I Wish I Were Single Again (I

I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy days when he was single. He recalls marrying a wife, "the plague of my life." She died and was buried, so he went and married again, to find that he "wished for the old one again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: funeral marriage shrewishness wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber),Wales) Ireland
REFERENCES (44 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "I WISH I WAS SINGLE AGAIN"
Randolph 365, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 329-331, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 365A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 77, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 69, "When I Was a Young Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 34, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #130, "When I Was Single" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 111, "Once I Was Single" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 242)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 150, "O Then, O Then" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 30, p. 38, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 204, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1292, "When I Was Single, Oh Then" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 105, "Again and again and again" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 19, "When I Was Single" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 13 more, though most of the omitted texts are single stanzas)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 19, "When I Was Single" (2 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 75, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 320-321, "The Single Girl" (1 text plus a fragment; the song is "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again," but the fragment is this)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 47-50, "I Wish I Was Single Again"; "I Wish I Were Single Again" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 56-58, "I Wish I Was SIngle Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 188, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 127, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #79, "I WIsh I Was Single Again" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text an tune is "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" and the "B" fragment "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 437-439, "When I Was Single" (3 texts, plus a text of "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 16-17, "Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 85-86, "Oh Then" (1 text, in which the second wife apparently plans to hang the husband before she, like the first, falls sick)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 99-100, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 13-14, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 144-145, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 124-125, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 20-21, "My First And Last Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the second wife tries to hang the singer and he shoots her after being rescued; Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains thinks the singer may have made up this material.)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 47, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 215-217 , "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 143, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 169-171, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 177, pp. 181-182, "The Married Man" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 13(B), "When I Was Single (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 156-158, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 98, pp. 207-208, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 303-306, "(When I was a maid, O then! O then!)" (4 texts)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 71, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 274-275, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 276-277, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 172, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
DT, WISHSNGL
Roud #437
RECORDINGS:
Tom Edwards, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (on FSBFTX19)
Foster & James, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Gennett 6434/Challenge 33014/Silvertone 8156 [as Jim Burke]/Supertone 9260 [as Jim Burke], 1928; rec. 1927)
Steve Gardham, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Piotr-Archive #309, recorded 10/11/2022)
Frank Luther, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Crown 3084, 1931)
Menhaden Fishermen, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (on USMenhaden01)
Riley Puckett, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Columbia 15036-D, 1925) (Bluebird B-8066, 1939)
Arthur Tanner, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Silvertone 3515, 1926)
Welby Toomey, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Gennett 3202, 1926)
Tom Watson, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Silvertone 3263, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925) (OKeh 45045, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Single (II)"
cf. "Poor Married Man" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Damn the Ever: Once Is Enough For Me ("I married a girl called Ann Steer, She had a face like a man on the Beer") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [15])
NOTES [91 words]: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, my money would jingle;
I wish I was single again.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 22) has a slightly different form, allegedly from 1880:
When I was young and single,
I could make the money jingle
And the world was well with me, O then!
The world went well with me then.
Steve Gardham believes it comes from the British music hall tradition. Makes sense to me, but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R365

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