Par Excellence

DESCRIPTION: "I am the gentleman whose name is known throughout the land." "I'm par excellence the creature of the day." He has to keep a book of the ladies he has conquered. "I've never earned a penny yet," but the ladies help him with "voluntary contributions"
AUTHOR: Words: William H. Lingard (1837-1927) (source: Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (source: Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: courting money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 20, "Par Excellence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #25, pp. 14-15, "Par Excellence" (1 text)
Cohans-Dublin-Jarvey-Songster, pp. 48-49, "Par Excellence. The Idol of the Day" (1 text, 1 tune))
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 208-209, "Par Excellence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24456
NOTES [113 words]: It's hard for me to believe that this would ever go into tradition, but there is a fragment from East Anglia that may be this, so I've indexed it.
Incidentally, Spaeth's and the New Comic Songster version are substantially different. I wonder if performer and alleged author Lingard didn't fiddle with an existing text somehow -- or if the editors of New-Comic-Songster didn't do so to cover up plagiarism.
For more on Lingard, see the notes to "Captain Jinks."
Dime-Song-Book #25 says this was "Sung by Howard Paul as a 'Swell of the Coming Period.'"
Johnny-I-Hardly-Knew-Ye-Songster, p. 14, has a song, "The Dutchman Par Excellence," which I suspect is a knock-off of this. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: NCSParEx

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