Lily of Laguna

[4] Laguna of the original song was a village of Native American cave-dwellers somewhere "100 miles off the main line en route to California proceeding from New Orleans.

[8] On the night of Stuart's death, 26 March 1928, it was performed by Herman Darewski band at the Coliseum Theatre, with Queen Soraya of Afghanistan in attendance.

[11] The song was transformed in a number of ways: the racial imagery was replaced with lines referencing sailors, ships, docks, and lollipops; the entire verse sections which, in the original, contains the dramatic mood shift was updated to the jazzy big band sound that was popular at the time; and a woman (Mary Martin) now sang lyrics from the female perspective.

[12] The original song lyrics tell the story of a lonely black American man who falls in love with a woman from the Laguna tribe of Pueblos of New Mexico.

[21][22] The song was ordered to be played over the air from the pre-American Forces Network facilities in London during World War Two at a precise time, say 1307 hours, 1:07 p.m.

[23] The chorus only version is sung spontaneously by a group of British soldiers (led by Stanley Holloway) on the eve of action in the 1944 wartime drama 'The Way Ahead'.

[citation needed][24] Errol Flynn sings a chorus only version of "Lily of Laguna" in the 1954 British film “Lilacs in the Spring”, released in the US as Let's Make Up.

We Are The Navy Blues, the team song of the Australian Football League club Carlton, uses the tune of the chorus of "Lily of Laguna".

Sheet music cover