Tunes

This song was written in 1905 by French composer Vincent Scotto (with words by Henri Christiné), but is mostly remembered as a big hit for Josephine Baker in the 1920s.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=...

Pier Paul Marsalès,dit Polin (1863-1927), chansonnier - Vincent Scotto composer

«Fat jolly old Polin, whose songs creation portrays the happy-go-lucky lot of common soldier. He reels in from the wings, convulsed with laughter over some recent adventure, the result of which has put him in the guard-house for ten days. He is fairly bursting his red-trousered uniform with merriment as he begins his first verse. [] He is manipulating the while a red cotton handkerchief, which is never still; now it mops his round genial face, now it is twisted nervously into a rope and jammed into his trouser's pocket [] His last verse is smothered in chuckling glee; little jets of cleverly chosen words manage, however, to get over the footlights to his listeners.»
(F. Berkeley Smith, 1903)

pourqu'j'finisse mon service
au Tonkin,je suis parti
ah!quel beau pays,mesdames
c'est l'paradis des petites femmes
elles sont belles et fidèles
et je suis devenu l'chéri
d'une petite femme du pays
qui s'appelle Mélaoli

je suis gobé d'une petite
c'est une Anna,c'est une Anna ,
une Annamite
elle est vive, elle est charmante,
c'est comme un oiseau qui chante
je l'appelle ma p'tite bourgeoise
ma Tonkiki,ma Tonkiki, maTonkinoise
y'en a d'autres qui m'font les doux yeux
mais c'est elle que j'aime le mieux

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/1000004429/5976o-...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Christiné
Henri Marius Christiné (27 December 1867 – 25 November 1941) was a French composer of Swiss birth.[1]

The son of a French Savoyard watchmaker,[2] Christiné was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He began by teaching at the lycée in Geneva, while pursuing his interest in music and playing organ in a local church. He married a cafe singer whose troupe was passing through Geneva, and went with her to Nice where they were married.[3] He made his home in France, writing songs firstly for his wife and then for popular singers such as Mayol, Dranem, and Fragson. He also conducted for music-hall at the Place Clichy.

Although Christiné wrote some opérettes for the Scala theatre in Paris before the First World War, his career took off when he had his operetta Phi-Phi staged the day of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, with words by Albert Willemetz and Fabien Solar and which ran for three years at the Bouffes-Parisiens. This success was followed by Dédé in 1921, Madame (1923) and J'adore ça (1925). These works were in the forefront of a new fashion in music-theatre: sparkling, witty, jazzy musical plays.[4] Christiné's tunes are often based around repeated refrains of six or seven notes (a 'hook') which made them catchy and popular for contemporary audiences.[5]

In the 1930s Christiné contributed to the renewed fashion for more large-scale spectacular musicals, with pieces for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Au temps des Merveilleuses and Yana; for these he wrote the more vibrant numbers, while Richepin did the romantic songs.[6] "Le Bonheur, Mesdames" and "Le Flirt ambulant" were rearrangements of his songs from the 1900s.[7] He died in Nice, France.

Phi-Phi and Dédé are still occasionally revived in France.
Songs
La Petite Tonkinoise (1905)

Perel se settees, Mielieblare settees