Sally In Our Alley

DESCRIPTION: Johnny loves Sally. His master beats him when he stops working to be with her. On Sunday he leaves church early to be with her. When his apprenticeship is over they will marry and leave the alley with its unfriendly neighbors
AUTHOR: Henry Carey (1687-1743 per Wikipedia) (source: see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (Ritson); reportedly written 1718
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love marriage work nonballad apprentice boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 645-648, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 117-119, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text plus some later versins, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 402-402, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #77, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2056A, p. 138, "Sally In Our Alley" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #31, pp. 54-55, "Sally in our Alley" (1 text)
DT, SALLALLY*
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs (London, 1783), Vol. I, #40 pp. 212-214, "Sally in Our Alley (1 text)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 20, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text)
The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 111, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text)
Roud #19807
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 101, "Sally in our Alley" (Of all the girls that are so smart), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1805; also Johnson Ballads fol. 371 View 1 of 2, Firth b.25(177), Harding B 11(3405), 2806 c.16(102), 2806 b.10(4), "Sally in our Alley"
LOCSinging, as112160, "Sally in our Alley", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as112180, "Sally in our Alley"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Sally's Answer" (characters)
SAME TUNE:
What Tho' I Am a Country Lass (Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 10-11)
Sally in our Alley [parody, "But of all ye songsters in ye land, There's none like Faranelli"] (Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 36-37)
NOTES [199 words]: Harold Simpson, A Century of Ballads, 1810-1910, Mills & Boon, 1910, p. 39, quotes Henry Carey's account of how he was inspired to write this" "A shoemaker's prentice, making a holiday with his sweetheart, treatedher with a sight of Bedlam, the puppet shows, the flying chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorsfields, from whence proceeding to the Farthing Pye House, he gave her a collection of buns, cheese-cakes, gammon of bacon, stuffed beef, and bottled ale, through all which scenes the author dodged them. Charmed with the simplicity of their courtship, he drew from what he had witnessed this little sketch of nature, but being then young and obscure, he was very much ridiculed by some of his acquaintances for this performance, which nonetheless made its way into the polite world...." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as112160: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
According to Ebsworth Henry Carey wrote "Sally in Our Alley" in 1738 [J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 1 [Part 23], p. 415] - BS
Last updated in version 7.2
File: RSCE212

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