"Roses of Picardy" is a popular British song with lyrics by Frederick Weatherly and music by Haydn Wood. Published in London in 1916 by Chappell & Co, it was one of the most famous songs of the First World War and has been recorded frequently up to the present day.
The lyricist Fred Weatherly had become impressed with beauty of the voice of the soprano Elsie Griffin, who later became a leading artiste with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.[1] Her singing of his compositions resulted in his writing two of the most popular hits of the 20th-century "Danny Boy" (1910) and "Roses of Picardy".[2] The composer Haydn Wood wrote the music for over 200 ballads, of which "Roses of Picardy" became his most popular. Wood related that the melody came to him as he was going home one night on the top of a London bus. He jumped off the bus and wrote down the refrain on an old envelope while standing under a street lamp.[3]
The exact story that lies behind the words of the song is unclear, but in his 1926 memoirs, Weatherly suggested that it concerned a love affair of one of his close friends.[4][Note 1] Weatherly himself travelled in France, but visited the Rhone valley and Chamonix.[4] Picardy was a pre-Revolutionary province in the north of France near the Channel, the site of battles during the Hundred Years’ War and mentioned in Shakepeare’s history plays. In the 20th century, it was regarded as stretching from north of Noyon to Calais via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department.
During the stalemate of the Western Front during First World War, British and Empire troops manned the lines in central Picardy. In the summer of 1916, these troops fought the first Battle of the Somme in some of the deadliest and fiercest fighting of the war.[5][Note 2] "Roses of Picardy" was published in December and quickly became popular throughout Britain,[6][7] with British soldiers singing it when they were dispatched to the Front in France and Flanders.[8][9][10] During the First World War, the song sold at a rate of 50,000 copies of the sheet music per month, earning Haydn Wood approximately £10,000 in total (£518,252 in 2024 adjusted for inflation).[3][11] Following the war, the singing of the song helped soldiers who were suffering from shell shock to regain their powers of speech.[12]
The following lyric is taken from the sheet music published in 1916:[13][Note 3]
Verse 1:
Refrain
Verse 2:
There is also a French version of the song under the title of "Dansons la Rose". The following words for its refrain are taken from the recording by Yves Montand:[14][15]
Among the earliest commercial recordings were those by the tenors Lambert Murphy in 1917,[16] Ernest Pike in 1918[17] and John McCormack in 1919.[16] There are more than 150 recordings of the song sung in English and versions in Finnish, French, Spanish and German. There are also many instrumental versions, for example for piano, violin, string ensemble, jazz band and numerous different types of orchestra.[18]
After the Second World War, the American jazz artist Sidney Bechet, a long-time resident in France, popularised a Swing version, and it was also recorded by the French popular singer Yves Montand.[18] Singer Dorothy Squires recorded various versions of the song. In 1967 Vince Hill had a Top 20 hit with the song. In 2001, the folk stylist June Tabor recorded a version for her album Rosa Mundi. In 2011 the Canadian tenor Ben Heppner recorded the song for BMG[18] and the tenor Alfie Boe recorded it for the soundtrack of the British period drama television series Downton Abbey.[18]
"Roses of Picardy" was included on the soundtrack album of the 2015 film The Danish Girl by Tom Hooper.[19]
You can use the following links to listen to the song being performed:
