The Smiling Orkney Isles
as sung by Willie Kemp on Beltona 1912 (c.1932)
(Written by Willie Kemp)

1. You can sing about sunshine in far foreign lands
Your sweet-scented woodlands or downs
You can sing about mountains or rivers and lakes
The prairies or streets in the town
But give me the place of the north Scottish shore
Where the wild surging grey-black North Sea
Meets the rolling Atlantic those islands among
And there is the one place for me

Chorus:
For there‘s nothing but smiles in the Orkney Isles
Where the wild rugged shores pierce the sea
Oh what can compare to the peat-scented air
And salt spray that rise in the breeze
You can keep scorching sunshine in tropical lands
But give me the red midnight sun
Where the quaint old north dialect can only be heard
In the Orkney Isles second to none

2. To be happy is easy in these Orkney Isles
From the north to the South Ronaldsay
You‘ll find it‘s the same fron the West to the East
From Stromness to Small Coppinsay
But those charming island are all very well
Your heart will be soon in a whirl
Captivated you‘ll be by a different spell
The charming Orcadian girls.

3. Who cannot but love the Old Man of Hoy
Who warms every heart with a glow
St Magnus, St Ola whose spirits still ride
The rippling waves off Scapa Flow
Old history pages are lettered in gold
In the flagstones round Kirkwall's big tree
So just give me help and I'll try for no more
Than Orkney that's all for me