A frequent earworm has reached the breakout point -- must share!

[capri0mni]

There are several people on my f'list with a love of hats (is there some fifty-dollar word out there for "Hat Love," -- something-philia, presumably?).

So, since I am basically a human-mental-jukebox,* this song pops into my head quite frequently, especially as I'm reading my lj friends page (people who post pictures of hats, espeacially fancy or silly hats, you know who you are). It happened again, just now, and I've reached the tipping point where I have no choice** but to inflict the song on all of you -- at least the lyrics. I have a midi of one version of the song, which I will share if you request it:

Now how I came to get this hat, 'tis very strange and funny,
Grandfather died and left to me his property and money;
And when the will it was read out, they told me straight and flat,
If I would have his money, I must always wear his hat.

CHORUS: "Where did you get that hat? Where did you get that tile?
Isn't it a (knobby oops.) nobby one, and just the proper style?
I should like to have one Just the same as that!"
Where'er I go, they shout "Hello! Where did you get that hat?"

If I go to the concert hall, in the concert season
There's someone sure to shout at me without the slightest reason.
If I go to a op'ra house to have a jolly spree,
Then one or two sopranos there are sure to shout at me: CHORUS

At twenty-one I thought I would to my sweetheart get married;
The people in the neighbourhood had said too long we'd tarried.
So off to church we went right quick, determined to get wed;
I had not long been in there, when the parson to me said: CHORUS

I once tried hard to be M.P. but failed to get elected,
Upon a tub I stood, 'round which a thousand folks collected;
And I had dodged the eggs and bricks (which was no easy task),
When one man cried, "A question I the candidate would ask!" CHORUS

When Mr. And Mrs. Ramsbottom had their last garden party
I was amongst the guests who had a welcome true and hearty.
The Prince of Wales was also there, and my heart jumped with glee,
When someone said the prince would like to have a word with me. CHORUS

The song was written somewhere around 1888 (over 120 years ago, so it has spawned several versions of lyrics and tune since then), by J. J. Sullivan, and was still a music hall hit in the early 20th century; I can't help but wonder if the Second Doctor's almost-catchphrase "I like that hat!" from Power of the Daleks (?) was a reference to this song. I certainly think of it when I see pictures of Troughton!Doctor in that tall hat they had him wear in that first story...

---

*whenever a I hear or see reference to a "trigger word," a song will pop into my head, and I have to work at not humming or singing it outloud -- I tend to sing out loud a lot.

**There's a possibility I'm overstating things slightly...

Comments

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

I like that song too.

Minor correction, though; it's "a nobby one", without the k. Meaning posh, from "nob" as a derogatory term for a posh person (which I've always assumed was self-evidently derived from "nobility", but which my dictionary says is "origin obscure".

A "knobby" hat would be, er, something else entirely...

(I think the version I know swaps "concert" and "op'ra", but it doesn't make much difference.)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I didn't know the word "nobby"

The story about the song's origins that I've read said that J. J. Sullivan, the song's author, was a comedian and dancer for the Music Hall, and was looking for new costume props to add to his act, and found an old hat that didn't fit him in a chest in the attic, and when he went out into the street with it, all the neighborhood kids teased him by asking where he got the hat, over and over. And that inspired the song...

So, I thought maybe "knobby" would also work it that context... both words showed up in Internet lyric searches, along with (once) "nappy"... maybe the listener merged "nobby" with "natty," in her head. ...

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

I also love that song (and second "nobby" meaning posh).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

(I love your icon for this subject!)

Thanks for the confirmation. AIUI, the song was popular in America, too, almost at the same time it was a hit in Britain. But we didn't have a nobility class (at least, not the same sort of nobility, or at least we pretended we didn't), so that's one of the words our two Englishes don't share. And so American singers and listeners either misheard the word to something that fit what we did know (like "Nappy", or, as when I first heard the song on the radio, I thought the singer was saying "novvy" as in 'novel,"), or assumed there was a k in there.