- Aura Lee (G. Poulton) Jazz arrangement with sheet music
- History
- Lyrics
- In popular culture
Aura Lee (G. Poulton) Jazz Piano arrangement with sheet music
“Aura Lea” (sometimes spelled “Aura Lee“) is an American Civil War song about a maiden. It was written by W. W. Fosdick (lyrics) and George R. Poulton (music). The melody was used in Elvis Presley‘s 1956 hit song “Love Me Tender“.
History
Aura Lea was published by Poulton, an Englishman who had come to America with his family as a boy in 1838, and Fosdick in 1861. It was a sentimental ballad at a time when upbeat and cheerful songs were more popular in the music halls. It became popular as a minstrel song, and the tune was also taken up by the U.S. Military Academy as a graduating class song, called “Army Blue”; new lyrics by L. W. Becklaw were sung to the original melody.
The Civil War began shortly after the song’s release, “Aura Lea” was adopted by soldiers on both sides, and was often sung around campfires.
The tune is familiar to modern audiences from the 1956 Elvis Presley #1 hit “Love Me Tender” with new lyrics by Ken Darby, a derivative adaptation of the original. A later Presley recording for the film The Trouble with Girls entitled “Violet (Flower of N.Y.U.)” also used the melody of “Aura Lea”.
Lyrics
The lyrics as written by Fosdick:
When the blackbird in the Spring,
On the willow tree,
Sat and rocked, I heard him sing,
Singing Aura Lea.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Maid with golden hair;
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
Chorus:
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Maid with golden hair;
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
In thy blush the rose was born,
Music, when you spake,
Through thine azure eye the morn,
Sparkling seemed to break.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Birds of crimson wing,
Never song have sung to me,
As in that sweet spring.
(Chorus)
Aura Lea! the bird may flee,
The willow’s golden hair
Swing through winter fitfully,
On the stormy air.
Yet if thy blue eyes I see,
Gloom will soon depart;
For to me, sweet Aura Lea
Is sunshine through the heart.
(Chorus)
When the mistletoe was green,
Midst the winter’s snows,
Sunshine in thy face was seen,
Kissing lips of rose.
Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
Take my golden ring;
Love and light return with thee,
And swallows with the spring.
(Chorus)
In popular culture
“Aura Lee” was sung by Frances Farmer and a male chorus in the 1936 film Come and Get It, based on Edna Ferber‘s novel.
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album Join Bing and Sing Along (1959)
Diana Muldaur sings the song to David Carradine in the episode “The Elixir” of Kung Fu.
Jerry Lanning performed the song in “Big Star”, a 1962 episode of The Donna Reed Show.
The television cavalry comedy F Troop used a variation of the song to welcome saloon singer Laura Lee in the episode “She’s Only a Build in a Girdled Cage” (cf. “She’s only a bird in a gilded cage“).
The television western The Young Riders used the song in its series finale, which took place in 1861 and showed how the American Civil War was affecting its characters’ lives.
It is the running theme music in the background of the 1954 John Ford film The Long Gray Line.
Allan Sherman topicalized the song in his “Shticks of One and a Half Dozen of the Other” (on the album My Son, The Celebrity, 1963 Warner Records Inc) with this polio-based version:
Every time you take vaccine, take it orally [a pun on “Aura Lea”]
As you know the other way is more painfully!
An episode of The Rockford Files is called “Aura Lee Farewell”. However the few lyrics that are recited are actually from the poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe.
On the show Beverly Hills 90210 on the episode The Real McCoy (05/10/95), Dylan McKay Luke Perry was led into a past life in the wild wild west through hypnotic regression with his hypnotherapist. During his hypnosis session, he imagined that he walked into a saloon, where a hurdy gurdy girl was singing “Aura Lea.”
The tune is used by the Cartoon Planet Band in the song “I Love Almost Everybody”, which was also found on the associated album, Space Ghost’s Musical Bar-B-Que.
