My Grandfather's Clock

The original clock in the George Hotel
Piercebridge, County Durham, England

My Grandfather’s Clock was written by the American Abolitionist, composer and songwriter, ‘Henry Clay Work’ in 1876. He was inspired to write the song while on a visit to England c. 1875, when lodging at a coaching inn, The Old George Hotel, Piecebridge, County Durham near Darlington.

While staying there, he heard a story about the silent old longcase floor clock the stood in a corner of the public house. He was told the clock, which had always kept good time, stopped working the day the owner died, and it had never worked since.

Black and white picture of man in victorian dress

Henry Clay Work

On his return to America, he wrote the song, which he called ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ and it became an enormous hit at the time, selling over 800,000 copies of the sheet music.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the popular 1876 song is responsible for the common name "grandfather clock" being applied to longcase and floor clocks.

The song was first recorded by Harry McDonough and the Haydn Quartet in 1905. It has since has become a standard piece of music by American Old Time Bluegrass musicians and with British Brass and Colliery Bands. Beside My Grandfather’s Clock, Henry Clay Work had hits with Marching Through Georgia, The Ship that Never Returned, Babylon Is Fallen, and the Temperance song Come, Home Father.

Sheet Music Cover

My Grandfather's Clock

1. My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf
So it stood ninety years on the floor.
It was taller by half than the old man himself
But it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn on the day that he was born
It was always his treasure and pride.
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

Chorus
Ninety years without slumbering
Tick tock, tick tock,
His life's seconds numbering
Tick tock, tick tock,
It stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

2. In watching its pendulum swing to and fro
Many hours he had spent when a boy.
And through childhood and manhood, the clock seemed to know
And it shared both his sorrow and his joy.
For it struck 24 when he entered through the door
With a blooming, and beautiful bride,
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

3. My grandfather said that of those he could hire
Not a servant so faithful he'd found,
For it kept perfect time and it had one desire
At the close of each day to be wound.
And it kept to its place, not a frown upon its face
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

4. It rang an alarm in the still of the night,
An alarm that for years had not rung.
And we knew that his spirit was pluming it’s flight
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time
With a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died.

Frank Crumit

This is another song that I heard regularly played on the radio while growing up in the 1940’s, it was sung by Frank Crumit. He was one of my dad’s favourite singers, and my father would often serenade us with a verse or two of Abdul Abulbul Amir.

Frank Crumit was a singer, composer, radio entertainer and vaudeville star from Jackson, Ohio in the United States of America. He recorded most of his big hits during the 1920’s and 30’s, accompanying himself on ukulele and tiple (a ten-string guitar) manufactured by C.F. Martin and Company, the famous American guitar maker.
He composed and sung many comic novelty songs with inventive titles and catchy tunes. Between 1920 and 1929, he was more popular in Britain than he was in the USA and is credited with having 31 hits during the time. In a recording career spanning 1919 and 1940 he recorded over 250 songs.

Some of his hits:
Frankie and Jonny 1922, My Grandfather’s Clock 1925, Ukulele Lady 1925, Abdul Abulbul Amir 1927, The Song of the Prune 1928, I Don’t Work for a Living 1929, What kind of Noise annoys An Oyster 1931, Granny’s Old Armchair 1932,There's No One with Endurance, Like the Man Who Sells Insurance 1935.

On 17th May 1975, Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart on Radio One’s Children’s Favourites, Junior Choice programme played Frank Crumit singing ‘The Prune Song’, that I’d requested for ‘Our Sal’ (the Website Builder) on occasion of her 7th Birthday.

In the original song as published in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, there was no ‘My’ in the title, and the refrain ‘Tick tock, tick tock’, was originally written ‘tic, tic, tic,tic,’ which is another fine example of the folk process at work.

About Mick

Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

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Early Years

My Grandfather's Clock

My Grandfather's Clock

About Mick

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