Roses of Picardy

The lyricist Fred Weatherly had become impressed with beauty of the voice of the soprano Elsie Griffin, who later became a leading artiste with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Her singing of his compositions resulted in his writing two of the most popular hits of the 20th-century "Danny Boy" (1910) and "Roses of Picardy". During the First World War, the song sold at a rate of 50,000 copies of the sheet music per month, earning Haydn Wood approximately £10,000 in total (£ in adjusted for inflation). Following the war, the singing of the song helped soldiers who were suffering from shell shock to regain their powers of speech. ==Lyrics==

The following lyrics are taken from the sheet music published in 1916: :Dire que cet air nous semblait vieillot, :Aujourd'hui il me semble nouveau, :Et puis surtout c'était toi et moi, :Ces deux mots ne vieillissent pas. :Souviens-toi ça parlait de la Picardie, :Et des roses qu'on trouve là-bas, :Tous les deux amoureux nous avons dansé :Sur les roses de ce temps-là. ==Recordings==

Among the earliest commercial recordings were those by the tenors Lambert Murphy in 1917, ==Notes and references==

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