Caitlín R. Kiernan‘s 2007 novel Daughter of Hounds has a character singing the winter verse of “Aura Lee” during a snowstorm.
Oona Laurence sings the song in the Sofia Coppola film The Beguiled (2017).
Browse in the Library:
Artist or Composer / Score name | Cover | List of Contents |
---|---|---|
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 Grade 3 C3 THE ENTERTAINER – SCOTT JOPLIN | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 In The Groove by Mike Cornick | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 Indigo Moon by Elissa Milne | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 Jester’s Jig by Chee-Hwa Tan | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 Love Theme by Catherine Rollin | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 Minuet In G (Anonymous) | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam 2023-24 The Song Of Twilight by Yoshinao Nakada | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2013 & 2014 syllabus | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2013 & 2014 syllabus | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2025 2026 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 1 2025 2026 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 2 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 2 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 3 2013 2014 | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 3 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 3 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 3 2025 2026 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 3 2025 2026 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 4 2021 2022 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 4 2021 2022 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 4 2023 2024 | ||
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 5 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 5 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 6 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 6 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 7 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 7 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 8 2023 2024 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 8 2023 2024 | |
ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 8 2025 2026 | ABRSM Piano Exam Pieces Grade 8 2025 2026 | |
ABRSM Piano Mix 3 for Easy Piano Grades 3-4 | ABRSM Piano Mix 3 for Easy Piano Grades 3-4 | |
ABRSM Piano Prep Test | ||
ABRSM Piano Scales And Arpeggios from 2021 Guide For Practical Grades | ||
ABRSM Selected Piano Exam 2011 2012 Grade 1 | ||
ABRSM Selected Piano Exam Grade 2 (2011 2012 ) | ||
ABRSM Specimen Aural Tests Grade 1 to 3 | ||
ABRSM Specimen Aural Tests Grade 4 & 5 | ||
ABRSM Teaching notes on piano exam pieces (2013 & 2014) | ||
ABRSM The Manual Of Scales Broken Chords And Arpeggios For Piano | ||
ABRSM Theory of Music Exams Grade 8 (The Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music) 2010 | ||
AC/DC – Classic – Early Years – High Voltage And Let There Be Rock (Guitar Tab Songbook) | ACDC – Classic – Early Years – High Voltage And Let There Be Rock | |
AC/DC – Jam With AC/DC (PDF with MP3 audio tracks Guitar Tab Songbook) | Jam With ACDC | |
AC/DC Rock Score | ||
AC/DC, Best of (Guitar & Tablature) | Best Of ACDC (Guitar) | |
Ace Of Base – Beautiful Life | ||
Ace Of Base – Dont Turn Around | ||
Ace Of Base – Living In Danger | ||
Acoustic 33 TOP Guitar Hits (Guitar Songbook) with Tablature – sheet music | Acoustic 33 TOP Guitar Hits (Guitar Songbook) – sheet music | |
Acoustic Blues Guitar By Kenny Sultan Guitar Tab | Acoustic Blues Guitar | |
