Kid's Songs, Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes For Your Little Stars

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Ally, Bally, Ally Bally Bee
Sitting on your mammy's knee
Greetin' for a wee baw-bee
To buy some Coulter's Candy

Poor wee Jeannie's looking awful thin
A rickle of bones covered over with skin
Now she's getting a wee double chin
From sucking Coulter's Candy

Here's old Coulter coming round
With a basket on his crown
So here's a penny, now you run down
And buy some Coulter's Candy

Ally, Bally, Ally, Bally Bee
When you grow up you'll go to sea
Making pennies for your daddy and me
To buy some Coulter's Candy

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While the origins of most kids songs and nursery rhyme are unknown and subject to speculation and conjecture, the origins of "Coulter's Candy" are not only well documented but can be traced back to an eccentric travelling salesman, Robert Coltart, who operated out of the Scottish borders town of Galashiels in the 1870s. Coltart travelled round the markets and fairs in the borders, singing this song, which worked as a kind of early advertising jingle.

Ally bally, ally bally bee,
Sittin' on yer mammy's knee
Greetin' for a wee bawbee
Tae buy some Coulter's Candy.

Willie wept baith lang and sair,
Till he got a penny tae share
Noo he's tumblin doon the stair
Tae buy some Coulter's Candy.

Poor wee Annie was greetin' tae,
What could poor auld Mammy dae?
But gie them a penny atween them twae
Tae buy mair Coulter's Candy.

Oor wee Jeannie wis lookin' affa thin,
A rickle o' banes covered ower wi' skin
Noo she's gettin a wee double chin
Sookin' Coulter's Candy.

Here comes Coulter doon the street,
The man the bairns aa' like tae meet
His big black bag it hauds a treat
It's full o' Coulter's Candy.

Mammy, gie's ma thriftie doon,
Here's auld Coulter comin roond
He's got a basket on his croon
Singin' and sellin' candy.

The verse about growing up and going to sea was added by Norman Buchan in his 1962 book, "101 Scottish Songs".

John A.Anderson had met Coltart in his youth, and described him in his 1933 book, "The Cleikum, Being Interesting Reminiscences of Old Innerleithen":

He wore a tam o'shanter or was it a Balmoral bonnet? With a pheasant's feather sticking straight up from a buckle above his ear. A shiny black bag slung over his shoulder held his stock of the famous candy. [Coltart] adopted daft methods to increase his sale. The opening nonsensical lines of "Alla Balla" were sufficient to bring out all the prospective customers within sound of his voice, and long before he reached his fourth verse he had the bairns of the village gathered round him.

In 1870, Coltart lived with his family at 48 Overhaugh Street, Galasheils. By the time of the 1880 census, they had moved to Henderson's Close, where Coltart died on 23rd April 1880.

The melody is a variation on "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman".

In his 1901 book, "The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire", RC Maclagan published a rhyme which seems to be a conflation of Coltarts advertising jingle and "Bobby Shafto":

Hullaballa, hullaballa, sitting on his mother's knee,
Crying for a wee bawbee to get some sugar-candy.
My wee lad's awa' to sea, he'll come back and marry me,
Silver buckles on his knee; my wee lad's a sailor.

Origins text ©2011 TwinkleTrax Children's Songs.