An Indianapolis listener who lives on same street where James Whitcomb Riley made his home wonders if the poet’s name has anything to do with the expression associated with living in high style, “the life of Riley.” Click on the “lyrics” button on this transcription from a piano roll to see the full words to the song. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Life of Riley”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Ivy Long from Indianapolis, Indiana.
What’s on your mind, Ivy?
Oh, I was calling about the phrase of the life of Riley. I have heard it pretty much all my life in various forms, and they talk about somebody who has a nice life, who has no cares in the world, that kind of thing. And I live on the street here in Indianapolis where the poet James Whitcomb Riley lived.
Oh, yeah. And he used to sit out on the front porch and tell stories to the children of the neighborhood back years ago. And I wondered if it had anything to do with him or where it really came from.
So the life of Riley, does it have anything to do with James Whitcomb?
It doesn’t. It doesn’t really, although it could have, but as far as we know that it doesn’t. There was a song written in 1882 or 1883 by an Irish-American performer by the name of Pat Rooney. And it’s about an Irishman talking about what he’s going to do when he hits it big, when he makes it rich. He’s a hotel owner.
And I think there’s a verse in there. You can find this online, but I’ll read it to you here. There’s a verse in there that I think exactly encapsulates the idea that the phrase the life of Riley still has. It goes, I’ll defend working men’s cause, manufacture the laws. New York would be swimming in wine. A hundred a day will be very small pay. When the White House and Capitol are mine.
So it’s a man who’s thinking of very grand ideas.
Whoa. And then what happened in 1915, the song was rewritten. This was something that used to happen with music all the time. New words were written for it, patriotic words, for the war effort. And it became a big hit then, too. In 1883, it was enormous enough as a hit. In 1915, it was an even bigger hit.
But you really first see it show up in the written record in 1911, where it appears a few times in some newspapers. So, I mean, it’s hard to imagine that there was such a hit that was so massive that everyone knew it, but this was one of those songs. You could find it on the piano rolls. They were playing it in the vaudeville halls. They were playing it in any place that people were gathering around a bunch of musicians. It was just a big tune.
So if anybody heard that, they would know the reference.
Yes, they would know the reference. And then the song being rewritten and reissued under a slightly different name, it was called, I believe, Are You The O’Reilly in 1915, reinforced the memory of people who heard it the first time around. Most people these days probably remember it from the radio show in the 1940s and 1950s starring William Bendix called The Life of Riley. That’s how I first heard it when I was a kid.
And I’m not that old, but I heard it on replays on the AM radio at night. I would listen to WBBM out of Chicago, which I could hear in Missouri, and they would play these old-time radio shows. And there he’d be with his family living the life of Riley.
I have to say, I just found the show, and I just absolutely love it, and I like the fact that every time I turn on NPR, I learn something new.
Awesome.
You are one of us, Ivy. Thank you so much for your call, Ivy.
Thank you very much.
All right. Best wishes.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
If you’ve got a question about the origin of a phrase or you’ve got something that you want to tell us about language, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, and you can send us email to words@waywordradio.org.
