Once I Had a Sweetheart (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, A sweetheart brave and true, His hair was dark and curly, His cunning eyes were blue." But her sweetheart wanted to roam; he gave her a ring and departed (to become a soldier). He is killed far from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation mourning soldier battle death war
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 140, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text)
[Randolph 796, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 527-528, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 796A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 19, "The Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4477
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "The Soldier's Sweetheart" (Victor V-20864, 1927 -- a World War I adaption)
NOTES [28 words]: A generic plot, and floating lyrics too! But it seems to be a separate song -- though it's hard to believe it originated in the U. S., as the notes in Brown imply. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrII140

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