Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)

DESCRIPTION: "Jack is the king of the dark blue sea. Jack is as brave as the brave can be. He's the boy the girls adore." "Strike up the band. Here comes a sailor, Cash in his hand, just off a whaler." He's welcome until his money runs out
AUTHOR: Words, Andrew B. Sterling / Music, Charles B. Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: sailor home money music
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
Roud #27582
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Strike Up the Band" (Piotr-Archive #644, recorded 08/16/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (theme)
NOTES [108 words]: Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. Most of his hits had music by Harry von Tilzer; this is an exception.
Jim Dixon on mudcat.org notes that this was extremely popular in movies in the period around World War II, being used no fewer than eleven times from 1929 to 1949, often in association with sailors, though it appears that many of the uses were just of the melody, not the words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio644

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