Goodbye, My Blue Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, my Blue Bell, Farewell to you. One last fond look into your eyes so blue. 'Mid campfires gleaming, Through shot and shell, I will be dreaming Of my sweet Blue Bell." "Blue Bell, my heart is breaking... Blue bell, my tears have started."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Madden / Music: Theodore Morse (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Recording, Harry Macdonough & the Haydn Quartet)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 395, "Goodbye, My Blue Bell" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 395, "Goodbye, My Blue Bell" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 48, "Blue Belle" (1 short text)
Roud #11331
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Adcock, "Virginia Bluebell" (Patuxent CD-300, 1963; on Protobilly)
Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett, "Good Bye, My Blue Bell" (Victor 20542, 1927)
Byron Harlan & Frank Stanley, "Blue Bell" (CYL: Edison 8655, rec. 1904)
Harry Macdonough & the Haydn Quartet, "Blue Bell" (CYL: Columbia 32515-2, 1904; on Protobilly)
Merle Travis, "Blue Bell" (Capitol transcription, 1945; on Protobilly)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebell (One Night I Thought I'd Enjoy Myself)" (partial tune; that song is a response to this).
NOTES [80 words]: The authors' title for this was "Blue Bell."
Brown's informant thought this came from the Spanish-American War. A reasonable assumption, but actually the song is later. It might have been inspired by the war, of course.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 265, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in May 1904, peaking in popularity in May of the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3395

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