My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean

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Traditional Scottish folk song

For the Tony Sheridan recording, see My Bonnie.

“My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean” is a traditional Scottish folk song that remains popular in Western culture. It is Roud Folk Song Index No. 1422.[1]

History[edit]

Although the song’s origin is uncertain, its original subject could possibly be Charles Edward Stuart (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’):[2] after the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and his subsequent exile, his Jacobite supporters could have sung this song or one like it in his honour; and thanks to the ambiguity of the term “Bonnie”, which can refer to a woman as well as to a man, they could pretend it was a love song.

In 1881, under the duo of pseudonyms H.J. Fuller and J.T. Wood, Charles E. Pratt published sheet music for “Bring Back My Bonnie to Me”.[3][4][5] Theodore Raph in his 1964 book American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites, writes that people were requesting the song at sheet music stores in the 1870s, and Pratt was convinced to publish a version of it under the pseudonyms, and the song became a big hit, especially popular with college singing groups but also popular for all group singing situations.[4]

The English traditional singing group The Watersons, on their 1975 album “For Pence and Spicy Ale” sing a song from the English tradition called “My Barney Lies over the Ocean” which has a slightly different melody and is said to be an antecedent. In the liner notes for the song, the musicologist A. L. Lloyd says about “My Barney”: “A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close harmony groups remade it into the better-known—and even more preposterous[clarification needed]—’My Bonny Lies over the Ocean’. Watersons had this from Bob Davenport who learnt it from a Frank Quinn 78.”[6]

Field recordings[edit]

A handful of field recordings have been made of traditional versions. Birmingham resident Cecilia Costello was recorded singing a version by Peter Kennedy in 1951, whilst the “East Grinstead Old People’s Club” of East Grinstead, Sussex, England sang a version to Ken Stubbs in 1960, which can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[7] Traditional versions of the song have also been recorded in the United States[8] and Canada.[9]

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me…
 
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

Oh blow ye winds over the ocean
Oh blow ye winds over the sea
Oh blow ye winds over the ocean
and bring back my Bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

Last night as I lay on my pillow
Last night as I lay on my bed
Last night as I lay on my pillow
I dreamt that my Bonnie was dead

Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

The winds have blown over the ocean
The winds have blown over the sea
The winds have blown over the ocean
And brought back my Bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

Parodies[edit]

There are numerous variations and parodies of the song.
Many of these are a result of the song being sung often to children and being a common campfire song for organizations[10] such as the Boy Scouts.[11] These campfire versions are occasionally accompanied by interactive movements,[12] such as sitting down or standing up every time a word that begins with the letter “b” is sung[citation needed].

My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank,
The height of its contents to see,
I lit a small match to assist her,
O Bring back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
I stuck my feet out of the window,
In the morning the neighbors were dead.

Repeat chorus

Oh, Dory swam over the ocean,
Oh, Dory swam over the sea,
Oh, Dory swam over the ocean,
Now Dory has swum back to me.

Repeat chorus

My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean,
My Bonnie Lies over the Sea,
My Daddy laid over my Mommy,
And that is how I came to be.

Repeat chorus

My mother, she drowned in the bathtub,
My father, he died from his gin,
My sister she choked on her chocolate,
My stars, what a fix I am in.

Repeat chorus

I tried making beer in the bathtub,
I tried making synthetic gin,
I tried making fudge for a living,
Now look at the shape that I’m in.

