Barbara Allen

Song composer(s)

Traditional

Grateful Dead Recordings

Not recorded by the Dead

Dead Related Recordings

No Dead related recordings entered

Other Recordings

Vernon Dalhart (192?)
Early American Folk Songs : Bob Atcher (1949)
American Folk Songs : Jo Stafford (1950)
The Lady Gay : Andrew Rowan Summers (1954)
Anglo American Ballads : Rebecca Tarwater (1956)
Spoken Literature of Early English Ballads - Read by Kathleen Danson Read : Kathleen Danson Read (1956)
American Ballads : Pete Seeger (1957)
Richard Dyer-Bennet, Vol. 5 : Richard Dyer-Bennet (1958)
Songs Our Daddy Taught Us : Everly Brothers (1959)
Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith (1959)
Old Timey Songs For Children : New Lost City Ramblers (1959)
Field Trip-England : Various Artists (Mr Rew) (1959)
Blood On The Saddle : Tex Ritter (1959)
Hawkshaw Hawkins : Hawkshaw Hawkins (1959)
Sweet England : Shirley Collins (1959)
Old Style Texas and Oklahoma Fiddling : Tony Thomas (195?)
Lark in the Morning. Songs & Dances from the Irish Countryside : Thomas Baynes (195?)
Blood on the Saddle : Tex Ritter (1960)
Mountain Music of Kentucky : J. B. Cornett (1960)
British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 1 : Jean Ritchie (1960)
American Folk Song Festival - Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman : Jean Thomas (1960)
As I Roved Out (Field Trip-Ireland) : Various Artists (Sarah Makem) (1960)
Traditional Singer from Aberdeen. Vol. 1 - Child Ballads : Lucy Stewart (1961)
Joan Baez Vol 2 : Joan Baez (1961)
English and Scottish Popular Ballads, The: Vol. 1 - Child Ballads : Ewan McColl (1961)
Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Vol. 1 - Child Ballads : Lucy Stewart (1961)
The Eyes of Love : Osborne Smith (1961)
Folk Songs : Everly Brothers (1962)
Lilly Brothers and Don Stover : Lilly Brothers and Don Stover (1962)
Jupiter Book of Ballads, The: Spoken and Sung by IslaCameron, Jill Balcon, Pauline Letts, John Laurie, etc. : Various Artitst (1962)
Jim and Art Sing and Play a Folk Song : Jim Helms & Art Podell (1962)
Folksongs of Saskatchewan : Various Artists (Molly Galbraith) (1963)
Folk Songs of the Alleghenies : Various Artsist (Patrick Gainer) (1963)
The World of Pete Seeger : Pete Seeger (1963)
28th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention. Galax, Virginia 1963 : Various Artists (Thurman Pugh) (1963)
Albert Parsley & Landon Messer (1964)
The High Lonesome Sound : Roscoe Holcomb (1965)
God Bless The Grass : Pete Seeger (1966)
Old Times and Hard Times : Hedy West (1967)
Long Harvest. Traditional Ballads (English, Scots and Irish) : Ewan McColl (1967)
Sara Makem, Ulster Ballad Singer : Sara Makem (1968)
Ballads and Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains: Persistence and Change : Various Artists (Granny Porter & Wade Ward) (1968)
Eighty English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians : Bin Henson (1968)
Old Traditions : Bill and Jean Davis (196?)
Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 4. The Child Ballads : Various Artists (Thomas Moran, Phil Tanner, Fred Jordan, Mary Bennwell) (196?)
Scottish Ballad Book : Jean Redpath (196?)
The Crew Cuts Sing Folk : The Crew Cuts (196?)
The Hillmen : Chris Hillman (1971)
End of an Era : Everly Brothers (1971)
Ballad Book : Joan Baez (1972)
Tom Rush : Tom Rush (1972)
Charlie Moore & his Dixie Partners (1972)
World Of Pete Seeger (1973)
Angel Clare : Art Garfunkel (1973)
Country Bluegrass from Southwest Virginia : Glen Neaves and the Virginia Mountain Boys (1974)
Adirondack Woods Singer : Ted Ashlaw (1976)
George Tucker : George Tucker (1976)
Red Wing : I. D. Stamper (1977)
The Songbook : Joan Baez (1977)
