Old Oaken Bucket, The

DESCRIPTION: "How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view...: The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket That hung in the well." The singer recalls being refreshed by its water
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842)
EARLIEST DATE: 1818
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 167-170, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 495, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #46, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1724, p. 116, "The Old Oaken Bucket Which Hung in the Well" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 52 and #3/62, p. 52, "The Old Oaken Bucket which Hung in the Well" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 256, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 16, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 413-414, "The Old Oaken Bucket"
Harbin-Parodology, #324, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 26, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OAKBUCK
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 258-259, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 19, "Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
ST RJ19167 (Full)
Roud #27512
RECORDINGS:
David Bangs, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0600, rec. 1895)
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia A-1820, 1915)
Judy Cook, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #328, recorded 11/02/2022)
Jimmie Tarlton [Darby & Tarlton] "By the Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia 15763-D, 1932; rec. 1930)
Edison Male Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison 2216, 1897)
Haydn Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 023-N, 1899)
Haydn Quartet w. S. Dudley, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0873, 1898)
Honolulu Strollers, "Ole Oaken Bucket" (OKeh 45226, 1928)
Kaplan's Melodists, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5155, c. 1926)
Knickerbocker Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2046, n.d.)
Peerless Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Zonophone 696, 1907) (Pathe 40032, 1916)
Standard Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Columbia 2239, rec. c. 1895)
Anon. [Sterling Trio] "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Little Wonder 268, 1915)
SAME TUNE:
That Old Towpath (File: Salt065)
The Golden Bible (File: FSSS118)
The Old Family Toothbrush (File: PHC160A)
Nat Wills, "Parody on 'Old Oaken Bucket'" (Victor 16661/Victor 5659 [as "Old Oaken Bucket (parody)"], 1909)
The Old Oaken Bucket (As censored by the Board of Health) (Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, p. 386)
The Old Oaken Bucket (Whaling Parody) (File: HGam071)
The Beautiful Grange Hall ("How dear to my heart are the scenes in the Grange Hall") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, pp. 10-11)
A Song of an Old Soldier ("Oh, dear to my soul are the days of our glory") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 10)
The Chewing Gum Girl (Harbin-Parodology, #388, p. 94; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250)
The Moss Covered Onion ("How dear to my heart is the loud-smelling onion") (Harbin-Parodology, #276, p. 66; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250)
NOTES [136 words]: Samuel Woodworth's only other noteworthy composition was "The Hunters of Kentucky." His novels and plays are mercifully forgotten.
Woodworth originally published this poem under the title "The Bucket." It soon acquired several (rather feeble) tunes and the title "The Old Oaken Bucket." Around 1850, it was fitted to a tune by George Kiallmark; that somehow rescued it from the dustbin of nostalgia and made it into a highly popular song.
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 163, have extensive notes on the history of the song; they mention among other things that the Kiallmark tuns does not seem to have appeared in print with this text until the 1870s; it was originally written for the Thomas Moore poem "Araby's Daughter." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19167

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