Sheehan is Believing or This Parachuting Business

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Mr. Gallagher, Or Mr. Gallagher, What is this Airborne Forces thing about?" "Oh Mr. Sheehan, Oh Mr. Sheehan, The whole darn thing is just a lot of fun." Gallagher and Sheehan discuss the way airborne troops learn how to parachute
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier | airman parachute
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, pp. 235-237, "Sheehan Is Believing or This Parachuting Business" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean" (tune)
NOTES [230 words]: Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook lists the tune of this as "Mr Gallagher and Mr Sheehan," This is clearly an error for "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean" (Roud #29732), a dialog between Ed Gallagher and Al Shean. It is credited in the sheet music to Gallagher and Shean, although the Wikipedia entry for the song says Shean wrote the music and Bryan Foyle the lyrics.
The duo recorded the song in 1922 (Victor 18941), and others at once picked it up; it was in the 1922 Zigfield Follies
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1922, topping the charts in November of that year. It was also recorded in 1938 by Bing Crosby and Johnny Mercer, which I suspect was the version responsible for this parody. A typical verse shows how the dialog of the original informed the parody:
Shean: Oh! Mister Gallagher,
Oh! Mister Gallagher!
Gallagher: Hello, what's on your mind
This morning, Mister Shean?
Shean: Ev'rybody's making fun
Of the way our country's run
All the papers say
We'll soon live European.
Gallagher: Why Mister Shean,
Why Mister Shean.
On the day they took away
Our old canteen,
Cost of living went so high
That it's cheaper now to die.
Shean: Positively, Mister Gallagher.
Gallagher: Absolutely, Mister Shean. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL235

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