Bring Back My Johnny to Me

DESCRIPTION: "He's gone, I am now sad and lonely, He has left me to cross the salt sea, And I know that he thinks of me only, And will soon be returning to me." The singer misses (Johnny), and asks, "Blow gently, sweet winds of the ocean, And bring my Johnny to me."
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster); FolkSongAndMusicHall dates it c. 1860
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H7, p. 290-291, "Bring Back My Barney to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 161, "Send Back My Barney to Me" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "My Barney (Bonnie) lies over the Ocean"
DT, BRINGJON*
Roud #1422
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
NOTES [113 words]: A. L. Lloyd, in his liner notes to the Watersons' "For Pence and Spicy Ale", says [this] was "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close-harmony groups remade it into the better-known -- and even more preposterous -- "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean...." - PJS
More reliable sources than Lloyd, including Steve Gardham and Malcolm Douglas, support this hypothesis. The one problem I have with this is the number of parodies of "My Bonnie," which hint that that song was older than this song could be....
Steve Roud notes British songster versions starting from 1872 and possibly earlier. - (RBW)
Last updated in version 7.0
File: HHH007

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