547. The Riddle Song (Traditional English)

Also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry," this lullaby has its origins in a 15th-century English song in which a maiden says she is advised to unite with her lover. It is probably related to Child Ballads No 1 (Riddles Wisely Expounded) and No. 46. In America it has been found in the Appalachians. The definite article is not really appropriate here, as there are a large number of songs using the same format.

Burl Ives included it on his first album, "Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger." (1941) It has since been recorded by many artists, including Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Joan Baez, Sam Cooke, Josh White and Carly Simon.

Some have seen the song's "cherry that has no stone" as a reference to virginity, and some have even tried to reconstruct an original bawdy version but "the cherye with-outyn ony ston" was already present in the 15th-century version, whereas the relevant slang sense of "cherry" is not known until the early 20th century.

The tune of this song was used for the very popular "Twelfth of Never."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• cherry
• stone
• burl
• ives
• twelfth
• of
• never

[coolanddark]

Absolutely beautiful Raymond! One of the worlds greatest songs in my opinion!

[raymondcrooke]

@coolanddark Thanks, Dan. Good to hear from you.

Greetings from London, England.

[RazmiorSiki]

This is awesome !!

[raymondcrooke]

@RazmiorSiki Thank you.

[lesterjallen]

been threw quite a few of your covers now and this is most definatly my favourate theres not enough renditions of traditional songs nower days

just lovley

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks for visiting my channel.

[raymondcrooke]

I'm glad you liked it.

[mollynolan1]

Beautiful thank you

[lucydog232]

How the heck do you know my name and what are you doing up at one a.m checking youtube?

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks for watching, Maddie.