Daisy Bell

"Bicycle Built for Two" redirects here. For the multi-rider bicycle, see Tandem bicycle.

"Daisy Bell"
Song

"Daisy Bell" is a popular song whose lyrics ("Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two") are considerably better known than the song's actual title.

History

"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. As David Ewen writes in American Popular Songs: "When Dacre, an English popular composer, first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged duty. His friend (the songwriter William Jerome) remarked lightly: 'It's lucky you didn't bring a bicycle built for two, otherwise you'd have to pay double duty.' Dacre was so taken with the phrase 'bicycle built for two' that he decided to use it in a song. That song, Daisy Bell, first became successful in a London music hall, in a performance by Katie Lawrence. Tony Pastor was the first one to sing it in the United States. Its success in America began when Jennie Lindsay brought down the house with it at the Atlantic Gardens on the Bowery early in 1892."

It is said that a real Daisy inspired the song: "Daisy" the Countess of Warwick, Frances Evelyn Maynard, one of the wealthiest and most desirable English women of the period. In her lifetime, she became a vegetarian, championed women's education, and stood as a Labour (leftist/socialist) candidate. At one point, she was mistress of the Prince of Wales (subsequently Edward VII of the United Kingdom, 1901–10).

Memorable performances

Memorable performances of "Daisy Bell" have included an arrangement by Max Mathews programmed on an IBM 704 which inspired an a cappella solo by Douglas Rain as HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The background behind this inspired choice goes all the way back to 1962 when physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr created one of the most famous moments in the history of Bell Labs by using an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer vocoder recreated the song "Daisy Bell", with Max Mathews providing the musical accompaniment. Arthur C. Clarke of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame was coincidentally visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility at the time of this remarkable speech synthesis demonstration and was so impressed that he used it in the climactic scene of his novel and screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the HAL 9000 computer sings the same song as astronaut Dave Bowman disables its cognitive functions. The HAL performance made the "Daisy, Daisy" lines a part of contemporary popular culture in America, although the song was already a popular children's rhyme in the United Kingdom.

This song has also been performed by the musical group Tin Hat Trio, and is featured on their 2007 CD "The Sad Machinery of Spring".

A reference to HAL's solo of Daisy Bell was made in the 2005 movie Robots while Rodney fixes Big Weld's brain during an escape. Big Weld begins to sing the song during the chase.

Alma Rek wrote lyrics in Swedish, as Isabella, recorded by Gösta Ekman who had a 1929 hit with this version of the song.

Trivia

• The song is possibly derived from 'Sarah Sarah, or a Donkey Cart Built for two' by Harry Bedford, printed sometime between 1877 and 1884, however the dates are uncertain and the reverse is possible. A broadside copy can be viewed on the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads site. (Viewable by clicking on the magnifying glass and scrolling down to read it).

• The IBM 704 was not the first computer to play Daisy Bell, as this song was popular on the UNIVAC I. Playback of music was demonstrated in early 1951 on the UNIVAC I at the event celebrating the first operation of the machine.

• "Daisy Bell" is featured in the Commodore 64 demo Broken Limits, which plays out the tune using the Commodore 1541 disk drive mechanics.

• A "Daisy Bell" program called "Daisy" appeared for the Commodore Amiga, which played out the tune using the disk drive mechanics and 'sang' the lyrics using the amiga translator.device

• "Daisy Bell" was also recorded on the single CD "Sunday Sunday" by the English Britpop band Blur in 1993. This version of the song was also memorably performed by the band at the Mile End stadium concert in June 1995 as a duet with Phil Daniels.

• The song was featured in the Futurama episode Love and Rocket in which Bender dates the Planet Express ship and serenades her with the song.

• The third paragraph of the song was hidden as an easter egg in the stylesheet of the Wordpress Default theme. Thus been installed on thousands of servers and blogs, the lyrics are only visible when you edit the stylesheet.

• It was also performed by Captain Hero in an American Idol parody episode of Drawn Together.

• In the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds we hear a Japanese version of the song.

• A character in the Playstation 2 game S.L.A.I. sings it while fighting.

• In April 1975, the Homebrew Computer Club held their fourth meeting at the Peninsula School in Menlo Park. Steve Dompier played "Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy Bell" using the Altair and a radio.

• It was performed briefly on the pilot of the television show, Wonderfalls

• The HERO Jr. educational robot by Heathkit sings the third verse using the voice synth chip [chip name needed] common in the 1980's.

Lyrics

There is a flower within my heart

Daisy, Daisy

Planted one day by a glancing dart

Planted by Daisy Bell

Whether she loves me or loves me not

Sometimes it's hard to tell

Yet I am longing to share the lot

Of beautiful Daisy Bell

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do

I'm half crazy all for the love of you

It won't be a stylish marriage

I can't afford a carriage

But you'll look sweet upon the seat

Of a bicycle built for two

We will go 'tandem' as man and wife

Daisy, Daisy

Wheeling away down the road of life

I and my Daisy Bell

When the nights dark, we can both despise

Policemen and lamps as well

There are bright lights in the dazzling eyes

Of beautiful Daisy Bell

(Ending of the Edward M. Favor version)

I will stand by you in "wheel" or woe

Daisy, Daisy

You'll be the bell(e) which I'll ring you know

Sweet little Daisy Bell

You'll take the lead in each trip we take

Then if I don't do well

I will permit you to use the brake

My beautiful Daisy Bell.

The chorus of this song (Daisy, Daisy, give me...) is probably the best known part of the lyrics.

External links

• Lyrics with .midi on National Institutes of Health website
• The Daisy Bell Page (compiled by Chris Komuves)
• Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two) - Harry Dacre (Lyrics and Chords)
• Works of Edward M. Favor, including an 1894 recording of "Daisy Bell" (MP3)