You're a Little Too Small

DESCRIPTION: Even very small girls won't consider the singer, saying "you're young I know, perhaps you may grow, At present you're a little too small." When he inherits a million and the girls call him he refuses because "at present I'm a little too small"
AUTHOR: Al Haynes (source: Meade, Spottswood and Meade)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (publication date, according to Meade, Spottswood and Meade)
KEYWORDS: courting bequest money humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 48, "A Little Too Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4349
RECORDINGS:
Clarence "Tom" Ashley, "You're A Little Too Small" (Gennett 6404 [as by Tom Ashley], Challenge 391 [as by Tom Hutchinson], Champion 15525 [as by Oscar Brown], 1928)
Carolina Tar Heels, "You Are a Little Too Small" (Victor V-40007, 1928; on Ashley04)
NOTES [121 words]: The description follows the McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen text. The Carolina Tar Heels recording has the singer getting closer to marriage, without succeeding, but omits the inheritance.
Meade, Spottswood and Meade: Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 445. They also cite Haun, Mildred, Cooke County [Tennesee?] Ballads and Songs (M.A. Thesis, Vanderbilt U., Nashville, Tenn., 1937)], p.431. - BS
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 72-73, has a piece, "They say I'm too Little for Anything," which is very similar in concept although the words seem entirely distinct. I don't know if either piece influenced the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: McB1048

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