Canada Dry Show Theme

[Maxwell]

I don't know if it's my ears or the scratchy recordings I've heard, but I can't make heads nor tails out of the lyrics to the theme song used on the Canada Dry show from the early '30s. Does anybody know where there might be a copy of them or can somebody post them?

[bboswell]

I found this in an old thread on this board from a couple of years ago...

http://www.jackbenny.org/wwwboard/messages/997.html

That has all but one line. That line sounds to me like...

"Strolls around the town, cow upon a tree"

But somehow I doubt that is the correct lyric!!

[LLeff]

But somehow I doubt that is the correct lyric!!

And I'm pretty sure that the lyrics aren't in the script. Sorry!

[Maxwell]

Considering that the only thing I got from the entire jingle was "Never mind the weather, never mind the rain," and a "company" here and there, I'm very appreciative!

[Brad from Georgia]

The theme comes from "The Show Goes On" and is circa WWI in provenance, I think. Here's all I know of it:

Here we are,
Here we are again.
All good pals and jolly good company!
Never mind the weather,
Never mind the rain,
Here we are together,
Whoops! He goes again,
All good pals and jolly good company!

...though I'm not sure they didn't change the lyrics for Jack's shows!

[shimp scrampi]

I can't figure out that one line either! Could be "rollin' on downtown" something, something....

But, in the absence of any better suggestions, I vote for the cow in a tree line interpretation as an early example of Jack's surrealism Good one bboswell, works for me!

[Maxwell]

I decided to listen very carefully through the surface noise and here what I came up with:

Here we are again,
Happy as can be,
All good pals and jolly good company.

So we come to town,
How we want to spree(?).
All good pals and jolly good company.

Never mind the weather,
Never mind the rain.
Now we're all together
Whoops! He goes again!

Lah-dee-dah-dee-dah, Lah-de-dah-dee-dee
All good pals and jolly good company.

Or at least that's what I could come after about 90 times through it.

[LLeff]

But, in the absence of any better suggestions, I vote for the cow in a tree line interpretation as an early example of Jack's surrealism Good one bboswell, works for me!

You know, I just listened to that line about a dozen times, and I'm starting to be convinced that it really DOES say "cow upon a tree". Even Dan is convinced. Or maybe I've just been spending too much time in Wyoming.

[bboswell]

But, in the absence of any better suggestions, I vote for the cow in a tree line interpretation as an early example of Jack's surrealism Good one bboswell, works for me!

You know, I just listened to that line about a dozen times, and I'm starting to be convinced that it really DOES say "cow upon a tree". Even Dan is convinced. Or maybe I've just been spending too much time in Wyoming.

Hehe, Buck Benny rides again!

[LLeff]

Hehe, Buck Benny rides again!

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie.

http://www.lauraleff.com/laramie.htm

[bboswell]

Hehe, Buck Benny rides again!

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie.

http://www.lauraleff.com/laramie.htm

Wow, it kind of wants to make me say: "Yee Haw!!!"

OK, after some considerable research here is what I came up with:

Here are some possibilities for the missing lyric:

Cow upon a Tree: Of course when the cow jumped over the moon, he had to land somewhere!

Howl upon a tree: Slightly anachronistic, but could refer to the time when Martin Luther nailed a copy of the famous Allen Ginsberg poem to a tree

Now to pawn a dream: This was the line John Lennon stole from the "Jack Benny Theme Song" for the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus." but later discarded in lieu of "Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come"

Howard Bonnetry: Referred to the little-known fact that "The Three Stooges' " Shemp Howard liked to wear women's bonnets while he strolled around the town.

[LLeff]

Then suddenly I realized that...this theme isn't just something penned by Ted Weems or George Olsen...this is a real song. So I've done a Google search and chased every page with "happy as can be", "jolly good company" and "weather". But it seems that anyone remembering the lyrics never puts a line between "Here we are again, happy as can be, all good pals and jolly good company" and "Never mind the weather, never mind the rain." Apparently, it's an old British or Australian (or both) song.

Now, if I had all my 78s catalogued in a database, I might be able to find a recording of it by someone else. But I don't. Seems like the kind of thing that would have been done by the Peerless Quartet. So I went to my antique sheet music and couldn't find anything under "Here We Are Again" or "Jolly Good Company". Argh. Can anyone else chase this as a regular song?

[bboswell]

Then suddenly I realized that...this theme isn't just something penned by Ted Weems or George Olsen...this is a real song. So I've done a Google search and chased every page with "happy as can be", "jolly good company" and "weather". But it seems that anyone remembering the lyrics never puts a line between "Here we are again, happy as can be, all good pals and jolly good company" and "Never mind the weather, never mind the rain." Apparently, it's an old British or Australian (or both) song.

Now, if I had all my 78s catalogued in a database, I might be able to find a recording of it by someone else. But I don't. Seems like the kind of thing that would have been done by the Peerless Quartet. So I went to my antique sheet music and couldn't find anything under "Here We Are Again" or "Jolly Good Company". Argh. Can anyone else chase this as a regular song?

I did the same thing, and that's how I came up with the lyrics you transcribed and posted a couple of years ago. There is another alternative, my wife and I are going to visit my parents this weekend, and my dad has a catalog of thousands of public domain recordings from the early days of recordings. I will try to track this one down.

When I did the online search I found the same thing, I was shocked to see how many results came up from a "jolly good company search," but how few of them had other lyrics. I did find one or two that had a few other lyrics, but nothing CLOSE to the Jack Benny version. (As Brad from Georgia says, they might have changed the words for Jack's show.)

[bboswell]

I think the official name of the song is:

"All Good Pals Together"

from "The Show Goes On" (Thanks Brad from Georgia on that one)

Recorded by Gracie Fields

Well, there's some more information to go on. I looked it up in our local public library and there are no copies of the song or sheet music. Anyone else?

[bboswell]

correction...

proper title is:

"We're All Good Pals Together"