"Barbara Ellen"

[Comicfan]

In "Robin Hood Daffy", Porky/Friar Tuck is singing a little song to himself at one point in the cartoon that goes something like this
In the town where I was born/there was a fair maid dwellin'/made all the youths cry "What a day"/her name was Barbara Ellen
IIRC, the dad in "Goo Goo Goliath" also hums a similar tune. My question is, is "Barbara Ellen" a WB original, or is it a traditional folk song that Jones discovered and put into two of his cartoons?

[Jack]

If you do a Google search for "folk song Barbara Ellen" you'll find a bunch of variations of it, so it apparently was an English folk song.

This page has a version that is similar to the cartoon. It also mentions that the song is over 300 years old.

BTW, "Goo Goo Goliath" was a Freleng cartoon, not Jones.

[rp-j]

Originally Posted by Jack

If you do a Google search for "folk song Barbara Ellen" you'll find a bunch of variations of it, so it apparently was an English folk song.

This page has a version that is similar to the cartoon. It also mentions that the song is over 300 years old.

Just what I was gonna say... Interesting that "Robin Hood Daffy" makes such a reference to an ancient English folk song, though. Most people in the UK wouldn't know what you were talking about if you mentioned it now (although I was raised on it, as a kind of nursery-rhyme). Bizarrely, it's been immortalised in a 1958 cartoon from the USA - go figure...

[Comicfan]

Originally Posted by Jack

If you do a Google search for "folk song Barbara Ellen" you'll find a bunch of variations of it, so it apparently was an English folk song.

This page has a version that is similar to the cartoon. It also mentions that the song is over 300 years old.

BTW, "Goo Goo Goliath" was a Freleng cartoon, not Jones.

Geez. I was just on that page before I posted my question, and completley overlooked "Allen".

[Jack]

Originally Posted by rp-j

Just what I was gonna say... Interesting that "Robin Hood Daffy" makes such a reference to an ancient English folk song, though. Most people in the UK wouldn't know what you were talking about if you mentioned it now (although I was raised on it, as a kind of nursery-rhyme). Bizarrely, it's been immortalised in a 1958 cartoon from the USA - go figure...

It's not that bizarre, immigrants probably brought the song over to the U.S. with them.

[J Lee]

The song makes an appearance in the 2000 movie "Best of Show" where Chrstopher Guest and Michael McKean sing it as a lullabye to their dog.

[Daff Doc]

Originally Posted by Jack

It also mentions that the song is over 300 years old.

And that's nowhere near the time-frame of the legend of Robin Hood.

[JDWeil]

The song is Barbara Allen, it's an English folk song and there are numerous versions. Over 90 different versions have been counted in the stste of Virginia alone.

[mmtper]

And "Barbara Allen" is heard as the theme associated with Scrooge's sister "Fan" in the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol". It returns full force when Scrooge (Alaistir Sim) reconciles with his nephew and his wife. Pretty moving scene...I'm a sucker every time (sniff).

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by J Lee

The song makes an appearance in the 2000 movie "Best of Show" where Chrstopher Guest and Michael McKean sing it as a lullabye to their dog.

Not Christopher Guest - he played the hillbilly-type with the basset/blood hound, not one of the gay guys...