Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin, The

DESCRIPTION: "The moon shine bright on Charlie Chaplin, His boots are cracking For want of blacking And his (baggy/khaki) trousers They want mending Before we send him To the Dardanelles."
AUTHOR: Edward Stanning and Thurland Chattaway (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 180, "Oh, the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(Oh, the moon shines so bright)" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 40, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text)
Nettleingham-TommysTunes, #36, "Hiawatha (Gallipoli Version)" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin, The"
Roud #10558
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Red Wing (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [159 words]: FolkSongAndMusicHall is source for the attribution to Stanning and Chattaway, but I wonder just a little. Their song has several verses (the first one beginning "You've sung of the boys in blue. You've sung of their girls so true") and uses "The moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin" as a chorus. The traditional collections almost always seem to be just the chorus, occasionally with verses not in the Stanning and Chattaway text. What's more, the chorus is to the tune of "Red Wing." Could the chorus have been borrowed by Stanning and Chattaway?
I don't know if it's significant to the history of this song, or any of the other Charlie Chaplin songs, but according to John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 58, an imitator of Charlie Chaplin was a typical feature of the divisional entertainments staged by British troops during World War I. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: BrPa040B

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