in 1909, words by R. P. Weston and Fred J. Barnes, and music by Maurice Scott. It concerns an Irishman named Jim O'Shea, a castaway who finds himself on an island somewhere in the East Indies, whereupon he is made Chief Panjandrum by the natives because they like his red hair and his Irish smile. He then sends a letter to his girlfriend, Rose McGee, imploring her to come join him.

The song was a hit for Ada Jones, and for Blanche Ring (who first performed it in The Midnight Sons , and carried it over into 1910's The Yankee Girl). [1] The verses explain the situation. The chorus is best remembered:

Sure, I've got rings on my fingers,
Bells on my toes,
Elephants to ride upon,
My little Irish Rose
So, come to your Nabob
And next Patrick's Day
Be Mistress Mumbo Jumbo Jijjiboo J. O'Shea

The first two lines of the chorus refer to the nursery rhyme:

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes.

A version of that rhyme was published in 1784, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (edited by Peter and Iona Opie, 1951, 1973).

In 1956 the song was recorded by Radio City Music Hall organist Ray Bohr on his first RCA Victor album The Big Sound.

Joan Morris and William Bolcom recorded the song as part of their 1974 debut album, After the Ball.

In 1962, Ray Stevens referenced the expression in his comic song, "Ahab the Arab", in which Ahab's girlfriend Fatima wore "rings on her fingers and bells on her toes and a bone in her nose, ho ho."

In 1928, a children's book, Jiji Lou: The Story of a Cast-Off Doll, by Lurline Bowles Mayol, featured a rag doll named Jiji Lou Jay O'Shay, who explains that her owner found her name "On our phonograph ... It was a song that Sally Lee loved. It was all about 'rings on her fingers and bells on her toes' and it ended with 'Jiji Lou Jay O'Shay.'" The book was illustrated by Fern Bisel Peat and published by Saalfield.

Related Research Articles

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1909.

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A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" is a nursery rhyme first recorded in America in the late 19th century. The melody to which the nursery rhyme is sung recurs in other nursery rhymes including "It's Raining, It's Pouring"; "Rain Rain Go Away" and "Ring around the Rosie". It was further used as the basis for a successful 1938 recording by Ella Fitzgerald, composed by Fitzgerald in conjunction with Al Feldman.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ding Dong Bell</span> English language nursery rhyme

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<i>Belles on Their Toes</i>

Belles on Their Toes is a 1950 autobiographical book written by the siblings Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. It is the follow-up to their book Cheaper by the Dozen (1948), and covers the period after Frank Gilbreth, Sr. died. It was adapted as a film in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Come Josephine in My Flying Machine</span> Song

Come Josephine In My Flying Machine is a popular song with music by Fred Fisher and lyrics by Alfred Bryan. First published in 1910, the composition was originally recorded by Blanche Ring and was, for a time, her signature song. Ada Jones and Billy Murray recorded a duet in November 1910, which was released the following year. There have been many subsequent recordings of the pop standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School Days (Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards song)</span> Song

"School Days" is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards. Its subject is of a mature couple looking back sentimentally on their childhood together in primary school. The song was featured in a Broadway show of the same name, the first in a series of Edwards' school acts. It was the inspiration for many subsequent school acts, including the Marx Brothers' Fun in Hi Skule, their first major Vaudeville success.

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Blanche Ring was an American singer and actress in Broadway theatre productions, musicals, and Hollywood motion pictures. She was best known for her rendition of "In the Good Old Summer Time."

<i>Mister Whiskers: My Favourite Nursery Rhymes</i> 1998 studio album by Franciscus Henri

Mister Whiskers: My Favourite Nursery Rhymes is the 1998 re-release children's album of My Favourite Nursery Rhymes by Franciscus Henri, both under Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Music's ABC for Kids. It achieved Gold sales certification due to sales in excess of 35,000 units in Australia. Notably, the album contains 23 separate tracks, but 17 of these are medleys ranging between two and four rhymes each, totalling fifty-five for the album, though many only go through a single chorus. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1994 the original version received a nomination for Best Children's Album.

"Botany Bay" is a song that can be traced back to the musical burlesque, Little Jack Sheppard, staged at the Gaiety Theatre, London, England, in 1885 and in Melbourne, Australia, in 1886. The show was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music composed and arranged by Wilhelm Meyer Lutz. The show's programme credits "Botany Bay" as "Old Air arr. Lutz". Sheet music from Allan & Co. in Australia credits Florian Pascal, the pseudonym of Joseph Williams Jr. (1847–1923), a music publisher and composer who published the show's music. Pascal composed other numbers in the score but received no credit for "Botany Bay" in the programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross</span> English nursery rhyme

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A subverted rhyme, teasing rhyme or mind rhyme is the suggestion of a rhyme which is left unsaid and must be inferred by the listener. A rhyme may be subverted either by stopping short, or by replacing the expected word with another. Teasing rhyme is a form of innuendo, where the unsaid word is taboo or completes a sentence indelicately.

<i>The Midnight Sons</i> 1909 musical comedy by John Raymond Hubbell

The Midnight Sons is a 1909 American musical comedy that was popular upon its release.

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References

  1. Borman, Gerald & Richard Norton. American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle, pp. 294, 300 (4th ed. 2011)