VILLIKINS AND HIS DINAH
Created on 04/05/2009Latest update on 21/07/2026
Artist: Len Spencer
Author: Henry Mayhew/James Howe
Label: Columbia
Year: 1900
Cockney parody of a song from short play The Wandering Minstrel, first staged in 1834. Biggest success for Sam Cowell, London's most popular mid 19th century music-hall comedian. Stephen Foster used this same tune in 1858 (for The Great Baby Show). Variations (both melodic and lyrical) seeped in The Nightingale (One Morning In May), Still I Love Him (Roud #654) and The Bold Grenadier (see there).
Covers:
- 1928:
Harry McClintock [as Sweet Betsy]
- 1931:
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 1933:
Bradley Kincaid [idem; for Bluebird]
- 1950s:
Eddy Arnold [idem]
- 1955:
Sons Of The Pioneers [idem]
- 1958:
Burl Ives [as The Ould Orange Flute and in '59 as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 1958:
Isla Cameron [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 1959:
Jimmy Driftwood [idem]
- 1962:
Derek Lamb [on Folkways LP She Was Poor But She Was Honest]
- 1962:
Liam Clancy [as When I Was Single]
- 1964:
Judy Collins [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 1965:
Johnny Cash [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 1965:
Dubliners [as The Old Orange Flute]
- 1975:
Bob Davenport [as When I Was Single]
- 1991:
Alan Lomax [as The Wild Rippling Water]
- 1992:
Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem [as The Old Orange Flute]
- 1997:
Riders In The Sky [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 2004:
Wolfe Tones [as The Old Orange Flute]
- 2007:
BR5-49 [as Sweet Betsy From Pike]
- 2011:
Suzy Bogguss [idem]
Related items
Other originals by artist:
- 1892
- OLD FOLKS AT HOME, THE (WAY DOWN UPON THE SWANEE RIVER)
- 1897
- YOU'VE BEEN A GOOD OLD WAGON (BUT YOU'VE DONE BROKE DOWN)
- 1900
- ARKANSAW TRAVELER
- 1903
- C-H-I-C-K-E-N, DAT'S THE WAY TO SPELL CHICKEN
Covers from artist:
