Percy Montrose · Key of G · Public domain
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This chart is written in G. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in G with different chord shapes, play it capo 3 with the E shapes, or capo 5 with the D shapes, or capo 7 with the C shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
Oh My Darling, Clementine was published in Boston in 1884 by Oliver Ditson & Co with words and music credited to Percy Montrose. It grew out of an earlier song, "Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden," printed in 1863, and the tune itself has never been traced; the writer Gerald Brenan believed it came from an old Spanish ballad that Mexican miners carried into the California Gold Rush. A rival "Clementine" by Barker Bradford, with different words to the same melody, was copyrighted in New York in February 1885, and by 1887 Montrose's version, all seven verses, was in Henry Randall Waite's College Songs, the songbook this chart follows.
It is a tragic ballad played for laughs. The miner's daughter wears herring boxes for sandals, trips on a splinter while herding ducklings, and drowns because the singer cannot swim; Montrose's own last verse has her ghost return in brine-soaked garments and the singer, who used to hug her, draw the line. Bing Crosby took a swing version onto the charts in 1941, John Ford borrowed the title and the tune for his 1946 western My Darling Clementine, and Tom Lehrer later sang the verses in the styles of Cole Porter, Mozart and Gilbert and Sullivan. Words and melody are in the public domain.
Three chords in G: G, D7 and C, in a lilting 3/4. Verse and chorus use the same progression, so learn it once. Each line starts on the second beat after a pickup word ("In a," "Oh my"), stays on G, and moves to D7 on the last word of line 2 ("mine," "Clementine"). Line 3 opens on C and returns to G at "forty-niner" or "forever," and line 4 goes D7 on its second word and home to G on "Clementine." Strum a waltz, bass note then two light strums, and keep it bouncy rather than sad. With a group, let everyone shout the chorus and have one person take each verse.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
Another Gold Rush favorite: Oh! Susanna chords and lyrics
All the campfire and folk song chord sheets, each one in every key.
Further reading: Oh My Darling, Clementine (Wikipedia)
