Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms

DESCRIPTION: "Believe me if all those endearing young charms Which I gaze on so fondly today Were to change by tomorrow... Thou wouldst still be adores As this moment thou art." The singer says he loves her for herself; she didn't create her beauty anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Moore, "A Selection of Irish Melodies"; tune printed in 1775)
KEYWORDS: beauty love nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 36-37, "Believe me, if all those endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 120, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 248-249, "Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #84, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 19, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing" (sic.) (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 252, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 138-139, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms -- (Fair Harvard)"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 378, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 189, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (notes only)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 58, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24850
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Little Wonder 105, 1915; Little Wonder 836, 1918)
James McCool, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Victor 4594, 1906)
Unknown tenor, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Emerson 758, 1916)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 3070 View 2 of 3[very difficult to read], "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms", T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; also Firth b.26(511), Firth c.18(31), "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms"
SAME TUNE:
I Wish I Wuz (File: HPar001)
Lisping Song ("I with I were a little fith, I with I were a fith") (Harbin-Parodology, #32, p. 15)
NOTES [91 words]: If Granger's Index to Poetry is any guide, this is the most popular of all Thomas Moore's songs, appearing in no fewer than 18 of the anthologies it cites. And yet, I know of no traditional collections at all.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 31, writes that Moore wrote this to comfort a woman, perhaps his wife, who had been disfigured by smallpox. This sounds reasonable -- but Gogan's book contains an amazing number of tidbits like this, some clearly false, so I won't guarantee this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB252A

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