The songs got everything ranchers and heifers--boy, what a heffer, whalers and whales and a whale warning, 49ers in a minor key and a weak bridge, a really weak bridge.
Only Bobby Darin could make me absolutely love songs such as Mack the Knife, Artificial Flowers, and Clementine which all have dark, slightly morbid lyrics with upbeat, swing style melodies and timing - even if I feel like I shouldn't. Bobby Darin truly is one of the greatest of all time.
In a cavern down by a canyon
Excavating for a mine
There lived a miner
From North Carolina
And his daughter
Chubby Clementine
Now every morning
Yeah, just about dawning
A when the sun began to shine
You know she would rouse up
Wake all of them cows up
And walk em down
To her Daddy's mine
A took the foot bridge
Way cross the water
Though she weighed two-ninety nine
The old bridge trembled
And disassembled, whoops
Dumped her into the foamy brine
Hey, crackle like thunder
You know she went under
Blowing bubbles down the line
Hey, I'm no swimmer
But were she slimmer
I mighta saved that Clementine
Broke the record way under water
I thought that she was doing fine
I wasn't nervous until the service
That they held for Clementine
Hey, you sailor
Way out in your whaler
With your harpoon
Your trusty line
If she shows now
Yo, there she blows now
It just may be chunky Clementine
One more time
Oh, my darling, oh, my darling
Oh, my darling, oh, my darling
Oh, my darling sweet Clementine
You may be gone
But you're not forgotten,
Fare thee well
So long, Clementine