# Big Ben's Not Lisa **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760 "2003-03-28T12:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/1 "2003-03-28T12:17:59Z")
When Big Ben sounds at fifteen minutes after the hour, it sounds like the opening notes to that country music song that begins, I think, with “I’m not Lisa; my name is Julie.” Are those the accurate lyrics? What is the name of the song? Does this ring a bell (heh, heh) with anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/2 "2003-03-28T13:18:54Z")
I’m Not Lisa, by Jessie Colter was the song. Haven’t heard Big Ben, so I don’t know how the match up. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/3 "2003-03-28T13:36:56Z")
I don’t know about the country music song, but the chimes derived from Handel’s ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ from _Messiah_. You can find the musical notation here. [http://www.bigben.freeservers.com/chimes.html](http://www.bigben.freeservers.com/chimes.html) And you know what, the connection isn’t obvious if you listen to Handel’s version. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/4 "2003-03-28T14:39:33Z")
You can listen to all the most famous clock chimes on this website: [http://www.clockpeddler.com/chimes.htm](http://www.clockpeddler.com/chimes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/5 "2003-03-28T15:44:51Z")
All I know is that Lisa left you years ago. Get over it and move on already! ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bens-not-lisa/164760/6 "2003-03-28T17:10:52Z")
Cecil speaks on [Who wrote the clock chime tune?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990430b.html) > [@](#): > > What you’re referring to is the best-known of all clock chimes, the Westminster Quarters. According to tradition, the words to the tune are, “Oh, Lord our God / Be thou our guide / That by thy help / No foot may slide.” The melody was written by one William Crotch in 1794. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, it consists of four variations on the fifth and sixth bars of “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” one of the pieces in Handel’s Messiah. Crotch persuaded the powers that be to use the tune for the chimes of the new Cambridge University clock in Saint Mary the Great Church. The tune was later copied by the proprietors of other clock towers, most notably in the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, from which its fame spread around the world.