Cherry Ripe (song)

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,
Ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones
Come and buy.
Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,
Ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones
Come and buy.

Alternative Lyrics

Cherry Ripe, Cherry Ripe
Ripe I cry
Full and fair ones
Till I die
Cherry ripe, Cherry ripe
Mouse and I
River's where we're
Till you die

In popular culture

• The song is mentioned in the 1889 farcical novel The Wrong Box, written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, in a passage discussing the ubiquity of the penny whistle in late 19th century England, as one of two songs every player of that instrument invariably blows.
• The song "Cherry Ripe" is a recurring theme in John Buchan's World War I spy novel Mr Standfast. It identifies Mary Lamington, a young intelligence officer, who falls in love, mutually, with the hero of the novel, General Richard Hannay.
• The song is mentioned in Dylan Thomas's 1955 A Child's Christmas in Wales.
• The song is mentioned in Book Two, Chapter 16 of George Eliot's 1871 Middlemarch.
• Several characters of Iris Murdoch's Booker-prize winning novel The Sea, the Sea, sing "Cherry Ripe" as they land into a party mood.
• It is sung by Maud Chapman in the 1942 film, Went the Day Well?.
• In the classic 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon the medium uses this song to attain a trance.
• It is heard in the 1958 film Smiley Gets a Gun, sung by Ruth Cracknell's character, Mrs Gaspen.
• In the 1960 film Bottoms Up it is sung by the character Professor Dinwiddie, who mistakes a public chastisement for a sing-along.
• It also featured in the opening episode of the 2007 BBC drama "Lilies", sung by the character May Moss at a gentleman's club.
• It was heard in the 1982 musical comedy film Victor Victoria, sung by Julie Andrews at her character's unsuccessful audition at a nightclub.
• The song is sung by Alice in the opening sequence in the 1999 television movie Alice in Wonderland.
• It shares its name with the numbers station, Cherry Ripe, in which the tune is played during intervals.

  Paintings

• In 1879 it was adopted by John Everett Millais as the title of his immensely popular painting depicting a young girl with cherries. It was based loosely on Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Penelope Boothby. Millais had his niece Lucinda Ruby pose for the portrait only a matter of days before the girl was tragically killed under the arches of London Bridge station. Tales are told of the Cherry Ripe song being sung by a mysterious voice through the catacombs. The painting was reproduced in colour as a chromolithograph by the newspaper The Graphic as a gift with its Christmas edition. The image vastly increased the newspaper's sales.
• A painting by Walter Osborne of a cherry seller in Ulster also used the title.