In 1881, under the duo of pseudonyms H. J. Fuller and J. T. Wood, Charles E. Pratt published sheet music for "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me".

[5] Another song from the English tradition titled "My Barney Lies over the Ocean" has a slightly different melody, and it is said to be an antecedent of "My Bonnie".

In the liner notes for 1975 album "For Pence and Spicy Ale" where the English traditional singing group The Watersons recorded a version, the musicologist A. L. Lloyd says about "My Barney": "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on.

During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close harmony groups remade it into the better-known—and even more preposterous—'My Bonny Lies over the Ocean'.

[10] The song was recorded in many different musical styles; for example, the country group The Leake County Revelers recorded a country version in 1927 with the title "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean",[11] a big band version was recorded by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1938,[12] and a calypso-style version by Ella Fitzgerald with Bobby Orton's Teen-Aces in 1952,[13][14] released as the flip side of "Trying".

Birmingham resident Cecilia Costello was recorded singing a version by Peter Kennedy in 1951, whilst the "East Grinstead Old People's Club" of East Grinstead, Sussex, England sang a version to Ken Stubbs in 1960, which can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.

[23][24][25] These campfire versions are occasionally accompanied by interactive movements,[26] such as sitting down or standing up every time a word that begins with the letter "b" is sung.

[24] Two examples are given below, the first may be sung as additional verses or variations for the song, the second a song titled "Oh God, How the Money Rolls In" sung to the tune of "My Bonnie":[20][27] Last night as I lay on my pillow, Last night as I lay on my bed, I stuck my feet out of the window, In the morning the neighbors were dead.

My mother, she drowned in the bathtub, My father, he died from his gin, My sister she choked on her chocolate, My God, what a jam I am in.

Another variant popular in the Scouting movement goes under titles such as "My Father's a Lavatory Cleaner", "Shine Your Buttons with Brasso", and "Sweet Violets".

[29][30][31] Its history is unknown, but the references to the cleaning material Brasso, its price of three ha'pence (three halfpennies), and its availability from Woolworths, suggest a possible origin in English music hall, or among British or ANZAC troops, in the early 20th century.

[33] It was titled "My Bonnie",[34] and subtitled "Mein Herz ist bei dir nur"[35] ("My Heart is with You Only") in its German language version.

[39] Tony Sheridan sang lead on the song, starting with a slow Elvis Presley style introduction.

[39] This is how Sheridan describes his arrangement of the song: "The [slow] introduction was in A, now we did a very innovative thing, we went in to C to Rock and roll.

If you listen to My Bonnie, in the second part of the solo, you will hear Paul doing exactly that, which shows he was a great bass player.

In July 1963, Polydor released "My Bonnie" as an EP in the UK in order to capitalise on the success of the Beatles.

[44] The single was also released in the United States during the Beatlemania, this time around with the Beatles credited as the lead artist, and it reached the No.

"[38] George Harrison, however, was enthusiastic about the initial release of their recording, and said that he "didn't stop playing it for days".