"Early One Morning" (Roud V9617) is an English folk song with lyrics first found in publications as far back as 1787.[1] A broadside ballad sheet in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, dated between 1828 and 1829 [2] has the title "The Lamenting Maid" and refers to the lover leaving to become a sailor.[1]
The now well-known melody was first printed by William Chappell in his publication National English Airs c.1855-1859.[1] The melody may be derived from an earlier song "The Forsaken Lover". Chappell wrote in his later Popular Music of the Olden Time:
If I were required to name three of the most popular songs among the servant-maids of the present generation, I should say, from my own experience, that they are Cupid's Garden, I sow'd the seeds of love, and Early one morning. I have heard Early one morning sung by servants who came from Leeds, from Hereford and from Devonshire, and by others from parts nearer to London. The tune... was, I believe first printed in my collection.... from one of the penny song-books collected by Ritson, and it is curious that scarcely any two copies agree beyond the second line, although the subject is always the same - a damsel's complaint for the loss of her lover.[3]
This tune was also used as the opening and closing theme to the beloved Canadian children's short programme, The Friendly Giant (1958-1985).