| "Nellie Dean" | |
|---|---|
 1905 sheet music cover with inset photo of singer William B. Daly | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1905, M. Witmark & Sons |
| Genre | Sentimental ballad |
| Songwriter(s) | Henry W. Armstrong |
"(You're My Heart's Desire, I Love You) Nellie Dean" is a sentimental ballad in common time by Henry W. Armstrong, published in 1905 by M. Witmark & Sons of New York City.[1] The original sheet music is scored in B-flat major for voice and piano and marked andante moderato.
It was taken up in 1907 by the British music hall singer Gertie Gitana, becoming her most famous song.[2] It subsequently became popular in the UK as a pub song, particularly the chorus (There's an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean…), which was often sung by itself. A book published in 1977 claimed that "The song most often sung in pubs during the present century must surely be Nellie Dean."[3]
Armstrong also performed the song himself. In 1945, when he was 66, Billboard magazine reported he "picked up an extra hand from the British seamen with his throating of 'Nellie Dean'" during a show in Brooklyn put on by the entertainment unit of the Songwriters' Protective Association.[4]
Ellen (Nelly) Dean is the main narrator of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights, but its plot bears no apparent relation to the lyrics of this song.
- ^ "You're My Heart's Desire, I Love You, Nellie Dean. Ballad and Refrain." Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University. Accessed 2009-07-30.
- ^ Power, John C (26 May 2009). "BBC - Stoke & Staffordshire - People - Gertie Gitana". BBC. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
- ^ Harrowven, Jean (1977). The origins of rhymes, songs and sayings. Kaye & Ward. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-7182-1267-4.
- ^ "SPA War Unit Still in There Pitching P.A.'s". Billboard. September 22, 1945. Retrieved 2009-08-01.