Acoustic Blues Guitar Keith Wyatt with TABs | Acoustic Blues Guitar Keith Wyatt with TABs | |
Acoustic Blues Guitar Styles (Larry Sandberg) (with Tablature) | Acoustic Blues Guitar Styles (Larry Sandberg) | |
Acoustic Classics 42 songs Piano Vocal Guitar | Acoustic Classics 42 songs Piano Vocal Guitar | |
Acoustic Guitar Bible (35 great songs) Guitar with TABs | Acoustic Guitar Bible (35 great songs) Guitar with TABs | |
Acoustic Rock (Guitar) Rolling Stones, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan (Songbook Guitar Tab) with Tablature | ||
Acoustic Rock 90’s, Best of – Guitar with Tablature | Acoustic Rock 90’s, Best of – Guitar | |
Acqua azzurra acqua chiara (Battisti) | ||
Ad Te Levavi (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Adagio (Lara Fabian) | ||
Adagio MP3.zip | ||
Adah’s Theme (La femme avec les yeux lumineux) Sex and the City | ||
Adah’s Theme (Le femme avec les yeux lumineux) Sex and the Cit | ||
Adam – Adolphe Charles Holy Night Cantique-Nöel | ||
Adam – Cantique de Nöel Minuit Chretiens | Adam – Cantique de Noel Minuit Chretiens VS | |
Adam – Derniers souvenirs d’un musicien | ||
Adam – O Holy Night | Adam – O Holy Night | |
Adam – Souvenirs d’un musicien | ||
Adam (Cappeau) – Cantique de Noël. Easy Piano with voice or instrument (Paroles and lyrics) | Adam-Cappeau-Cantique-de-Noel- | |
Adam (Cappeau) – Cantique de Noel. Easy Piano with voice or instrument.mscz | ||
Adam Cantique de Nöel Christmas song | Adam Cantique de noel | |
Adam Carse – The History Of Orchestration Adam Carse | ||
Addams Family Theme (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Addams Family Theme (Easy Piano) | ||
Addio Colonnello (Ennio Morricone) | ||
Adele Songs from the Album 21 For SATB, SSA and Piano | Adele Songs from the Album 21 | |
Adele – 21 | ADELE 21 SONGBOOK | |
Adele – Chasing Pavements Piano Vocal guitar chords | ||
Adele – Easy on me (Piano solo with lyrics) | ||
Adele – Rolling in the Deep | ||
Adele – Rumor Has It | ||
Adele – Set Fire to the Rain | ||
Adele – Set Fire To The Rain (2) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Adele – Someone Like You | Adele – Someone Like You | |
Adele – Someone Like You easy piano | ||
Adele – The Best Of SongBook (12 songs arranged for easy piano) | Adele – The Best Of SongBook (12 songs arranged for easy piano) | |
Adele 19 [Piano, Guitar, Vocals] | Adele 19 [Piano, Guitar, Vocals] | |
Adele 25 Songbook | Adele 25 Songbook Contents — | |
Adele Best Of Adele Big Note Piano (Adele Adkins) | Adele Best Of Adele Big Note Piano (Adele Adkins) | |
Adele Easy On Me Sheet Music | ||
Adele Original Keys For Singers (Adele) | Adele Original Keys For Singers (Adele) | |
Adele Skyfall (Piano Vocal Guitar Chords) | Adele Skyfall (Piano Vocal Guitar Chords) | |
Adios Amor – Goodbye My Love as recorded by José Feliciano | ||
Adult All In One Course Level 1 With Audio Mp3 (Willard Palmer) | Lessons Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course Level 1 | |
Adult All In One Course Level 2 With Audio Mp3 (Willard Palmer) | Willard Palmer – Adult All-In-One Course Level 2 | |
Adult Greatest Movie Hits Piano Level 1 | Adult Greatest Movie Hits Piano Level 1 | |
Adult Piano Adventures ALL-IN-ONE PIANO COURSE 1 | ||
Adult Piano Adventures All-In-One Piano Course Book 2 Book With Media Online (Nancy Faber, Randall Faber) Sheet Music | ||
Adult Piano Adventures Christmas – Book 1 (Nancy Faber Randall Faber) | ||
Adult Piano Adventures Christmas – Book 2 | Adult Piano Adventures Christmas – Book 2 | |
Adult Piano Adventures Popular Book 1 – Timeless Hits and Popular Favorites (Adult Piano Adventures Popular) | Adult Piano Adventures Popular Book 1 – Timeless Hits and Popular Favorites (Adult Piano Adventures Popular) | |
