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192 A CENTURY OF BALLADS
bridge,' I answered. ' Make a song of it, my boy.' And I did, and as it was on Waterloo Bridge, of course we called it 'London Bridge.' The first title would never have done. I don't know why."
Musical Jottings has an amusing little note as to "London Bridge": "Quaint as usual, Weatherly's words again, and sung by Mr. Maybrick. Not a song likely to be very sucÂcessful ! "
"Love's Old Sweet Song" may be said to have run a good second to "Darby and Joan' in the race for popularity. The words of this were by Clifton Bingham, who tells me that they were written at four o'clock in the morning in February, 1882, which seems an unpropitious time for writing a song of twilight. Bingham adds : " Molloy, Cowen, and J. L. Roeckel all wanted to set them ; the two latter composers wrote, but the former ' wired ' for them, and so obtained the preference."
The songs of Stephen Adams, the third member of the quartet, and equally famous as Maybrick the singer, present the same difficulty of choice in the matter of popularity. The list of his publications is an imposing one, and he is still actively engaged in song-writing to-day.
One of his earliest successes, if not the earliest, was "Nancy Lee." Wilhelm Ganz recalls the |
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