> Peter Bellamy > Songs > Riding on Top of the Car

Riding on Top of the Car

[words Fred.W. Leigh, V.P. Bryan, music by Harry von Tilzer]

Peter Bellamy sang the Music Hall song Riding on Top of the Car in a home recording of ca. 1989 that was published in 1999 on his 4 CD anthology Wake the Vaulted Echoes.

Jolly Jack sang On Top of the Car in 1988 on their album A Long Time Travelling. They noted:

We’re grateful to Peter Bellamy for much help with a number of songs in our repertoire and here’s one we’ve been singing a long time, and with which we often finish our club sets. It’s from the Music Hall and George Lashwood, who apparently recorded the piece at the turn of the century. It’s about ‘spooning’ on tram-cars, which Paul Adams tells us was very popular in his day.

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings Riding on Top of the Car

Some people declare that a quiet country lane
Is the very best place for a ’spoon’;
An old rustic stile, they declare, must be there
And not too much light from the moon.
But my girl and I live in town, you must know,
Where country lanes cannot be found;
There’s no rustic stile in our neighbourhood, so
Every time Sunday ev’ning comes round
We …

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
… go go go for a ride on a car car car,
Cause we know how cosy the tops of the tramcars are
The seats are so small, there’s not much to pay,
You sit close together and ’spoon’ all the way,
And many a Miss will be Mrs some day
Through riding on top of the car.

You jump on the car and the journey begins
And we head for the first vacant seat,
For all other people we don’t care two pins
As long as our comfort’s complete.
And when the conductor comes up for the fare,
He punches our tickets then goes,
But he gives us a wink as he pops down the stairs,
Like some overgrown Cupid in clothes
And we …

We get to the end of the journey all right,
Or, at least, to the end of the track,
But while all the others prepare to alight,
We remain in our seats and ride back.
And when we get married - now, boys, here’s a tip
That sure will to be useful to you
I won’t spend much on the honeymoon trip,
For I’ve tell you now what we will do:
We will …