Mademoiselle from Armentières


"Mademoiselle from Armentières" is an English song that was particularly popular during World War I. It is also known by its ersatz French hook line, 'Inky Pinky Parlez Vous,' or the American variant 'Hinky Dinky Parlez-vous'. 'Inky Pinky' was a Scottish children's name for parsnip and potato cakes, but it has been suggested that an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of bed springs is a more likely soldier's ribald derivation.

Origins

"Mademoiselle from Armentières" has roots in a tradition of older popular songs; its immediate predecessor seems to be the song "Skiboo", which was also popular among British soldiers of the Great War. Earlier still, the tune of the song is thought to have been popular in the French Army in the 1830s; at this time the words told of the encounter of an inn-keeper's daughter, named Mademoiselle de Bar le Duc, with two German officers. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the tune was resurrected, and again in 1914 when the British and Allied soldiers got to know it.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of December 4, 1939, reported that the historical inspiration for the song had been a young Frenchwoman named Marie Lecoq, who worked as a waitress at the Café de la Paix in Armentières at the time of the war. Despite the obscenity of many popular versions of the song, it was reportedly quite clean in its original form.
The song's first known recording was made in 1915 by music hall baritone Jack Charman.

Use

"Mademoiselle from Armentières" was considered a risqué song and not for 'polite company', and when sung on the radio and TV, as in The Waltons, typically only the first verse was sung. The lyrics on which this opinion is based are recorded in the Gordon "Inferno" Collection.
It is also the third part of the regimental march of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Mademoiselle from Armentières was also the name of a 1926 British film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody.
During World War II the comic duo Flanagan and Allen had a hit with "Mademoiselle from Armentières" , with other music and lyrics written by Ted Waite, referring to the original song.
When Lindisfarne played their song "We Can Swing Together" on stage in the early 1970s, it developed into a lengthy harmonica medley which included a verse and chorus from this as well as several other songs, some also traditional.
"Three German Officers Crossed the Rhine" is a song with much more ribald set of lyrics, popular on rugby tours but sung to the same tune or to that of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". It was originally sung in the allied trenches during the First World War.
A reworked version known as the “fart song” or as “an old lady of 92” was popular in schools particularly in the UK with lyrics celebrating a flatulent journey including Bristol and Rome.
A reworked version of the melody was used in the Israeli songwriter Haim Hefer's song "בחולות", best known for its performance by the singer Yossi Banai. The song consist of six stanzas telling of a tendency among the narrator's family males to take out the beloveds into the titular sands.

Lyricists

There are several claims to having written the lyrics for this song:
The second marine, he cooked the bean, parlez-vous.
The third marine, he ate the bean and blew apart the submarine.
Inky dinky parlez-vous."
The song is used for the closing credits of the 2018 World War I documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old by Peter Jackson. To achieve the proper British accents whilst recording on a short deadline in New Zealand, Jackson used seven members of the staff at the British High Commission in New Zealand to sing the song.
The song briefly appears in the film Beneath Hill 60 as a background ambiance to the scene involving the command and the tunnelers discussing plans. The song is featured in 1937 film Good Morning, Boys.
The song is used to exemplify Uncle Kevin's military background in the 1966 film Let's Kill Uncle. Uncle Kevin whistles, hums, and scat-sings the song at various points in the film, often when he's discussing killing Barnaby.