Spanish Cavalier, The

DESCRIPTION: The Spanish Cavalier plays his guitar under a tree, asking his sweetheart to be true while he is off to war. He promises to return if he lives, and asks her to seek him if he dies
AUTHOR: William D. Henderson? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs; also Merchant's Gargling Oil Songster for that year)
KEYWORDS: war separation music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 153, "Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 106, p. 218, "The Spanish Cabineer" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 76, pp. 98-99, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text plus a fragment)
Harbin-Parodology #321, p. 78, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 313, "The Spanish Cavalier" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 117, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 57, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 19, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 9, "Spanish Cavalier" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 32-33, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LPnd218 (Full)
Roud #2684
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Spanish Cavalier" (Columbia 15003-D, c. 1924)
NOTES [161 words]: My 1887 Merchant's Gargling Oil Songster lists this song as being copyrighted in the name of Geo. W. Hagans, but this was simply a publishing house. The author is not listed.
The attribution to Henderson occurs in several low-quality sources, e.g. Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, OneTuneMore.
In College Songs we find the statement "The 'Spanish Cavalier' was composed by a youth of San Francisco who shipped as a cabin boy on board the flag ship of the Pacific Squadron, about 1875. The vessel lay sometime at Panama, where he deserted and joined the Panama army as a drummer boy." It goes on to explain that he left Panama, worked his way back to San Francisco, and was taken by the Navy as a deserter. The daughter of a congressman got him out of trouble, and he took two tunes he had learned in Panama and set English words in her honor. The girl lost interest in him, and it was not until 1880 that this song was published, but it went on to do very well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LPnd218

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography