OTHER PEOPLE'S BABIES
(Lyrics: A.P Herbert / Music: Vivian Ellis)


Norah Howard - 1933



Babies, it's a gift, my dear, and I should say I know
For I've been pushing prams about for forty years or so
Thirty-seven babies, or is it thirty-nine
No, I'm wrong, it's thirty-six, but none of them was mine

Other people's babies, that's my life
Mother to dozens and nobody's wife
Other people's babies, cots and prams
Such little terrors, such little lambs

But then of course it isn't everyone can say
They used to bath the Honourable Hay
Lord John Mantague, Richard Twistle-Thins
Captain Partlett and the Ramrod twins

Other people's babies, that's my life
Mother to dozens and nobody's wife

Isn't he a pet, my dear, the spit of Lady Stoop
Looks a perfect picture, yes, I nurse him through the croup
But I shall get my notice just as soon as he can crawl
It's a funny thing to think he won't remember me at all

Other people's babies, that's my life
Mother to dozens and nobody's wife
Forty years of colic, fits and frights
Very long days, dear, and very short nights

But then of course it isn't everyone can say
They used to bath the Honourable Hay
Lord Charles Cobleigh had a present from the King
And now they tell me he's a bright young thing

Other people's babies, that's my life
Mother to dozens and nobody's wife

Sixty-one today, ought to be a granny
Sixty-one today and nothing but a nanny
There, ducky, there, the likes of us don't care
Don't cry, oh why, other people's babies

There goes one o' mine, Lord Charles
Royal Navy he is, I always knew he'd be a sailor
By the way he used to go on in his bath
No woman in his life, eh, well, if it hadn't of been for me
He'd've died of the convulsions
Ah well, it's a funny world

But then of course it isn't everyone can say
They used to bath the Honourable Hay
Lady Lettie what was dropped into the pond
And now cook tells me she's a well known blonde

Other people's babies, that's my life
Mother to dozens and nobody's wife



(Transcribed by Mel Priddle - May 2019)