Sally Come Up

DESCRIPTION: A song in praise of Sally that manages to stress all her bad features: "Sally has got a lubly nose, Flat across her face it grows, It sounds like thunder when it blows.... Sally come up, oh, Sally come down, Oh, Sally, come twist your heels around...."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 148, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2056, p. 138, "Sally, Come Up" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #15, pp. 62-63, "Sally, Come Up" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 12-13, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 206-207, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)

Roud #V2841
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(429), "Sally, Come Up!" T. C. Boyd (San Francisco), c. 1860; also Harding B 18(710), "Sally, Come Up," De Marsan (New York), c. 1860; Harding B 26(588), unknown, n.d.; Firth c. 12(266), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; 2806 c. 13(24)=Harding B 11(3402), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Johnson Ballads 1137, A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; Harding B 11(4008), H. Such (London), after 1863
NOTES [344 words]: The earliest printed text of this piece credits the words to T. Ramsey and the music to E. W. Mackney, and this has been accepted by many authorities, but as early as 1862 other names began to appear. Paskman and Spaeth believe the song to be a spoof of "Sally in Our Alley." - RBW
Having finally read the lyrics to "Sally in Our Alley," I think Paskman & Spaeth are all wet. The only common element is the name "Sally." - PJS
Note that they don't call it a parody; it's just supposed to be based on the same character. Still a stretch, I allow.
There is a parody, though, by a well-known author -- none other than Lewis Carroll! Carroll's diary for July 3, 1862 mentions hearing the Liddell sisters singing this song (obviously implying some amount of oral currency by then):
"[F. H.] Atkinson and I went to lunch at the Deanery [the home of Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church], after which we were to have gone down the river with the children, but as it rained, we remained to hear some music and singing instead -- the three [Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell] sang 'Sally Come Up' with great spirit." [Citing DodgsonWakeling4, p. 93.]
In the original draft of Alice in Wonderland, known as "Alice's Adventures under Ground," Carroll had this Mock Turtle's Song (page 84 of the manuscript):
Beneath the waters of the sea
Are lobsters thick as thick can be --
They love to dance with you and me,
My own, my gentle Salmon!
Salmon come up! Salmon go down!
Salmon come twist your tail around!
Of all the fishes of the sea
There's none so good as Salmon!
This was omitted from the final version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (replaced by "Will You Walk a Little Faster"), perhaps because it was too much of an in joke between Dodgson and the Liddell sisters.
Cazden et al list a number of other early parodies (including the above, though I originally my information from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice, which is more detailed. Gardner's More Annotated Alice, p. 102 n. 3 gives both the text of the parody and parts of "Sally Come Up"). - RBW
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