Forget You I Never May

DESCRIPTION: "Fare thee well, for once I loved you Even more than tongue can tell, Little did I think you'd leave me, Now I bid you all farewell." The singer tells how (s)he loved him, asks why he is unkind, and ends, "I'll forgive you, But forget you I never may."
AUTHOR: Ned Straight? (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (so Burnett's Pacific Pearl Songster, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal farewell
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 737, "Forget You I Never May" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 154, "You Are False, But I'll Forgive You" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 154, "You Are False, But I'll Forgive You" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 51, "You Are False But I Forgive You" (1 text plus an excerpt from a songster version, 1 tune)
Roud #460
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "You Are False But I'll Forgive you" (Brunswick 217, 1928/Supertone S-2047, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Can Forgive But Not Forget (Sweetheart, Farewell)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You Were False
Fare Thee Well
NOTES [43 words]: Roud links this with a large number of other lost-but-not-forgotten love songs. In most cases, however, the link seems more thematic than textual. - RBW
To me this reeks of a Victorian parlor-song origin. I expect the sheet music to turn up any day now. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R737

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