Daisy Bell

"Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" is a popular song, written in 1892 by British songwriter Harry Dacre, with the well-known chorus, "Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer, do. / I'm half crazy / all for the love of you", ending with the words, "a bicycle built for two".

"Bicycle Built for Two" redirects here. For the multi-rider bicycle, see Tandem bicycle.
"Daisy Bell"
Song
Released1892
Songwriter(s)Harry Dacre

The song is said to have been inspired by Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, one of the many mistresses of King Edward VII.[1][2]

It is the earliest song sung using computer speech synthesis by the IBM 7094 in 1961, a feat which was referenced in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

History

"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. As David Ewen writes in American Popular Songs:[3]

When Dacre, an English popular composer, first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged import duty. His friend William Jerome, another songwriter, 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 soon used 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 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.

The song was originally recorded and released by Dan W. Quinn in 1893.[4]

Parody

Even in its original form, this light-hearted song contains several puns ("tandem" as describing both a tandem bicycle and matrimony, bell/belle, weal/wheel, etc.), and almost from the beginning the song lent itself to parody and satire, with a great number of additional verses having been penned, ranging from the mildly humorous to the outright obscene. For example, the same year the song was published, an "answer" chorus appeared:

Michael, Michael,
Here is my answer true!
You're half crazy,
If you think that that will do!
If you can't afford a carriage,
There won't be any marriage,
'Cause I'll be switched if I'll get hitched
On a bicycle built for two

Sometimes the songwriter's name—"Harry"—was used instead of "Michael" in this chorus.[5]

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!

CHORUS. (a little faster.)
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 on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two!

We will go "tandem" as man and wife, Daisy, Daisy!
"Ped'ling" away down the road of life, I and my Daisy Bell!
When the road's dark we can both despise P'liceman and "lamps" as well;
There are "bright lights" in the dazzling eyes Of beautiful Daisy Bell!
(Chorus)

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!
(Chorus)

In technology and culture

Computing and technology

  • In 1961, an IBM 704 at Bell Labs was programmed to sing "Daisy Bell" in the earliest demonstration of computer speech synthesis. This recording has been included in the United States National Recording Registry.[6]
  • In 1974, auditory researchers used the melody of "Daisy Bell" for the first demonstration of "pure dichotic" (two-ear only) perception: they encoded the melody in a stereophonic signal in such a way that it could be perceived when listening with both ears but not with either ear alone.[7]
  • In 1985, Christopher C. Capon created a Commodore 64 program named "Sing Song Serenade", which caused the Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive to emit the tune of "Daisy Bell" directly from its hardware by rapidly moving the read/write head.[8]
  • In 1999, a piece of computer software called BonziBuddy sang Daisy Bell if the user asked it to sing. The green parrot later became a purple gorilla in version 3.0.[9]
  • Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, may sing the first line of Daisy when asked to sing a song.[10][11]

Films
  • Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke witnessed the IBM 704 demonstration during a trip to Bell Labs in 1962 and referred to it in the 1968 novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the HAL 9000 computer sings "Daisy Bell" during its gradual deactivation.[12]
  • In the 1986 film The Hitcher, the character John Ryder hums the song while being transported on the prison bus.
  • It is the IBM 704 connection to which the song most likely owes its appearance in the film The Theory of Everything (2014), a drama about the life of the world renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, whereupon the fictionalized Hawking types out part of the song's lyric, in order to have the words subsequently "spoken", utilising his iconic text-to-synthesised-speech device.
  • In the 2005 animated film Robots, the character Bigweld sings "Daisy Bell" briefly while Rodney repairs him.

Musical recordings

Radio
  • The tune was played as the lead-in to Aunt Daisy's radio broadcasts in New Zealand, which ran from 1930 until her death in 1963.[15]

References
  1. Carroll, Leslie. Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy. Edward VII and Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick 1861–1938: NAL Trade. ISBN 0-451-22398-5.CS1 maint: location (link)
  2. "Local history: The socialist socialite". BBC. 22 May 2009.
  3. Ewen, David (1966). American Popular Songs. Random House. ISBN 0-394-41705-4.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories 1890–1954. Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
  5. Cray, Ed (1992). The Erotic Muse. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-2520-178-11.
  6. National Recording Registry Adds 25 – The Library Today (Library of Congress)
  7. Kubovy, M.; Cutting, J. E.; McGuire, R. M. . (1974). "Hearing with the Third Ear: Dichotic Perception of a Melody without Monaural Familiarity Cues". Science. 186 (4160): 272–274. doi:10.1126/science.186.4160.272. PMID 4413641.
  8. "[CSDb] - Sing Song Serenade by Christopher C. Capon (1985)". Commodore 64 Scene Database. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  9. O’Dell, Cary. ""Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)"" (PDF). loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  10. Martin, Jim. "Amaze your friends with these 45 funny Cortana responses on Windows 10". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  11. Sri San (2015-08-07), Daisy Daisy, retrieved 2016-10-24
  12. "Background: Bell Labs Text-to-Speech Synthesis". bell-labs.com. Lucent Technologies. March 1997. Archived from the original on 7 April 2000.
  13. https://nurseryrhymescollections.com/lyrics/daisy-daisy.html
  14. Williams, Maxwell (May 2, 2014). "Katy Perry Featured on Pop Artist Mark Ryden's $100 'Gay Nineties' Album (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  15. "Basham, Maud Ruby – Biography". Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
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