Fred Godfrey & Billy Williams, 1910.
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Manuscript of lyrics, in Fred Godfreys hand. Note the claim of sole authorship by Godfrey and the corrections in another hand, probably that of Billy Williams’s son, Billy Jr., to whom this manuscript once belonged. Billy Jr. most likely made the corrections to conform with the lyrics as sung on recordings by his father. Also note the original subtitle, “The Queen Of Naukipoo Isle,” which quickly got changed to “The Queen Of The Cannibal Isle,” as reflected in the corrected lyrics. In recordings, “King Naukipoo” also became “King Kangaroo,” likely at the instigation of Australian Billy Williams.
(Author’s collection) |
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Listen
to a
1911
Zonophone
recording
by
Billy Williams,
reissued in 1913
on the Cinch label.
MP3
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Letter dated 15 December 1910 from Fred Godfrey
assigning the performing rights and
a share of the
publishing royalties of Sally O’Malley to Billy Williams. |
Recordings
Billy Williams recorded three versions of this song: 3 February 1911 for
Zonophone, ca. March 1911 for Homophon, and ca. December 1911 for Beka
Grand. Reissues appeared on several other labels.1
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Note
1 For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust, British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK:
Gramophone, 1979); and Frank Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography (Bournemouth, UK:
Talking Machine Review, 1982).
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