Sally in Our Alley (song)

"Sally in Our Alley" is a traditional English song, originally written by Henry Carey in 1725. It became a standard of British popular music over the following century.[1] The expression also entered popular usage, giving its name to a 1902 Broadway musical and several films including Sally in Our Alley, the 1931 screen debut of Gracie Fields.

An 1886 illustration of the song.

Lyrics

Sally In Our Alley

Of all the girls that are so smart
  There's none like pretty Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.
There is no lady in the land
  Is half so sweet as Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

Her father he makes cabbage-nets,
  And through the streets does cry ’em;
Her mother she sells laces long
  To such as please to buy ’em;
But sure such folks could ne’er beget
  So sweet a girl as Sally!
She is the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

When she is by I leave my work,
  I love her so sincerely;
My master comes like any Turk,
  And bangs me most severely.
But let him bang his bellyful, -
  I’ll bear it all for Sally;
For she's the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

Of all the days that's in the week
  I dearly love but one day,
And that's the day that comes betwixt
  The Saturday and Monday;
For then I'm drest all in my best
  To walk abroad with Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

My master carries me to church,
  And often am I blaméd
Because I leave him in the lurch
  As soon as text is naméd:
I leave the church in sermon-time,
  And slink away to Sally, -
She is the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

When Christmas comes about again,
  O, then I shall have money!
I’ll hoard it up, and, box and all,
  I’ll give it to my honey;
O, would it were ten thousand pound!
  I’d give it all to Sally;
For she's the darling of my heart,
  And she lives in our alley.

My master and the neighbors all
  Make game of me and Sally,
And but for her I’d better be
  A slave, and row a galley;
But when my seven long years are out,
  O, then I’ll marry Sally!
O, then we’ll wed, and then we’ll bed, -
  But not in our alley!

By Henry Carey[2]


The song has 7 verses. The first of which is

Of all the girls that are so smart

  There 's none like pretty Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

  And she lives in our alley.

There is no lady in the land         

  Is half so sweet as Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

  And she lives in our alley.[3]

References
  1. Johnson p.369
  2. A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from The Best Poets. With An Introduction by William Cullen Bryant, New York, J.B. Ford and Company, 1871, p. 52.
  3. "444. Sally in our Alley. Henry Carey. The Oxford Book of English Verse". www.bartleby.com. Retrieved 2021-08-26.

Bibliography
  • Helen Kendrick Johnson. Our Familiar Songs and Those who Made Them: Three Hundred Standard Songs of the English-speaking Race, Arranged with Piano Accompaniment, and Preceded by Sketches of the Writers and Histories of Their Songs, Volume 1. H. Holt, 1881.
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