“Money makes the world go round”
“Oh, ‘tis love, ‘tis love that makes the world go round!” is from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll. “Love” was replaced with “money” in the saying by the late 1800s. “Money makes the world go round” has been cited in print since at least 1891.
“The Money Song” in the musical Cabaret (1965 on Broadway, 1972 on film) includes the lyrics:
“Money makes the world go round
The world go round, the world go round
Money makes the world go round
It makes the world go round.”
The saying means that money is accepted and used all over the world and is an essential part of human activity.
Google Books
The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
By Jennifer Speake, John Simpson
Oxford: Oxord University Press
2008
Pg. ?:
1865 ‘L. CARROLL’ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ix. “‘Oh, ‘tis love, ‘tis love that makes the world go round!’” ‘Somebody said,’ Alice whispered, ‘that it’s done by everybody minding their own business.’
18 April 1891, Alton (IA) Democrat, pg. 1, cols. 5-6:
Kingerly Writes About Old Maxims.
DES MOINES, April 18, 1891.
EDITOR DEMOCRAT—“Money makes the mare go.”
I don’t know how old this saying is but it is about the first “Old saying” that I ever heard and it was lame and deaf and blind and long-whiskered with age when I first met it.
(...)
Of course what is meant is that material progress is caused by money or as it is sometimes otherwise stated “Money makes the world go round.” It is upon this idea that money is the cause of progress that most of our erroneous legislation and methods of government are based.
23 June 1894, Black and White (London), pg. 783, col. 2:
The weather seems quite out of favour as a popular topic of conversation, and it is money, money all the way. Love makes the world go round, money makes the world go square.
21 April 1898, The World (New York, NY), pg. 6, col. 4 ad:
“Money makes the world go round,” it used to be said, but nowadays it’s The World Sunday edition, that makes the money go ‘round—makes it go ‘round to the advertisers who take advantage of the Sunday World’s great circulation, for business men, workingmen and all classes profit by Sunday World advertising.
OCLC WorldCat record
It’s a jolly little wold to live in
Author: A J Mills; Harry Castling
Publisher: London : Francis, Day and Hunter, ©1906.
Edition/Format: Musical score : Songs : English
Notes:
Song; melody and words only, staff and tonic sol-fa notation.
First line: Money makes the world go round, they say.
First line of chorus: It’s a jolly little wold to live in.
OCLC WorldCat record
2 lots in the Bronx. : A musical farce comedy.
Author: Adolf Philipp; Edward A Paulton
Publisher: New York ; Detroit : Jerome H. Remick & Co., ©1914.
Edition/Format: Musical score : English
Contents:
Here’s to us.—
I’m fond of you, you’re fond of me.—
Ich liebe dich.—
It’s simply my smile.—
Money makes the world go ‘round.—
Wikipedia: Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions.
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“The Money Song”
(allthelyrics.com)
Money makes the world go round
The world go round, the world go round
Money makes the world go round
It makes the world go round
A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound
A buck or a pound, a buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go round
That clinking, clanking sound
Can make the world go round