JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: When you read the title of this post, did a song immediately pop into your head? Maybe two? Whether you call them novelty songs or children's songs or camp songs, there's a whole universe of them out there, living long past their expected sell-by dates. Why? I don't know, nor can I tell you how they're transmitted from one generation to the next, but they are.
Let's take the first name mentioned - Charlie. Charlie, who will ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston. I won't ask you to raise your hands (since I can't see you) but I'm going to guess a LOT of you can start humming or singing at least part of the Kingston Trio's hit "MTA Song." I certainly can. Here's the thing: it was released almost three years before I was born. I know my mom's extensive record collection didn't include anything by the Kingston Trio. I'm pretty sure it wasn't in regular rotation by the time I started paying attention to the radio in the early seventies. And of all the places we lived, New England was not on the list. I didn't visit Boston until my best friend was a Smith College.
So how is it I know this song?
There is a sizable portion of this genre, if we want to call it that, coming from a long, long tradition of American children's songs and games. "Guess I'll Go Eat Worms," "Miss Mary Mack," and "Chewin' Gum" can all be dated back to the mid-1800s. I remember my grandmother teaching me the hand-slapping game and I thought it was about her, because she had been Miss Mary MacEachron!
My mom would sing "Nobody loves me, everybody hates me," when I was sulky, and I, in turn, did the same to my kids. So we can see how it's passed on, between children and to children. But again, how many mid-nineteenth century songs do you know all the lyrics to?
Then there's the classic (?) "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," which my own children encountered at summer camp. I have no idea how I picked it up, since I didn't go to camp. (It has a whole different connotation to Army brats anyway.) Written in 1963 by Allen Sherman, it was a huge success and won a Grammy the next year for best comedy performance. He also had a huge hit with the parody, "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" (it starts with the receipt of a Japanese transistor radio, so you know how old it is.)
How many of you can sing Sherman's second hit, as compared to the first?
It is indeed a great mystery how some of these silly songs seep into the cultural consciousness and stay there, playing over and over as the decades go by. What are the silly songs you remember, dear readers, and can you identify when and where you learned them?
I have no idea where I learned any of those silly songs [or why I remember them] . . . remember ooh eeh ooh aah aah ting tang walla walla bingbang . . . . ????
ReplyDeleteWas that from Purple People Eaters, Joan? I can hear the tune of it - no, it's from "Witch Doctor!"
Delete"I told the Witch Doctor I was in love with you." Great. Now THAT is stuck in my head!
DeleteRaising my hand for all of it live and in the moment except The Twelve Gifts of Christmas (had to go listen and watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHMnEjEseo - hilarious!). I still know all the words to Charlie and the MTA, but they didn't really mean anything until I moved to Boston in the early 80s. As a kid I thought, "Why didn't his wife just put the nickel in the sandwich?!" My sisters and I, and our parents too, were at the cusp of the Great Folk Music Scare of the Sixties.
ReplyDeleteMy sisters and I went to girl scout camp every summer, and singing in the dining hall was a big deal, many times in rounds and harmonies. Dona Nobis Pacem, Down Yonder Green Valley, Barges, Rose Rose Rose, and more, plus canoeing songs like My Paddles Keen and Bright (which I just THIS moment learn is Keen, not Clean...), and cowboys songs like Been Ridin'. None of these are silly, per se, but when you learn a song as a child, it sticks.
Then there are songs like "London Bridge is Falling Down" which have roots in the Black Plaque. Ooh, and what about commercial jingles? "Brusha brusha brush, brusha with Ipana, ... toooooth-paste," "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer weiner," and the fractured version of "Chiquita Banana" that veers into, "Peel a banana and put it on the floor, and watch your teacher go sailing out the door."
Fond memories, Julia. Thanks!
So many camp songs!
DeleteAt camp, we all had to line up in our various groups before we were let in to the dining room table by table to meals. There was always a slow poke, and everyone would yell "You're always behind, just like the old cows tail." It is still used in this family today.
DeleteOh dear god. Not the Chipmunks! anything but the Chipmunks.. I will go you an "itsy bitsy teeny tiny yellow polka dot bikini" (snap snap) to get the Chipmunks outta my head. I am a generation before most of you -- "It was a mash, a monster mash" -- I never did like or wear short shorts.. and darn it my ears didn't hang low. But ya shoulda seen me hand jive. kids it was a blast.
