One Morning in May (folk song)

For the jazz standard, see One Morning in May (1933 song).

"One Morning in May" (Roud 140, Laws P14) is an English folk song which has been collected from traditional singers in England and the USA and has also been recorded by revival singers. Through the use of double-entendre, at least in the English versions, it tells of an encounter between a grenadier (or soldier) and a lady.[1]

Lyrics have been traced to the late 17th or early 18th century. There are a number of textual variants, and the song has many titles. The most frequent in the Roud Index are "The Nightingale", "The Bold Grenadier", and "One Morning in May", in that order.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ a b Roud Folk Song Index at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: https://www.vwml.org/search/search-roud-indexes Retrieved 27/02/08
  2. ^ Roud, S, and Bishop, J; The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs; London, 2012 p442
  3. ^ "Many Versions of The Nightingale or The Grenadier (Soldier) and the Lady". www.stolaf.edu. Retrieved 14 October 2012.