We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Love's Old Sweet Song

from Endeavour by Baxter Rhodes

/

about

I found a beaten up Victorian copy of the sheet music for the original 'Love's Old Sweet Song' on my local flea market and set my own melody to the words.

One of the most popular of all Victorian ballads, this has words by Graham Clifton Bingham, whose ‘Love, could I only tell thee?’ is included in Thomas Allen’s first Hyperion volume of ballads. The son of a Bristol bookseller, Bingham wrote stories, children’s books and some 1,650 song lyrics. He claimed to have written the lyric of ‘Love’s Old Sweet Song’ at four in the morning, after which various composers vied to set it. The successful candidate was James Lynam Molloy, who graduated from the Catholic University in Dublin, studied also in London, Paris and Bonn, and was called to the English bar. A noted raconteur, he found congenial occupation in rowing and singing, as well as song composition. Published in 1884, the ballad was first sung by Antoinette Sterling, who did exceptionally well from the royalty she received for introducing it. When Arthur Sullivan was accused of using the song’s first two bars for ‘When a merry maiden marries’ in The Gondoliers, he denied it with the classic reply, “We had only eight notes between us”.
from notes by Andrew Lamb © 2003

credits

from Endeavour, released September 13, 2012
Lyrics first published by by G.Clifton-Bingham
Double Bass by Joshua Vincent Goodey

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Baxter Rhodes image

Baxter Rhodes Lancashire, UK

Independent acoustic singer-songwriter from the Pennine hills of East Lancashire, UK.

'Original, uplifting folk music with a twist' - Darwen Music Projects

'English Americana with a northern edge.' - Solfest ... more

contact / help

Contact Baxter Rhodes

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Baxter Rhodes, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now