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.
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. 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 more likely a soldier's ribald derivation. The song has it roots in a tradition of older popular songs. Its immediate predecessor seems to be the song Skiboo, or Snapoo, which was popular among British soldiers of World War 1. The tune of the song is thought to have been popular in the French Army in the 1830s. 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, later Marie Marceau, who worked as a waitress at the Café de la Paix in Armentières during 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. It was considered a risqué song and not for polite company. When sung on the radio and TV, typically only the first verse was sung. The lyrics on which this opinion is based are recorded in the Gordon Inferno Collection. It is the third part of the regimental march of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The first two are Has Anyone Seen the Colonel ? and It's a Long Way to Tipperary. Mademoiselle from Armentières was the name of a 1926 British film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and was also the title of a 1927 espionage, thriller novel by Cecil Street, writing under the name John Rhode. During World War II the comic duo Flanagan and Allen had a hit with If a Grey-Haired Lady Says 'How's Your Father ? (That's Mademoiselle from Armentieres), written by Ted Waite, which refers to the original song. Three German Officers Crossed the Rhine is a song with a much more ribald set of lyrics, popular on rugby tours but sung to the same tune. In America, most recognise the melody with completely different lyrics, as the theme song for the character Clarabell the Clown on the children's TV series The Howdy Doody Show.
