"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is a popular song that is sung to congratulate a person on a significant event, such as a promotion, a birthday, a wedding (or playing a major part in a wedding), a retirement, a wedding anniversary, the birth of a child, or the winning of a championship sporting event. The melody originates from the French song "Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough Has Left for the War").

History

The tune is of French origin and dates at least from the 18th century. Allegedly it was composed the night after the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. It became a French folk tune and was popularised by Marie Antoinette after she heard one of her maids singing it. The melody became so popular in France that it was used to represent the French defeat in Beethoven's composition Wellington's Victory, Op. 91, written in 1813. In 1826 the Spanish guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778-1839) published his Introduction & Variations For Guitar on Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre, op. 28.

The melody also became widely popular in the United Kingdom. By the mid-19th century it was being sung with the words "For he's a jolly good fellow", often at all-male social gatherings, and "For she's a jolly good fellow", often at all-female social gatherings. By 1862, it was already familiar in the United States.

The British and the American versions of the lyrics differ. "And so say all of us" is typically British, while "which nobody can deny" is regarded as the American version, Hugh Stowell Brown in Lectures to the Men of Liverpool and James Joyce in Finnegans Wake. (In the short story "The Dead" from Dubliners, Joyce has a version that goes, "For they are jolly gay fellows..." with a refrain between verses of "Unless he tells a lie".) The 1935 American film Ruggles of Red Gap, set in rural Washington State, ends with repeated choruses of the song, with the two variations sung alternately.

Text

As with many songs that use gender-specific pronouns, the song can be altered to match with the gender of the intended recipient. If the song is being sung to two or more people, it is altered to use plurals.

British version

250px|thumb|upright=1.4|For he's a jolly good fellow and so say all of us, by [[Walter Dendy Sadler]]

Scots version

American version

Melody

<score sound="1" lang="lilypond">

\layout { indent = 0 \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" } }

\relative c' { \key f \major \time 6/8 \partial 8 \autoBeamOff \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"trumpet" \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 144

c'8 | a4 a8 a8 g8 a8 | bes4. a4 a8 | g4 g8 g8 f8 g8 | a4. f4 g8 | a4 a8 a8 g8 a8 | bes4. \tempo 4 = 48 d4\fermata \tempo 4 = 144 d8 | c8 d8 c8 bes4 g8 f2.

}

\addlyrics {

For he's a jol- ly good fell- ow, for he's a jol- ly good fell- ow, for he's a jol- ly good fell- ow,

which no- bo- dy can de- ny! }

</score>

See also

  • The Bear Went Over the Mountain

References

  • "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", text and sound, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences