Come Josephine in My Flying Machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Come Josephine In My Flying Machine" is a popular song.

1910 sheet music cover

The music was written by Fred Fisher, the lyrics by Alfred Bryan. The song was published in 1910. It was originally recorded by Blanche Ring in 1910 and was, for a while, her signature song. It was then recorded as a duet by Ada Jones and Billy Murray in 1911.

Written in the early days of the airplane, the song tells of a young man courting his gal by "flying machine". The light-hearted song expresses the technological optimism of the era. The lyrics even have the couple saying "Whoa, dear! Don't hit the Moon!" "No, dear... Not yet, but soon!"

The song is a standard, and was recorded by many artists since Ring's original version.

The song is performed in the 1939 feature film "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle".

It remained popular enough into the 1940s to be featured in a "Follow the Bouncing Ball" sing-a-long cartoon and parodied by Spike Jones & His City Slickers.

It is featured in the 1997 movie, Titanic. Jack sings the lines "Come Josephine, In my flying machine, Going up she goes, Up she goes" to Rose while they are on the bow of the ship in the "I'm flying" scene. Rose can also be seen singing this song to herself when she is waiting to be rescued. It was recorded by Moya Brennan in the Back to Titanic soundtrack.