Nelly Bly

DESCRIPTION: "Nelly Bly! Nelly Bly! Bring de broom along, We'll sweep de kitchen clean, my dear, and hab a little song." The singer tells how Nelly makes him happy -- she has the voice of a turtle dove, her step is music, and they have corn and pumpkins in the barn
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 407, "Nelly Bly" (1 fragment)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 4, "Nellie Bly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 80-81, "Nelly Bly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 64-65, "Nelly Bly!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 144, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 9-10, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1568, p. 107, "Nelly Bly" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 11 and #7/64, p. 11, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 7, "Nelly Bly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NELLYBLY*
Roud #13956
SAME TUNE:
The Zouave Boys ("Zouaves sly, shut one eye") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 185)
Biennial Jubilee Song [by Charles H. Owen, [class of 18]60] ("Sophs were groaning And condoling Round Alumni Hall") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 56)
Boating Song ("Lightly dipping, gaily skipping, How our oar blades gleam") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 63)
Foot-Ball Song ("Lightly bounding, dully sounding, See the Foot-ball roll") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 66)
Dedicated to Old Party Votes ("Ragged voter, ragged voter, Come see your redeemer") (Foner, p. 281)
NOTES [167 words]: Like several other characters in Foster songs, Nelly Bly was said by Foster's family to be a real person. According to Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, pp. 373-374, Foster and several musical friends were having a musical gathering when "A comely colored girl poked her head out of the cellar door to listen to the music. Stephen observed her and asked Rachel, 'Who's that?' 'That's Nelly Bly,' replied Rachel Woods. The name caught Stephen's fancy, and when the visitors were invited into the house, he went immediately to the piano, and improvised and played and sand 'Nelly Bly' with almost the identical words and music afterward published and sung the world over. The daughter of a former slave, Nelly lived with the Woods family [the host of the gathering] for many years. She died at an advanced age and was always very proud of the fact that Stephen Foster had composed and named a song for her." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Arn064

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