About
This is Greensleeves.website, a website about my Greensleeves collecting
Current internal count: 922 versions in the collection
Who?
I'm Scott Wade, a meticulous-Massachusetts-millennial-musician-man. I work with computers and am generally fond of them.
What?
I came across a ton of interesting versions of Greensleeves and started collecting them. This evolved into some sort of obsession. Now I've got a massive local audio library of Greensleeveses and an endless number of stories I've come across in my searches.
I realized that every version represents a vertical slice of world of musicology, changing technologies, different subcultures, popular music. This website is my attempt to share my Greensleevesing with the world.
The collection itself consists of audio covers of the tune, whether it's with lyrics, or in a different variant like "What Child is This".
When?
I've been collecting versions of the song Greensleeves since 2005. I'm always working behind-the-scenes on the project locally, but this Greensleeves.website was launched in 2025 and will receive updates whenever I feel like it.
Where?
Right here, on the internet!
Why?
Why, indeed. I'm not entirely sure, but according to myself in an AIM conversation at 10:40pm on 9/12/05: "im collecting versions of greensleeves becuz its an awesome song no matter what"
The song itself is very malleable and lends itself to different music genres well. It's uniquely embedded in culture worldwide, being an English folk tune, a romantic ballad, a Christmas carol, and the oldest song almost anyone can name.
Because I've got the Greensleeves disease and I won't suffer alone.
How?
I've built up a very specific process over the years. The full details deserve their own page, but summarize: each version is initially discovered and tracked, then sought out and collected, then researched and labeled, then finally, added to collection officially.
