The Captain's Quill: Beer Barrel Polka

One of the first songs I learned to play on the accordion was "Beer Barrel Polka." The song, often called "Roll Out The Barrel," was composed by Czech musician, Jaromír Vejvoda in 1927 and was originally written as music only. The lyrics were added in 1934 by Václav Zeman and the song was known as "Škoda lásky" ("Wasted Love").

Will Glahé and his Glahé Musette Orchestra recorded the German version in 1934 and in 1939, recorded an English version, Beer Barrel Polka, with lyrics by Lew Brown and Wladimir Timm. The Andrews Sisters recorded the song that same year.

During World War II, the song became immensely popular with soldiers on both sides.

LYRICS

Common Version
There's a garden, what a garden,
Only happy faces bloom there
And there's never any room there
For a worry or a gloom there.
Oh there's music and there's dancing
And a lot of sweet romancing
When they play a polka
They all get in the swing.

Every time they hear that oom-pa-pa
Everybody feels so tra-la-la
They want to throw their cares away
They all go lah-de-ah-de-ay,
Then they hear a rumble on the floor
It's the big surprise they're waiting for
And all the couples form a ring,
For miles around you'll hear them sing:

Chorus:
Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun.
Roll out the barrel, we've got the blues on the run.
Zing! Boom! Ta-ra-rel,
ring out a song of good cheer!
Now's the time to roll the barrel,
For the gang's all here.

1939 Andrews Sisters Version
There's a garden, what a garden,
Only happy faces bloom there
And there's never any room there
For a worry or a gloom there.
Oh there's music and there's dancing
And a lot of sweet romancing
When they play the polka
They all get in the swing.

Every time they hear that oom-pa-pa
Everybody feels so tra-la-la
They want to throw their cares away
They all go lah-de-ah-de-ay,
Then they hear a rumble on the floor, the floor,
It's a big surprise they're waiting for
And all the couples form a ring,
For miles around you'll hear them sing:

Chorus:
Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun.
Roll out the barrel, we've got the blues on the run.
Zing! Boom! Ta-rar-rel,
ring out a song of good cheer!
Now's the time to roll the barrel,
for the gang's all here.

Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

Then they hear a rumble on the floor-or-or-or
It's a big surprise they're waiting for,
And all the couples they form a ring
For miles around you'll hear them sing

Zing do da do ding do da-do-do-day

----- instrumental break -----

Roll it out, roll it out, roll out the barrel.
Dump-dump-da da-da da-dat en da-da-da-da-da.
Sing a song of good cheer,
'Cause the whole gang is here.
Roll it out, roll it out,
Let's do the beer barrel polka.

Here is the 1939 version by the Andrews Sisters.