Repeat chorus

A bawdy version is entitled “Oh God, How the Money Rolls In”. The lyrics describe how the singer’s family make a good living from various practices of dubious legality, many relating to sexual activity.[13]

Tony Sheridan and the Beatles[edit]

A rock n’ roll arrangement of the song, entitled simply “My Bonnie”, with “The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In)” as the single’s B-side, was first released in October 1961 in West Germany, credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers.[14] The German import became popular in Liverpool and Brian Epstein secured a British release on 5 January 1962, this time credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beatles. These two songs were included on Sheridan’s My Bonnie album. The single was also released elsewhere in 1962 but was not successful. It was re-released in the United States during Beatlemania and reached the number 26 spot on the Billboard charts.[16] All eight recordings made by the Beatles in Hamburg in 1961 and 1962 were compiled on the German album The Beatles’ First! in 1964 and issued elsewhere in subsequent years. “My Bonnie”, along with “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Cry for a Shadow”, was placed on Anthology 1 in 1995.[17]

In modern culture[edit]

  • The Fletcher brothers filmed this song in DeForest Phonofilm, part of their Song Car-Tunes series, released 15 September 1925, and notable as the first film to use the ‘follow the bouncing ball’ technique.[18][19]
  • My Bunny Lies Over The Sea, a short Bugs Bunny cartoon film whose title parodies the song, was released by Warner Brothers in 1948.[20]
  • On December 20, 2011, JibJab released a video about the year 2011 in review with a song called “2011, Buh-Bye”, to the tune of the title song.[21]
  • In 2012 Hollie Steel starred and sang “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”[22] in the 55 minute musical docudrama, Children on the Titanic[23] available on Amazon Video.[24]

Survival song[edit]

Refugees aboard the Dunera ship “learned from their British warders” this song’s tune and, in response to maltreatment, including to their luggage, they composed and sang “regularly on board the ship” “My luggage went into the ocean, My luggage went into the sea, My luggage was thrown in the ocean, Oh, bring back my luggage to me![25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  2. ^ Herman Finer (1956). Governments of greater European powers: a comparative study of the governments and political culture of Great Britain, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union, Volume 1. Holt. p. 178.
  3. ^ Burton, Jack. The blue book of Tin Pan Alley: a human interest encyclopedia of American popular music, Volume 1, p. 9, 47 (1965)
  4. ^ a b Raph, Theodore. The American song treasury: 100 favorites, pp. 201–03 (1964)
  5. ^ Herder, Ronald. 500 best-loved song lyrics, p. 231 (1998)
  6. ^ The Watersons, “For Pence and Spicy Ale”, Topic Records, catalogue no. 12TS265, 1975, UK
  7. ^ “My Bonny (VWML Song Index SN29364)”. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  8. ^ “Born in Hard Luck (Roud Folksong Index S414870)”. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  9. ^ “My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean (Roud Folksong Index S391994)”. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  10. ^ “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”. ScoutSongs.com. ..pillow … gas tank/match … gin …
  11. ^ “Campfire Song Book – Audience participation songs”. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
  12. ^ “Songs – Campfire Sing-a-longs”. right leg, left leg, stand up, sit down
  13. ^ Cray, Ed (1992). “Oh God, How the Money Rolls In”. The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs. University of Illinois Press. pp. 107–114. ISBN 978-0252017810.
  14. ^ Gooden, Joe (16 March 2008). “My Bonnie”. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  15. ^ Gooden, Joe (27 January 1964). “US single release: My Bonnie/The Saints”. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  16. ^ Gooden, Joe (14 March 2008). “Anthology 1”. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  17. ^ John Grant (2001). Masters of Animation. Watson–Guptill. ISBN 0-8230-3041-5.
  18. ^ IMDb entry
  19. ^ Warner Brothers (1948) My Bunny Lies Over The Sea at IMDb; Animation, Short, Comedy
  20. ^ “Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 2013-04-10. Retrieved 2011-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ^ Amazon.com 10 song 34 minute album from BB5 Records Ltd. available as mp3 download. Retrieved 20 June 2012
  22. ^ website for “Children on the Titanic” accessed 11 August 2013.
  23. ^ Amazon listing for “Children on the Titanic” accessed 26 December 2014
  24. ^ Sephen Gabriel Rosenberg (12 December 2015). “HMT Dunera: the scandal and the salvation”. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 8 March 2020.