Don't Dilly Dally On The Way by Marie Lloyd

Album: Music Hall Classics (1918)

License This Song

Songfacts®:

Also known as "The Cock Linnet Song" and "My Old Man Said Follow The Van," this humorous music hall number about doing a moonlight flit was a big hit for Marie Lloyd. The sheet music "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way. (The 'COCK LINNET' Song.)" is credited written by Charles Collins and Fred W. Leigh, and is copyright 1919 by B. Feldman of London. Marie introduced this number in 1918, in the twilight of her career. On stage she performed it dressed as an old woman wrapped in a shawl and carrying a bird in a cage, presumably not a live one. Although it became one of her best known songs, she did not actually record it. Marie Lloyd died in October 1922 aged only fifty-two, but the song remained popular and was recorded by Lily Morris, among others. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England
Miss Piggy performed this on Episode 211 of The Muppet Show. Her version was the first track on the Muppet Show Music Hall EP, which reached #19 in the UK singles charts in 1979.
"Cock Linnet" is cockney rhyming slang for minute and to "dilly dally" means to linger.

Comments: 3

Mos Daft from Sheffield, UkWhat does “ What with "two out" and a chat, ” mean?
Cockney from East EndCock linnet isn’t rhyming slang for minute it’s a male bird she’s carrying called a linnet.
Zabadak from London, EnglandSo, who was the first to record it then?

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Handle With CareThe Traveling Wilburys

"Handle With Care" started as a George Harrison song with guest appearances by Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, but it went so well the five of them decided to form a group - The Traveling Wilburys - and record an entire album.

Psycho KillerTalking Heads

The French part in Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" explains that the killer is going after a girl, like Norman Bates in the movie Psycho.

Ur So GayKaty Perry

Katy Perry says her 2008 song "Ur So Gay" is about "guys who wear the guyliner, steal your jeans, and that whole almost hipster emo scene."

LightsEllie Goulding

Ellie Goulding's hit song "Lights" is about her fear of the dark, which forces the singer to sleep with the lights on.

Born on the BayouCreedence Clearwater Revival

John Fogerty was not born on the bayou - he's from Berkeley, California. He got the idea for the song when CCR was on tour in Louisiana.

Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)Katy Perry

When "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" climbed to #1 on the Hot 100, Katy Perry became the first woman to send five songs from one album to the top of the charts. The four previous chart-toppers from her Teenage Dream set were "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Firework" and "E.T."