The Glow-Worm
Encyclopedia
"Das Glühwürmchen", known in English as "The Glow-Worm", is an aria from Paul Lincke
Paul Lincke
Carl Emil Paul Lincke was a German composer and theater conductor. He is considered the "father" of the Berlin opera and holds the same significance for Berlin as does Johann Strauss for Vienna and Jacques Offenbach for Paris.He was the son of magistrate August Lincke and and wife Emilie...

's 1902 operetta Lysistrata, with German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 lyrics by Heinz Bolten-Backers. The song, with its familiar chorus, was translated into English and became an American popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

.

It was originally translated into English by Lilla Cayley Robinson, in the early 20th century, and was used in the 1920 Broadway musical The Girl Behind The Counter.

American lyricist Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

 later expanded and greatly revised Robinson's lyrics, for the 1952 recording by the Mills Brothers
Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed as The Four Mills Brothers, were an American jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century who made more than 2,000 recordings that combined sold more than 50 million copies, and garnered at least three dozen gold records...

.
His version was a hit for the Mills Brothers, and it has been performed by several others.

The tune is also quite popular as an orchestral instrumental.

Lyrics

Robinson's English-translation lyrics (circa 1905):

Verse 1:
When the night falls silently,
The night falls silently on forests dreaming,
Lovers wander forth to see,
They wander forth to see the bright stars gleaming.
And lest they should lose their way,
Lest they should lose their way, the glow-worms nightly
Light their tiny lanterns gay,
Their tiny lanterns gay and twinkle brightly.

Here and there and everywhere, from mossy dell and hollow,
Floating, gliding through the air, they call on us to follow.


Chorus:
Shine, little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer!
Lead us lest too far we wander.
Love's sweet voice is calling yonder!
Shine, little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Shine, little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Light the path below, above,
And lead us on to love.


Verse 2:
Little glow-worm, tell me pray,
Oh glow-worm, tell me, pray, how did you kindle
Lamps that by the break of day,
That by the break of day, must fade and dwindle?"
Ah, this secret, by your leave,
This secret, by your leave, is worth the learning!
When true lovers come at eve,
True lovers come at eve, their hearts are burning!

Glowing cheeks and lips betray how sweet the kisses tasted
Till we steal the fire away, for fear lest it be wasted!"


Johnny Mercer kept the original chorus basically intact and added 3 new "verses" to that same tune but did not use music from the original song's verses at all.

Renditions and other appearances in popular culture

  • Probably the best-known recording of the song was done by The Mills Brothers with the Hal McIntyre
    Hal McIntyre
    Hal McIntyre was an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader....

     Orchestra in 1952
    1952 in music
    -Events:*February 26 - Jo Stafford marries bandleader/arranger Paul Weston.*March 21 - First reported Rock and roll riot breaks out at Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio...

    . Their version spent 21 weeks on the charts, including 3 weeks at #1.
  • The great ballerina Anna Pavlova performed an orchestrated version of "The Glow-Worm".
  • Spike Jones
    Spike Jones
    Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...

     released a version of the song in 1946, replete with his typical comic sound effects.
  • Allan Sherman
    Allan Sherman
    Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...

     parodied the song as "Grow, Mrs. Goldfarb."
  • The song was heard throughout the I Love Lucy
    I Love Lucy
    I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

    episode "The Saxophone" (1952), as it was the only song Lucy knew how to play on the saxophone.
  • In the 1960s, the soft drink Dr Pepper
    Dr Pepper
    Dr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...

     used the tune of the song's chorus in their "It's Dr Pepper Time!" ads.
  • Mel Tormé
    Mel Tormé
    Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

     recorded a version with alternate lyrics for his 1992 Christmas album, Christmas Songs
    Christmas Songs (Mel Tormé album)
    Christmas Songs is a 1992 studio album by the American jazz singer Mel Tormé.- Track listing :# Christmas Medley: "Jingle Bells"/"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" Christmas Songs is a 1992 studio album by the American jazz singer Mel Tormé.- Track listing :# Christmas Medley: "Jingle Bells"/"Santa...

    .
  • An orchestral arrangement of the song is used in McCain Foods's "Good Unlimited" ads, which first aired in November 2009.

External links

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