Adult Piano Course Greatest Movie Hits Piano Level 1 Recordings Broadway Movies | Adult Piano Course Greatest Movie Hits Piano Level 1 Recordings Broadway Movies | |
Advanced Harmonic Concepts by Wayne Naus (with audio MP3) | Advanced Harmonic Concepts by Wayne Naus | |
Advanced Harmonic Exercises For Jazz Piano | advanced harmonic exercises | |
Advanced Piano Solos 1 Encyclopedia by Tom Roed | Advanced Piano Solos 1 Encyclopedia by Tom Roed | |
Advanced Piano Solos 2 Complete by Tom Roed | Advanced Piano Solos 2 Complete by Tom Roed | |
Advanced Sacred Music Piano Solos by John Kraus | ||
Advanced Scale Concepts and Licks for Guitar (PDF + MP3 audio tracks Play Along) with Tablature | ||
Aebersold – 110 – When I fall In Love – Romantic Ballads pdf with embedded audio MP3 Tracks | Jazz Play Along Vol 110 [When i Fall in Love] | |
Aebersold – 113 Embraceable You – Vocal Standards with audio MP3 Tracks | Jamey Aebersold – Vol 113 | |
Aebersold – 30 blues scale By Jamey Aebersold | Aebersold – 30 blues scale By Jamey Aebersold | |
Aebersold – A New Approach To Jazz Improvisation Gettin’it together vol. 21 | aebersold gettin all together vol 21 | |
Aebersold – Practice Procedures For Memorizing Scales And Chords | Aebersold – Practice Procedures For Memorizing Scales And Chords | |
Aebersold – Rapid Reference Vol 1-114 | Aebersold – Rapid Reference Vol 1-114 | |
Aebersold – Vol 01 – How to Play and Improvise Jazz (with audio MP3) | Aebersold – Vol 01 – How to Play and Improvise Jazz | |
Aebersold – Vol 03 – The II-V7-I Progression Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | ||
Aebersold – Vol 105 – Dave Brubeck Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | ||
Aebersold – Vol 118 – [Groovin Jazz] (with audio MP3) | ||
Aebersold – Vol 32 – Ballads Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | ||
Aebersold – Vol 34 – Jam Session Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | Includes MP3 Play along themes as Blue moon, The shadow of your smile, Over the rainbow, etc. | |
Aebersold – Vol 45 – [Bill Evans] Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | Aebersold – Vol 45 – [Bill Evans] | |
Aebersold – Vol 58 – Unforgettable Standards Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | aebersold unforgettable standards sheet music | |
Aebersold – Vol 76 – David Baker – How To Learn Tunes (A Jazz Musician’s Survival Guide) | how to learn tunes | |
Aebersold 25 How To Practice By Jamey Aebersold | Aebersold 25 | |
Aebersold Antonio Carlos Jobim Vol 98 – Bossa Nova Songbook Jazz Play Along Book + Audio Mp3 | Aebersold Antonio Carlos Jobim Vol 98 – Bossa Nova Songbook | |
Aebersold Anyone Can Improvise – 52 Points To Remember | Aebersold Anyone Can Improvise – 52 Points To Remember | |
Aebersold Jazz EAR training (with audio MP3) | Aebersold Jazz EAR train | |
Aebersold Jazz Handbook 09 Tips For Learning A New Tune & Practice Procedures For Memorizing | Aebersold Jazz HANDBOOK | |
Aebersold Jazz Play-Along Books & audio MP3 1st Part Full Collection – Vol 1- 40 (with MP3) for all instruments | Compressed file Aebersold Full Collection Part 1 – Vol 1- 40 | 40 volumes with MP3 Aebersold Book Index Vol.001-106 |
Aebersold Jazz Play-Along Books & audio MP3 2nd Part Full collection Vol 41- 75 for all instruments | Compressed fileAebersold Full Collection Part 2 – Vol 41- 75.. | 35 volumes with MP3 Aebersold Book Index Vol.001-106 |
Aebersold Jazz Play-Along Books & audio MP3 3rd Part Full Collection – Vol 76- 112 (with MP3) | Compressed fileAebersold Full Collection Part 3 – Vol 76- 112 | 37 volumes with MP3 Aebersold Book Index Vol.001-106 |