Not to be confused with Billy Boys

Billy Boys

The Billy Boys is a loyalist song from Glasgow, sung to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia." It originated in the 1930s as the signature song of one of the Glasgow razor gangs led by Billy Fullerton and later reflected the long running sectarian divide in the city...

"Billy Boy" is a traditional folk song and nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

 found in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It has a Roud Folk Song Index

Roud Folk Song Index

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...

 number of 326.

Lyrics

One variant of the lyrics goes:


Oh, where have you been,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Oh, where have you been,
Charming Billy?
I have been to seek a wife,
She's the joy of my life,
She's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

Did she ask you to come in,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Did she ask you to come in,
Charming Billy?
Yes, she asked me to come in,
There's a dimple in her chin.
She's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

Can she make a cherry pie,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she make a cherry pie,
Charming Billy?
She can make a cherry pie,
Quick as a cat can wink an eye,
She's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

How old is she,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
How old is she,
Charming Billy?
Three times six and four times seven,
Twenty-eight and eleven,
She's a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.


Further variants have been recorded, that greatly extend the number of verses and tasks she can perform. An extended version of the song in which the lover performs many tasks besides the cherry pie

Cherry pie

Cherry pie is a pie baked with a cherry filling. Traditionally, cherry pie is made with tart rather than sweet cherries as it is easier to control how sweet the pie eventually becomes and also eventually translates to a sharper taste...

 was collected by Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...

 and John Avery Lomax: it appears in American Ballads and Folk Songs. The Lomax version names the woman being courted Betsy Jane.

The folk group, The Almanac Singers, wrote an anti-war version of this song by Millard Lampell

Millard Lampell

Millard Lampell was an American movie and television screenwriter who first became publicly known as a member of the Almanac Singers in the 1940s....

.

Origins and interpretations

The final verse may be intended as a math puzzle, or it may be a humorous indication that the woman is considerably older

Spinster

A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...

 than the protestation of her youth in the refrain

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

 seems to indicate. While the tone of the nursery rhyme is ironic and teasing, both the question and answer form and the narrative of the song have been related to Lord Randall

Lord Randall

"Lord Randall", or "Lord Randal", is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad, a traditional ballad consisting of dialogue. The different versions follow the same general lines: the primary character is poisoned, usually by his sweetheart; this is revealed through a conversation where he reports on the...

, a murder ballad

Murder ballad

Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the traditional ballad form, the lyrics of which form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath...

 from the British Isles. In Lord Randall, the suitor is poisoned by the woman he visits.

By contrast, Robin Fox

Robin Fox

Robin Fox is an Anglo-American anthropologist who has written on the topics of marriage, human and primate kinship systems, and evolutionary anthropology and sociology. He was born in Yorkshire. He founded the department of anthropology at Rutgers University in 1967 and remained a professor there...

 uses the song to make a point about cooking

Cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

 and courtship

Courtship

Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...

, and observes that:

Feeding has always been closely linked with courtship. . . With humans this works two ways since we are the only animals who cook: the bride is usually appraised for her cooking ability. (“Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy?”) In some cultures this is far more important than her virginity.