During the Civil War, several of Lane’s professorial colleagues turned his song into a fundraiser for Union soldiers. Folklorist Francis James Child ’46, LL.D. ’84, worked it up into a mock Italian operetta, Il Pesceballo, which was performed in Cambridge and Boston.
In 1944 Hy Zaret and Lou Singer revamped the song as a blues calling it “One Meatball.” It was a big hit for Josh White! The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby also recorded it.
I have written an new melody and added lyrics.
The Lone Fish Ball
[G]There was a man went up and down,
[C]To seek a dinner thro’ the [Am] town. X2 [D] Hurray!
[C]What wretch is he who wife forsakes,
[D] Who best of jam and waffles makes! X2 They say
[G]He feels his cash to know his pence,
[C] And finds he has just but [Am] six cents. X2 [D] To pay
[C]He finds at last a right cheap place,
[D] He enters in with modest face. X2 Anyway
[G]The bill of fare he searches through,
[C] To see what his [Am] six cents will do. X2 [D] Today
[C]The cheapest viand of them all,
[D] Is “Twelve cents for two Fish-balls.†X2 everyday
[G]The waiter to him he doth call,
[C] And gently whispers – [Am] “One Fish-ball.†X2 [D] I pray
[C]The waiter roars it through the hall,
The guests they start at “One Fish-ball!†X2 Oh nay!
[G]The guest then says, quite ill at ease,
[C]”A piece of bread, sir, [Am] if you please.†X2 I pray
[C]The waiter roars it through the hall,
[D] “We don’t give bread with one Fish-ball.†X2 any day
[G]Who’d have bread with his Fish-ball,
[C] Must get it first, or [Am] not at all. X2 We say
[C]Who’d Fish-ball with fixin’s eat,
[D] Must get some friend to send a treat. X2 His way
[G]So here’s the essence of it all
[C] You get no bread with one [Am] fish ball X2 [G] any day
(C) McGuinn Music BMI 2018