"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" (depending on gender) is a popular song that is sung to congratulate a person on a significant event, such as a promotion, a birthday, getting a new job, a wedding (or playing a major part in a wedding), a retirement, a wedding anniversary, the birth of a child, or the winning of a championship sporting event. The melody originates from the French song "Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough Has Left for the War").

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is the third most popular song in the English language, following "Happy Birthday to You" and "Auld Lang Syne".

History The tune is of French origin and dates at least from the 18th century.The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd. ed. (revised). Ed. Michael Kennedy: "18th‐cent. Fr. nursery song. ... It is usually stated that 'Malbrouck' refers to the 1st Duke of Marlborough, but the name is found in medieval literature." Allegedly it was composed the night after the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. It became a French folk tune and was popularised by Marie Antoinette after she heard one of her maids singing it. The melody became so popular in France that it was used to represent the French defeat in Beethoven's composition Wellington's Victory, Op. 91, written in 1813. In 1826 the Spanish guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778-1839) published his Introduction & Variations For Guitar on Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre, op. 28.

The melody also became widely popular in the United Kingdom.The Times (London, England), 28 March 1826, p. 2: "The Power of Music: A visiting foreigner, trying to recall the address of his lodgings in Marlborough Street, hums the tune to a London cabman: he immediately recognises it as 'Malbrook. By the mid-19th centuryThe song may have featured in an "extravaganza" given at the Princess Theatre in London at Easter 1846, during which fairies hold a moonlight meeting: "...the meeting closes with a song of thanks to Robin Goodfellow (Miss Marshall), who had occupied the chair, ...and who is assured that 'he's a jolly good fellow'." "Princess's." The Times (London, England) 14 April 1846: 5. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 1 October 2012. it was being sung with the words "For he's a jolly good fellow", often at all-male social gatherings,The Times reprinted an article from Punch describing a drunken speech given at a (fictional) public meeting. The speech ends: "Zshenl'men, here's all your vehgood healts! I beggapard'n – here's my honangal'n fren's shjolly goo' health! 'For he's a jolly good fellow', &c (Chorus by the whole of the company, amid which the right hon. orator tumbled down.)" "The After Dinner Speech at the Improvement Club". The Times, (London, England) 23 March 1854: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 1 October 2012. and "For she's a jolly good fellow", often at all-female social gatherings. By 1862, it was already familiar in the United States.Review of a piano recital: "As a finale he performed for the first time, a burlesque on the French air, 'Marlbrook', better known to the American student of harmony as 'He's a jolly good fellow'." The New York Times, 4 October 1862

The British and the American versions of the lyrics differ. "And so say all of us" is typically British,An 1859 version quoted in The Times, however, has some "red-faced" English officers at an Indian entertainment dancing before their host: "...declaring that he was 'a right good fellow; he's a jolly good fellow, which nobody dare deny hip, hip, hip, hoorah!' &c." The Times (London, England), 24 March 1859, p. 9 while "which nobody can deny" is regarded as the American version, but the latter has been used by non-American writers, including Charles Dickens in Household Words, Hugh Stowell Brown in Lectures to the Men of Liverpool and James Joyce in Finnegans Wake. (In the short story "The Dead" from Dubliners, Joyce has a version that goes, "For they are jolly gay fellows..." with a refrain between verses of "Unless he tells a lie".) The 1935 American film Ruggles of Red Gap, set in rural Washington State, ends with repeated choruses of the song, with the two variations sung alternately.

Text

As with many songs that use gender-specific pronouns, the song can be altered to match with the gender of the intended recipient.Originally the song was associated with after-dinner drinking by all-male groups and not used for females. In 1856, British officers in the Crimea mistakenly sang it after a toast had been made, in Russian, to the Empress of Russia: "...peals of laughter followed when they all learned the subject of the toast, which was afterwards drunk again with due honour and respect." Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 80, October 1856 If the song is being sung to two or more people, it is altered to use plurals.

British version

Scots version

American version

Melody

See also The Bear Went Over the Mountain

References

External links "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", text and sound, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences