"IF I LIVE TO BE A HUNDRED, I WILL NEVER KNOW FROM WHERE, CAME THOSE LOVELY SCARLET RIBBONS, SCARLET RIBBONS, FOR HER HAIR." (last verse from a song that has become a popular standard)

The music was written by Evelyn Danzig and the lyrics by Jack  Segal.  It was written in only 15 minutes in 1949 at Danzig's home in  New York after she invited lyricist Segal to hear her music.  Recordings of the song by Juanita Hall and Dinah Shore made no great impression but in 1952  Harry Belafonte, at his third session for RCA Records, covered the song with an arrangement  using only his guitarist Millard Thomas and a male vocal group. After continuously good responses in concert ,the four-year-old  recording finally became a success in 1956 when  it appeared on his second album which, after Belafonte's next album Calypso became the first ever million-selling  album-- it reached #1 on Billboard's album charts for six weeks and stayed on the  chart for over a year. The song reached the top twenty in Ireland in late 1957  even though it was  released between the very successful "Island  in the Sun" and "Mary's Boy Child" when the former was still high  in the charts and  the latter overhauled it to become  Ireland's best-selling single for decades  after. The most successful version in the USA, by The Browns, reached #13 in December 1959.  "Scarlet Ribbons" has become a standard with many recorded versions and has appeared on many Christmas albums as well.

 The song tells a miraculous tale: a father hears a little girl pray before  she goes to bed for "scarlet ribbons for her hair". It is late, no stores are open in their town, nor is there anywhere the father can obtain the ribbons so he is distraught throughout the night. At dawn he again peeps in and is amazed  to see beautiful "scarlet ribbons" in "gay profusion lying there." He says that  if he lives to be a hundred, he will never know from where the ribbons came.

It was this version that kicked off the song's popularity (complete with guitar chords just in case you want to play and sing along....)

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The most popular version of the song was released in 1959 by The Browns. It peaked on the Charts at #13 and has been a classic version ever since:

There were many beautiful versions of the song. Here are a few others for you to enjoy

Talk about Classics.....DORIS DAY

 And another Classic....PERRY COMO

TWO VERSIONS WERE POPULAR IN IRELAND; HERE IS FRANK IFIELD

ANOTHER POPULAR VERSION  FROM IRELAND  BY SINEAD O'CONNER

OF THE HUNDREDS OF AVAILABLE VERSIONS, HERE ARE SOME OF THE OTHERS WORTH A GOOD LISTEN.  SIT BACK, RELAX, ENJOY!

   JO STAFFORD   1949

JIM REEVES, COUNTRY

        JOAN BAEZ  1958

THE KINGSTON TRIO...TERRIFIC

            LADY JANE MORGAN

JUST ONE MORE VERY BEAUTIFUL RENDITION BY ACKER BILK
            WITH THE LEON YOUNG STRING CHORALE