The Girl I Left Behind

"The Girl I left Behind", also known as "The Girl I Left Behind Me", is an English folk song dating back to Elizabethan era. It is said to have been played when soldiers left for war or a naval vessel set sail. According to other sources the song originated in 1758 when English Admirals Hawke and Rodney were observing the French fleet. The first printed text of the song appeared in Dublin in 1791. A popular tune with several variations, "The Girl I Left Behind Me", may have been imported into America around 1650 as 'Brighton Camp', of which a copy dating from around 1796 resides in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
History.
The first known printed text of a song with this name appeared in the serial song collection "The Charms of Melody", Dublin, Ireland, issue no. 72, printed in Dublin from 1791 and in "Exshaw's Magazine" (Dublin, September 1794). The earliest known version of the melody was printed about 1810 in Hime's "Pocket Book for the German Flute or Violin" (Dublin), vol. 3, p. 67, under the title "The Girl I left Behind Me" (National Library of Ireland, Dublin). Theodore Ralph claimed that it was known in America as early as 1650, under the name "Brighton Camp", but there is no evidence to support this assumption, and the only known tune of "Brighton Camp" differed from that of the song in question.
It has many variations and verses, for example "Blyth Camps, Or, the Girl I left behind Me" (1812, Newcastle), "Brighton Camp, or the Girl I left behind Me" (1815, Dublin, from which the "Brighton" title probably came), "Nonesuch," and others. Here is one example:
A number of Irish-language and English-language songs were set to this tune in Ireland in the 19th century, such as "An Spailpín Fánach" (translated into English as "The Rambling Labourer"), "The Rare Old Mountain Dew" (published New York, 1882) and in the 20th century, such as "Waxie's Dargle".
In England the tune is often known as "Brighton Camp" and is used for Morris dancing.
American Civil War use.
The song was popular in the US regular army, who adopted it during the War of 1812 after they heard a British prisoner singing it. The song was used by the Army as a marching tune throughout the 19th century.
These are the lyrics popular by the army in the 19th century:
During the Civil War the Confederates had their own version:
Abraham Lincoln's assassination inspired another version.
World War I use.
In the early stages of WWI, the British army used an obscene version of this song which ran in part:
Other musical forms.
This tune has been quoted in some pieces of classical music, such as:
Josef Holbrooke wrote a set of orchestral variations on the song.
The theme "The Girl I Left Behind" can be heard as an overlay in Glenn Miller's arrangement of "American Patrol", popularised during World War II.
The song forms a portion of the melody of Guy Mitchell's 1951 hit "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle".
Examples of use in media.
The song has a march beat and has often been associated with British and American military bands, especially in the context of soldiers heading out to (or returning from) battle. The tune is easy to play on the fife, and is one of two songs often associated with the famous "The Spirit of '76" painting, along with "Yankee Doodle". One example in popular culture that illustrates this cliché is at the end of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, "A Wild Hare", in which the bunny marches into the sunset playing the tune on a fife (in reality, a carrot) and affecting a stiff leg as with the fifer in the painting. Bugs later plays it at the end of "Bunker Hill Bunny", accompanied by Yosemite Sam.
The title of Chapter 30 of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (published in serial form in 1847-1848) is “‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’”. Within the chapter is a further reference to the song: “Jack or Donald marches away to glory with his knapsack on his shoulder, stepping out briskly to the tune of ‘The Girl I left behind me’."<Thackeray, William. Vanity Fair. (Penguin, 1968), p.348.>
The title of Eastman Johnson's painting, made shortly after the American Civil War, was drawn from this ballad.
In the 1980 movie The Long Riders, set several years after the American Civil War, Keith Carradine sings a variant of the song which Oscar Brand has recorded under the title "The Wayward Boy", beginning: "I walk the street with a tap to my feet. I heard a voice above me."
Ewan MacColl's song "Ivor" uses the tune to wryly mock the supposedly favourable treatment given to Ivor Novello in prison during World War II. The tune appears in the "Popeye" cartoon "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor". Popeye mumbles to it under his breath as he marches toward his final confrontation with Sindbad. "The Frogs and the Lobsters", an episode of the "Hornblower" television series, features the tune being played by a band of the Royal Marines, along with the first few bars of "Rule Britannia". Chapter 3 of Hornblower in the West Indies opens with the first few lines of the lyrics. The song appears several times in the TV movie "Sharpe's Company". Emphasising its popularity with British soldiers during the Napoleonic wars it features prominently in the 1970 movie Waterloo. In particular, it is played during the advance of a British division under the command of Sir Thomas Picton and when the Duke of Wellington orders a general advance at the end of the battle. In a 1960s "Beverly Hillbillies" episode, the melody is used for the commercial jingle "the best durn soap is Foggy Mountain Soap".
The tune has also been used as a theme for Western films about the Indian Wars, such as a 1915 silent film about George Custer titled "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and a theme in the soundtrack of John Ford's "cavalry trilogy": "Fort Apache", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande". In the 1968 film "The Charge of the Light Brigade" a detachment of British soldiers whistle the tune just before the Battle of the Alma; a fife and drum corps plays the song while leading a regiment marching through London in the 1939 film "The Four Feathers". In the animated film "", Fievel's sister Tanya (voice by Cathy Cavadini) performs a song entitled "The Girl "You" Left Behind".
Recordings.
"The Girl I Left Behind" has been recorded many times, by The Skillet Lickers, Jay Ungar, The Avett Brothers, The Albion Band, Jules Allen and Molly Mason among others. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album "101 Gang Songs" (1961).