ReplyDeleteAll of those!
DeleteI loved the novelty songs that were popular when I was growing up. I am sure that I saw Allan Sherman perform the camp song. It was very clever!
ReplyDeleteNovelty songs were really big in the 1950's and early 1960's. I knew the words (or what I thought were the words) to most of them. I will mention just one of my favorites and then everyone else can chime in with more. I love "Love Potion Number 9." These songs were not before my time, they were in my time.
My grandmother, who was born in the 1800's, taught us several songs and children's rhymes. I can still hear her singing "East side, west side, all around the town..."
I have never heard of Charlie or Miss Mary Mack or Chewin' gum.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because I'm Canadian? Or since I never went to camp??
Out of curiosity, I searched for CANADIAN novelty songs from my childhood in the 1960s & 1970s but did not find any I recognize. Hmmm.
GRACE: May I ask if your kindergarten had class songs? I am not familiar with these songs either. Even though I went to a camp, it was a Deaf camp and I only recall things like putting on plays and skits. No recollection of songs, though. My grammar school class sang the song to honor 200 years of the American Revolution. I cannot spell Bicennential. All of the classes from kindergarten to the fifth? sixth? grade at school sang songs.
DeleteNot familiar with any of these songs either.
ReplyDeleteJULIA: Are "The pigs who went to the market..." and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" songs or are they Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes?
DeleteSince you mentioned your Mum's record collection, I remember going through the record collection with my Mum when I was about five years old. I remember seeing pictures on the record covers. Seeing record cover photos of Joan Baez, James Taylor, the Beatles, John F. Kennedy among many others was how I learned about some of the famous people. I learned that JFK was the President of the USA. There was a huge collection of records! Regarding camp, I went to a Deaf camp and I remember the plays, not the songs. We put on plays.
Camp songs! I remember them all and taught them to my kids. Miss Mary Mack, Day is done, gone the sun, Do your ears hang low. We sang "Daisy Daisy give me your answer do" with Grandma while we did the dishes. My childhood was a blend of Broadway show songs and opera, which I continued with my kids.
ReplyDelete"Oops, there goes another rubber tree," "Bicycle Built for Two," How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" were also songs from my childhood, but I don't know if our parents sang them or if they were on records or where I heard them.
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ReplyDeleteSo many songs I learned at Camp Namanu (sure to shine, all of the time) fit this category. Fair Rosie (lots of hand motions and sexist lyrics), Purple People Eater. Lollypop (a lick on a stick, guaranteed to make you sick), and one of my favorites, Alice (Alice, where are you going, upstairs to take a bath, Alice, with legs like toothpicks and a neck like a giraffe, raffe, raffe, raffe. Alice stepped in the bathtub, pulled out the plug and then, Oh my goodness, oh my soul, there goes Alice down the hole. Alice, where are you going?. Glug.Glug.Glug. ALICE!)
ReplyDeleteJay, in a comment that has since disappeared, mentioned Weird Al. Weird Al is incredible.
I really enjoyed this column, as well as all the comments above! Coralee, special kudos on your great comment. I remember almost all the songs mentioned. One more that still haunts me from childhood is Chicken Fat, which I learned in a quick Google this morning was commissioned by the President's Council on Physical Fitness in 1962. I just remember it as a significant part of the torture that was school physical education class.
ReplyDeleteI remember the physical fitness patches you could earn. Thank goodness Chicken Fat did not make it to my school!
DeleteI think we still have relatively contemporary novelty songs. Hello, "Gangnam Style,," and "The Macarena." I'd also add Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off." Plus, "Who Let the Dogs Out," by Baha Men. "What Does the Fox Say," by Ylvis.
ReplyDeleteApologies for possible earworms.
Not familiar with the chewin' gum song, but the others? Yep! Add Tom Lehrer to the mix; my dad liked him. The Smothers Brothers' Vat of Jello. Beep Beep. Please, Mr Custer. Stan Freberg. Roger Miller songs. Of course, all of these came from the radio in the 60s. Spike Jones, anyone?
