My Grandfather's Clock

"Grand-Father's Clock" was first published in 1876.

"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. It has also been sung by male choruses such as the Robert Shaw Chorale.

Storyline

It was in this Piercebridge hotel that the author encountered a remarkable clock that inspired the song.

The song, told from a grandson's point of view, is about his grandfather's longcase clock. It is purchased on the morning of his grandfather's birth and works perfectly for ninety years. When the grandfather brings his bride into his house, the clock rings 24 chimes. Before the grandfather dies, the clock rings an alarm and the family gathers by the old man's bed. When the grandfather dies the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that the song is responsible for the fact that a longcase clock is also called a "grandfather clock".

Covers and inspirations

"My Grandfather's Clock" was often played in Britain on Children's Favourites and during that period was recorded by the Radio Revellers. In the United States, a version, without the last stanza of lyrics, was on an extended-play 45 rpm record on the Peter Pan label (the other song on that side was The Syncopated Clock, and the flip side had The Arkansas Traveler and Red River Valley). Johnny Cash covered the song twice on his 1959 album "Songs of Our Soil" and his 1975 album, The Johnny Cash Children's Album. Evelyn Knight recorded the song for Decca Records. Also in 1959, it was included on The Four Lads' album, Swing Along. Other versions became popular in other countries. It is well known to many generations in Japan.

The song was the inspiration for the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Ninety Years Without Slumbering", and was recorded by Boyz II Men in 2004. In the music for American Mcgee's Alice, and the accompanying soundtrack, a music box version of the chorus is included in the song, "I'm Not Edible". A Japanese cover by Ken Hirai (大きな古時計, ookina furudokei) was a great success in Japan in 2002. In 2009, The Vietnamese singer – Dai Nhan, covered and re-wrote this song with the new title "The Last Class" (or" Tiet Hoc Cuoi Cung"). Japanese pop vocalist Angela Aki, who is natively fluent in English, recorded this song in English on her 2011 album, White.

A popular clock toy, marketed by Fisher-Price in 1968, had a dial on it that, when turned, caused the toy to play the song along with clock-like ticking and moving hands on the face of the clock. An updated version of the toy (which is completely made of plastic and with other activities like a clicking plastic mouse on the side) has been manufactured by Fisher-Price since 1994. Imitations of the toy made by various companies exist and are sold in various countries worldwide.

An Australian one hit wonder band "The Creaky Buttocks" had their moment of fame when their a cappella version of My Grandfather's Clock went to number 9 in Indy Charts.^{[citation needed]} Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin recorded My Grandfather's Clock on numerous occasions, firstly in 1969 on Federal Records. Subsequently he recorded it on Below the Bassline and on Order of Distinction.^{[citation needed]}

The song is given a nod by the English band Half Man Half Biscuit in their song Joy Division Oven Gloves, which features the line My Grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf/So I sold it and opened up a stall/Selling Joy Division Oven Gloves

Lyrics

The City Green in Union Park of Middletown, Connecticut includes this bust of the author near his birthplace.

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

CHORUS:
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tock, tick, tock),
His life's seconds numbering,
(tick, tock, tick, tock),
It stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopped short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
CHORUS

My grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
CHORUS

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side;
But it stopp'd short — never to go again —
When the old man died.
CHORUS

External links

• Score
• 1905 recording from the Internet Archive
• Story of the clock