Those Songs My Mother Used To Sing

A top hit song from 1904
words and music by H. Wakefield Smith

---

The sheet music:

---

Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:

---

Lyrics

1. Within the shadow of my room
   An old melodeon idly stands
   A relic of my dear old home
   Long years ago in distant lands
   Its iv’ry keys are turning brown
   But ‘round it tender mem’ries cling
   And with its sweetest tones have flown
   Those songs my mother used to sing

Refrain
Oh, “Believe me, if all those endearing young charms”
Is a song that she oft’ sang to me
And the “Last Rose of Summer”
Still breathes a fragrant melody
“Ah! Don’t you remember, sweet Alice, Ben Bolt”
From out the golden past those sweet notes ring
Tonight I hear those dear old songs again
Those songs my mother used to sing

2. Its frame is falling to decay
   The music from its soul has fled
   And those dear hands that used to play
   Like autumn leaves, lie still and dead
   I see her dear form sitting there
   Sometimes when fancy takes its wing
   And then with tear-dimm’d eyes, I hear
   Those songs my mother used to sing

Chorus
Come back to Erin, Mavourneen, Mavourneen
Tenderly of Ireland’s Isle she sang
And of Bonnie Annie Laurie
That oft’ thro’ dear old Scotland’s mountains rang
Ah! Way down upon the Swanee River
What happiness those misty mem’ries bring
Tonight I hear those dear old songs again
Those songs my mother used to sing

---

Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: