"Oh, My Darling Clementine" | |
---|---|
Song | |
Language | English |
Genre | Western, American folk |
Composer(s) | Traditional |
Lyricist(s) | Percy Montross; Barker Bradford |
"Oh, My Darling Clementine" (or simply "Clementine") is a traditional American, tragic but sometimes comic, Western folk ballad in trochaic meter usually credited to Percy Montross (or Montrose) (1884), although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. [1]
Multiple variations of the song exist, but all center on Clementine, the daughter of a "miner forty-niner" and the singer's lover. One day while performing routine chores, Clementine trips and falls into a raging current and drowns, as her lover is unable to swim and declines to attempt to rescue her. In Montross's version, the song ends with "Though in life I used to hug her, now she's dead – I'll draw the line."
The lyrics by Percy Montrose were issued as sheet music by Oliver Ditson & Co of Boston in 1884, [2] based on an earlier song called "Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden", printed in 1863. [3] The origin of the melody is unknown. In his book South from Granada , Gerald Brenan claims that the melody was from an old Spanish ballad, made popular by Mexican miners during the California Gold Rush. It was best known from Romance del Conde Olinos o Niño, a sad love story very popular in Spanish-speaking cultures. It was also given various English translations. No particular source is cited to verify that the song he used to hear in the 1920s in a remote Spanish village was not an old text with new music, but Brenan states in his preface that all the information in his book has been checked reasonably well. [4]
It is unclear when, where, and by whom the song was first recorded in English, but the first version to reach the Billboard charts was that by Bing Crosby recorded on June 14, 1941, [5] which briefly reached the No. 20 spot. It was given an updated and up-tempo treatment in an arrangement by Hal Hopper and John Scott Trotter. The re-written lyrics include a reference to Gene Autry ("could he sue me, Clementine?") amongst the five swinging verses. [6]
There have been numerous versions of the song recorded over the years.
Bobby Darin recorded a version of the song in 1960, with lyrics credited to Woody Harris, [7] in which Clementine is reimagined as a 299-pound woman. After she falls into the water, Darin suggests that Clementine could be mistaken for a whale and calls out to those on the high seas to watch for her, in a rhythm and style reminiscent of Darin's rendition of "Mack the Knife": "Hey you sailor, way out in your whaler, with your harpoon and your trusty line, if she shows now, yell... there she blows now. It just may be chunky Clementine." The song reached #12 in Canada. [8]
Jan and Dean had a hit with "Clementine", charting as high as 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. [9] It was released on the Dore label (SP DORE 539 (US)) in November, 1959; "You're on My Mind" was the B Side.
Tom Lehrer recorded a set of variations on the song in 1959 on his live album An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer , demonstrating his theory that "folk songs are so atrocious because they were written by the people." He performs the first verse in the style of Cole Porter, the second in the style of "Mozart or one of that crowd", the third in a disjointed bebop sound parodying the style of Beat Generation musicians like Slim Gaillard or Babs Gonzales, and the final verse in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. [10]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2015) |
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