The Origin of Clementine song

Oh
My Darling, Clementine" is an American western folk ballad usually
credited to Percy Montrose (1884), though sometimes to Barker Bradford.
The song is believed to have been based on another called "Down by the
River Liv'd a Maiden" by H. S. Thompson (1863).
The words are those of a bereaved lover singing about his darling, the
daughter of a "49er", (a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush). He
loses her in a drowning accident - though he consoles himself towards
the end of the song with Clementine's "little sister".
Oh My Darling, Clementine has become popular, especially with Scouts and
other groups of young people, as a campfire and excursion song, and
there are several different versions of the words. (There is even a
Scottish version, the Climbing Clementine, which begins "In a crevice,
high on Nevis...") The lyrics most often sung are those shown below.
The verse about the little sister was often left out of folk song books
intended for children, presumably because it seemed morally
questionable.
The song was used as the title of the 1946 film My Darling Clementine,
which tells the tale of the Gunfight at the OK corral in Tombstone,
Arizona. In the film Wyatt Earp falls in love with a school-teacher
called Clementine. It is also a famous catchphrase of cartoon character
Huckleberry Hound, who would sing it horrendously off-key.
Tom Lehrer wrote a parody of the song, "improving" it by singing each
verse in the style of a famous artist or genre: Cole Porter, Mozart,
Jazz and Gilbert and Sullivan. It was also parodied on Red Dwarf, where
Lister sings the first verse, taking place in an asteroid, with an old
plutonium miner. The Clementine mission was named after the song, as
(once it is complete) the spacecraft was "lost and gone forever".
In his book South from Granada, Gerald Brenan attributes the melody to
originally being an old Spanish ballad, which was made popular by
Mexican miners during the Gold Rush, and given various English texts. No
particular source is cited to verify that the song he used to hear in
the 1920s in a remote Spanish village was not an old text with new
music, but Brenan states in his preface that all facts mentioned in the
book have been checked reasonably well.

Lyrics

In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty niner,
And his daughter Clementine.
Refrain:
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
You were lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.
Light she was and like a fairy,
And her shoes were number nine,
Herring boxes, without topses,
Sandals were for Clementine.
Refrain
Drove she ducklings to the water
Ev'ry morning just at nine,
Stubbed her toe against a splinter,
Fell into the foaming brine.
Refrain
Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles, soft and fine,
But, alas, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.
Refrain
How I missed her! How I missed her,
How I missed my Clementine,
But I kissed her little sister,
I forgot my Clementine.
Refrain
Then the miner, forty-niner,
Soon began to peak and pine,
Thought he oughter join his daughter,
Now he's with his Clementine.
Refrain
In a corner of the churchyard,
Where the myrtle boughs entwine,
Grow the roses and the posies,
Fertilized by Clementine.
Refrain
In my dreams she still doth haunt me,
Robed in garments soaked in brine;
How in life I used to hug her,
Now she's dead, I draw the line.
Older Version of the Lyrics

In the centre of a golden valley,
Dwelt a maiden all divine,
A pretty creature a miner's daughter
And her name was Clementine.
Refrain
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
My darling Clementine,
You are lost for me forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.
Her noble father was the foreman
Of ev'ry valued mine,
And ev'ry miner and ranchman
Was a brother to Clementine.
The foreman miner, an old forty niner,
In dreams and thoughts sublime,
Lived in comfort with his daughter,
His pretty child Clementine.
When far away, he would often pray
That in his sunny clime
No harm might overtake her,
His favorite nugget, Clementine.
When the day was done and the setting sun
Its rays they ceased to shine,
Homeward came the brawney miner
To caress his Clementine.
None was nearer, none was dearer,
Since the days of forty-nine
When, in youth, he had another
Who was then his Clementine.
She led her ducks down to the river,
The weather it was fine,
Stubbed her toe against a sliver,
Fell into the raging brine.
He heard her calling: father,
Her voice was like a chime,
But alas he was no swimmer,
So he lost his Clementine
Funny Version of the Lyrics - Last Verse

Listen Boy Scouts, heed the warning
In this tragic tale of mine,
Artificial respiration,
Would have saved My Clementine!
Clementine in Pop Culture

Oh My Darling, Clementine is a song commonly sung by Huckleberry Hound.
It is also the inspiration for Kate Winslet's character's name in the
movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Clementine Kruczynski.
Oh My Darling, Clementine is referenced in the song "Clementine" by Elliott Smith.
It also featured in Back to the Future Part III (1990).
The song has been adopted by various football teams in the UK as a popular terrace chant.
Tom Lehrer had his own interpretation of this classic.
The tune to this ballad is also frequently adapted by secondary school teachers worldwide to teach about matrix multiplication:
Row by column, row by column,
Multiply them line by line,
Add the products, form a matrix,
Now you're doing it just fine.
The authorship of this version has been disputed, but is most frequently
attributed to the mathematician/musician Aaron B. Barnett.
This song was the inspiration of O. P. Nayyar's famous song "Aei Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahaan" in the Hindi film C.I.D.[/LEFT]