ReplyDeleteFrom Celia: this is quite a collection from the past. Some I know and lots not, cultural I guess. But I am well up in English nursery lore and language both from childhood and from Jack Langstaff. I didn't go to camp until I was an adult over here.
ReplyDeleteBut for Novelty, what about Tom Lehrer? We had a record of his in the '50's - poisoning pidgeons in the park, or I hold your hand in mine dear, I press it to my lips, - so suitable of the mystery genre. He delivered them in a voice that can only be described as unique.
As for baby, Celia, my mother like to sing -
The was a little girl, and she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good she was very very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Oh, I remember all of these. Poor Charlie on the MTA I got from my dad. Many of the others were passed on by my grandparents. And yes, I sang some of them to my kids. I'm sure they thought I was crazy.
ReplyDeleteI love the MTA song. That's the fun of folk music - it's easy to sing along with.
ReplyDeleteThen there is Splish, splash, I was taking a bath all around a Saturday night....
and Itsy, Bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow polka dot bikini....
and Daisy, Daisy give me your answer true, I'm half crazy all for the likes of you...(Bicycle Built for 2)
I sing Splish Splash to my granddaughter!
DeleteVery interesting topic today, Julia. Very recently my son and I were talking about music and then royalties. I had asked him if the Kingston Trio still collected royalties for "Tom Dooley". He said the royalties go (mostly) to the one who wrote the songs and since that particular song was written in the 1800s and he found the names of the writers. No one in the Kingston Trio. It was written about a real incident, as was the song about Boston's MTA.
ReplyDeleteBut those other songs, most of which I do remember because I am old enough to recall when they were popular. You could say they were songs from my time.
The conversation with my son started because I told him about a bunch of records my grandmother had. They were old 78s, I think, but I was not curious enough about them then to find out what they were. She never mentioned them and I don't think she even had a machine on which to play them. Now I am so sorry about my lack of curiosity then.
My other grandmother, on the other hand, had a piano and she played and sang songs to me and my siblings. But they were songs we sang in Sunday school, no novelty songs. I never went to camp so the only way I learned about camp songs was from movies and TV shows. I'm still rather horrified thinking about kids around a campfire gleefully singing about the Titanic going down!
Mine was My Old Man’s a Dustman, sung in cockney by Lonnie Donovan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7GeZ3YmONw For some reason it often played on the radio at noon on Sundays as all the families were eating lunch together. We would then belt it out daily all summer – I have no idea why. We also had no clue what the words were or meant so council flat became cowsill flat – made no sense but who cared as volume won over words. Banana boots, daisy roots, four foot from ‘is tail. All made us fall off our chairs laughing, “I say, I say, I say…” “It might be my old mannnnn”.
ReplyDeleteJack just wrote a letter to a young fellow who’s kitten we were minding, a la Hello Mudder, hello father. Hilarious.
What a great topic! YAKKITY YACK, DON'T TALK BACK comes to mind. Also remembering the songs on an album called Peter, Paul and Mommy: I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor. I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor. I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor, and I don't like it very much.... And of course all the Tom Lehrer songs (Poisoning Pigeons in the Park...)
ReplyDeleteHysterical, but then, They're Coming To Take Me Away.... I don't understand why because all I did was The Monster Mash!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else have the Bump Ball album? https://youtu.be/1sfhKm3xd7Y?si=Nlx97b4lr6PHSQz7
ReplyDeleteFirst thought was Monster Mash followed by Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. Darned if those songs don't stay with you over the years. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteOn Top of Spaghetti, John Jacob Jinglehammer Schmidt, Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it’s Flavour, The Unicorn Song by P,P & M, and for some reason Proud Mary.
ReplyDelete"My" cottage on the Cape, where I am writing this week, is next to a funeral home. I saw the hearse go out and come back yesterday, and I was just haunting the obituaries to see when the wake will be (tomorrow afternoon for a lovely 97-year old...). The ditty from childhood came back: "When you see a hearse go by, that means you're next to die. They wrap you up in a big white sheet, and drop you down about six feet. The worms go in, the worms go out, the worms play pinochle on your snout, ..." And the details grow more gross. It ends with, "Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you." And as kids we thought that was a fun song!
ReplyDelete