Post 365: 'DAISY BELL' - A BICYCLE MADE FOR TWO

As someone who is interested in both old-time popular music and vintage bicycles, I enjoy the 123-year-old song Daisy Daisy because the lady is offered a chance to ride on a tandem (‘a bicycle built for two’).

You probably know how the song starts: 

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do! 

I'm half crazy all for the love of you. 

It won't be a stylish marriage: 

I can't afford a carriage.

But you'd look sweet upon the seat 

Of a bicycle built for two. 

The song, actually called Daisy Bell, was written (both words and music) by Harry Dacre – the pen name of Frank Dean.

Harry Dacre and his own bicycle.

Harry was English but he visited the United States, complete with his bicycle, in about 1891. Apparently at immigration he was charged import duty on the bicycle and a friend told him he was lucky it was not a bicycle built for two, because he would then have had to pay double duty. Those words gave Harry the idea for the song.

It was composed in America and published in London by the company Francis, Day and Hunter in 1892.

Very shortly afterwards it was published by their partners Harms and Co in New York.

The English music hall singer Katie Lawrence was then working in America. She liked the song, brought it back to England, and made it so famous that it has become one of the best-known songs of all time.

It is possible that Harry Dacre used the name ‘Daisy’ as the lady of his song in tribute to the lovely 'Daisy' Greville, Countess of Warwick. She was an early advocate of women’s rights and she also cycled – in ‘modern’ clothes. (She was involved in many scandals in later life – but that’s another story.)

'Daisy' Greville

Harry tried writing a sequel - Fare You Well, Daisy Bell, but it did not achieve success. However, he hit the jackpot again when he wrote I’ll Be Your Sweetheart - another beautiful and deceptively simple melody in 3/4 time, like Daisy Bell.

Harry died in 1922.

What has all this to do with traditional jazz? Not a lot; though I have occasionally heard a traditional jazz band play Daisy Bell; and several play I'll Be Your Sweetheart, especially adapted into 4/4 time.

Post 56: THE EARLY DAYS; AND THE ABUNDANCE OF GOOD SONGS

Historians have given many reasons why jazz developed in New Orleans when it did. There were so many influences and so many sources of inspiration.

But one reason that is often overlooked is that there were so many tunes available at the time that lent themselves conveniently to interpretation in a 'jazzy' way. I sometimes wonder whether early jazz would have developed without the abundance of good suitable popular music at the time.

It was the age when you made your own musical entertainment in the home or you went to the music halls to find it. The early jazz bands had hundreds of tunes to choose from. Most have been long forgotten but just think about this: you could still today make up a good traditional jazz programme entirely from well-known tunes written more than 100 years ago.

Already by the early 1900s, such songs as these were available to the bands:

Beautiful Dreamer
After the Ball
You've Been a Good Old Wagon But You Done Broke Down
A Hot Time in Old Town
Way Down Upon the Swannee River
Ciribiribin
Smoky Mokes
Whistling Rufus
At a Georgia Camp Meeting
Maple Leaf Rag
My Wild Irish Rose
You Tell Me Your Dream
Creole Belle
Hiawatha
High Society
Indiana
Bill Bailey
The Entertainer
In the Sweet Bye and Bye
Oh Didn't He Ramble
Under the Bamboo Tree
Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider
Meet Me In St. Louis

And in the next ten years these were among the hundreds composed:

My Gal Sal

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree

Redwing

Down in Jungle Town

Dusty Rag

Shine on Harvest Moon

Ace in the Hole

Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland

Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet

That's a Plenty

I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now

Chinatown

Down By the Old Mill Stream

Some of these days

Silver Bell

Washington and Lee Swing

I Want a Girl Just like the Girl

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Oh You Beautiful Doll

Ballin' The Jack

Curse of an Aching Heart

You Made Me Love You

Down Among The Sheltering Palms

If I Had You

St Louis Blues

Twelfth Street Rag

When You Wore a Tulip

Yellow Dog Blues

Blame it on the Blues

Georgia Grind

Hesitating Blues

Memories

Paper Doll

When I Leave the World Behind

No wonder those early players - Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory and the like - could put on an entertaining programme for dancers. Such a thing would not be possible today. It's hard to think of much pop music of the last thirty years that lends itself readily to traditional jazz treatment.