The Everly Brothers' Greatest Hits, Volume 3 : Everly Brothers (1977)
Granny Riddle's Songs and Ballads : Almeda Riddle (1977)
Old Time Banjo in America : Buell Kazee (1978)
Cold Snap : Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger (1978)
Satisfied Mind : Joan Baez (1979)
Songs of the Smokey Mountains : Bill Owens and the Kinfolk.(197?)
Smokey Mountain Ballads : Harry and JeanieWest (197?)
Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs : Bradley Kincaid (197?)
Hand-Me-Down Music: Old Songs, Old Friends - Vol. 2, Traditional Music of Union County, North Carolina : Various Artists (Seena Helms) (1980)
God Bless the Grass : Pete Seeger (1982)
Make the Wildwoods Ring : MacArthur Family (1982)
Will Ye Go to Flanders? - Folksongs of the British Isles : James Griffet (1982)
Sailing into Walpole's Marsh : Sean Corcoran (1983)
Bradley Kincaid, Volume 1 : Bradley Kincaid (1984)
O Love Is Teasin' (Anglo-American Mountain Balladry) : Various Artists (Susan Reed) (1985)
Mountain Songs : Robert Beaser w/ Enrique Granados (1986)
20th Anniversary Concert - Live At Carnegie Hall : New Lost City Ramblers (1987)
24 Greatest Hits : Mac Wiseman (1987)
Watching the White Wheat : The King's Singers (1987)
Selected Jigs Reels & Songs : De Danann (1988)
Stories from Mountains, Swamps & Honky-Tonks : Brownie Ford (1990)
Signs and Wonders : Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice (1990)
Diamonds - Best of the Vanguard Years : Joan Baez (1991)
200 Years Of American Heritage In Song : Various Artists (Tommy Faile?) (1991)
Classic Everly Brothers (Box) : Everly Brothers (1992)
Common Chord : David Grisman / Daniel Kobialka (1993)
Celtic Spirit : Anderson and Meis (1994)
Heartsongs - Live from Home : Dolly Parton (1994)
Both Sides/Then and Now : Betty Smith (1994)
36 All-Time Favorites : Everly Brothers (1994)
Chords & Thyme - English Folk Songs : Edward Flower (1994)
Folk Images : Paul Lansky (1995)
Folk Songs Of The Hills (Expanded Version) : Merle Travis (1996)
Ancient Celtic Roots : Various Artists (Sara Makem) (1996)
Six Days On the Road : Dave Dudley (1996)
Travel the Lake District : Bill Garden (1996)
Mountain Music of Kentucky : Various Artists (1996)
Guitar Christmas : William Holly (1996)
Three Ravens : Alfred Deller (1996)
The Lark in the Morning : Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, Family & Friends (1996)
Mountain Music of Kentucky : Various Artists (J.D. Cornett) (1996) (Expanded version of 1960 LP)
Rose Grew Round the Briar, Vol. 1 : Various Artists (1997)
Straight Outta Boone Country : Various Artists (The Handsome Family) (1997)
Brothers in Rhythm : Everly brothers (1998)
Best Of The Big Bands : Doris Day (19??)
Granny Riddle's Songs and Ballads : Almeda Riddle (19??)
Love Is Teasing: Scottish and English Early Ballads : Shanna Beth McGee (19??)
Café Continental : Welcome and Marta (19??)
In Touch With.. : Peter & Gordon (19??)
Bluegrass Gentlemen (19??)

Performance History

Performed only twice by the Dead, on both occasions, 12th and 30th Dec 1981, with Joan Baez.

Notes

First recorded mention of this traditional song is in Pepys Diary. On 2nd Januray 1666 he records hearing an actress singing the song.

Collected in Herd's Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs & Heroic Ballads of 1776 as Bonny Barbara Allan.

Also mentioned in Ramsey's Tea Table Miscellany.

Child's Ballad number 84.

Usually the most commonly occuring song in ballad collections. For example, The Traditional Tunes Of The Child Ballads, Vol II by B. H. Bronson lists 198 variations of the song, collected in England, Scotland and many areas of the US. Title variations include Barbara Ellen, Barbara Allyn, Bonny Barbara Allen and Sweet William.