As I was slowly passing
an orphan's home one day,
I stopped for just a little while
to watch the children play.
Alone a girl was standing
and when I asked her why,
she turned with eyes that could not see
and she began to cry.
I'm nobody's child,
I'm nobody's child.
Just like the flowers
I'm growing wild.
I got no mummy's kisses
I got no daddy's smile.
Nobody wants me,
I'm nobody's child.
No mummy's arms to hold me
or sooth me when I cry,
'cos sometimes I feel so lonesome
I wish that I could die.
I'll walk the streets of heaven
where all blinds can see.
And just like for the other kids
it will be a home for me.
I'm nobody's child,
I'm nobody's child.
Just like the flowers
I'm growing wild.
I got no mummy's kisses
I got no daddy's smile.
Nobody wants me,
I'm nobody's child.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/essex/johns_journey_archive/johns_journey_5_12_69.shtmlNOBODY'S CHILD
Karen Young was born in Sheffield in 1946. As a teenager she worked in a record shop and in 1964 joined a group called The Counterbeats. She later went solo and recorded on Pye and Philips in 1965 and 1967. She was spotted by The Bachelors while they were touring.
They were on the Decca label but told their managers Phil and Dorothy Solomon about her. Irishman Phil Solomon ran his own record label called Major Minor and he signed her up.
Karen Young recorded Nobody's Child, a well known song north of the border and it was a big hit.
While the song was in the charts, the BBC decided to ban another record which went on to become No.1 Je Ta'aime by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin was on both the Major Minor and Fontana labels and one or two pop newspaper readers were upset when they were denied hearing it on the radio.
One complained that the BBC thought it more beneficial to play a song about a blind orphan, unfortunately sung in English, than it is to play a French song about love.
Karen Young's Her follow up was expected to do well too but it failed. Allentown Jail had done well for Forties and Fifties singers Lita Roza and Jo Stafford, but for Karen it didn't take off.
She returned to cabaret performances.
Twenty one years later Nobody's Child would be released again, this time recorded by a group of legendary singers and musicians. The Traveling Wilburys - Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty - released the song for the Romanian Angels Appeal. On the B side was With A Little Help From My Friends sung by Ringo Starr, together with a track called Lumiere by former Eurythmic, Dave Stewart.
The song included a dedication written by Olivia Harrison. It made No.44 in the charts.
