Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In Joe Offer's collection, this song had only the following footnotes:
Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1974, BBC Publications
Notes:
None supplied in the pamphlet.
However, in a discussion on the song the following was added:
According to Steven Saunders and Deane L. Root, The Music of Stephen C. Foster: A Critical Edition (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990, vol. 1, p. 491), this edition (at the Levy Collection) is "the earliest known copy."
Title: Foster's Melodies No.29. Some Folks.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Composed by S[tephen] C[ollins] Foster
Publication: New York: Firth, Pond & Co., 1 Franklin Square, 1855.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus (and instrumental interlude)
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Some folks like to sigh, Some folks do, some folks do
First Line of Chorus: Long live the Merry merry heart that laughs by night and day
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Wakelam & Bro.
I have chosen to sing the chorus after each verse, though in Foster's original it was only sung after the first verse, then after the 3rd and 5th verses.
In Joe Offer's collection, this song had only the following footnotes:
Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1974, BBC Publications
Notes:
None supplied in the pamphlet.
However, in a discussion on the song the following was added:
According to Steven Saunders and Deane L. Root, The Music of Stephen C. Foster: A Critical Edition (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990, vol. 1, p. 491), this edition (at the Levy Collection) is "the earliest known copy."
Title: Foster's Melodies No.29. Some Folks.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Composed by S[tephen] C[ollins] Foster
Publication: New York: Firth, Pond & Co., 1 Franklin Square, 1855.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus (and instrumental interlude)
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: Some folks like to sigh, Some folks do, some folks do
First Line of Chorus: Long live the Merry merry heart that laughs by night and day
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Wakelam & Bro.
I have chosen to sing the chorus after each verse, though in Foster's original it was only sung after the first verse, then after the 3rd and 5th verses.
