Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Sourdough
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 02:43 AM

I recall hearing a Hebrew song popular in Israel in the 1960s. It was a lighthearted little song with the predominent sounds being consonants that "come trippingly across thet tongue". Since I don't know Hebrew, I can't help with words but perhaps another Catter can. The song title transliterates to El Hippopotame. I think.

S. Dough

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 02:03 AM

Nope! I think when I didn't notice that you had called me Metochosin still has me in the lead*BG*

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: CapriUni
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 01:29 AM

Metchosin --

That's the neat thing about folk music, though: there *Are* no "senior" moments... The songs are right if we sing 'em that way, as long as they feel right on our breath, if you know what I mean.

(now, when I called you "Metochosin" *That* was a senior moment!) ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 12:42 AM

CapriUni, come to think of it, I think yours is the correct wording, guess I was having a senior moment.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: raredance
Date: 05 Oct 01 - 12:32 AM

The Paxton song is on the album "The Marvelous Toy & Other Gallimaufry" (1986 Flying Fish FF408). I'm thinking it may also be on one of his kids CDs such as "Peanut Butter Pie" but I don't know for sure. It's not on "Suzy Was A Rocker". There is no lyric sheet in my copy of the LP which means either there never was one or the kids lost it years ago. That means it goes on the list of songs to transcribe whenever I get to it.

rich r

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: CapriUni
Date: 04 Oct 01 - 12:46 AM

Metochosin --

I learned a variation of the "Animal Fair" song, with the following difference (learned from my mother):

"The monkey, he got drunk,
And sat on the elephant's trunk"

I don't know where she learned it from...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Genie
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 08:24 PM

or the immortal rhyme
"the hippopotamus was no ignoramus..." I believe it's in the DT. It's full of immortal rhymes!

Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 06:43 PM

Flanders & Swan, "Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud"
it has the immortal rhyme or "regular army" with "Hippopotamii".
It was probably on the album "At the Drop of a Hat"

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ANIMAL FAIR
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 02:50 AM

There's also the song:

The Animal Fair?

I went to the animal fair
The birds and the bees were there
The big baboon
By the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair
The monkey sat kerplunk
Right on the elephant's trunk
The elephant sneezed
And fell on his knees
But what became of the monk,
The monk, the monk, the monk?
But what became of the monk.

Mark, when they were small, my kids used to sing Heather Bishop's Hippopotamus Song and Bellybutton, mimicing her voice. The lady has decidedly unique vocal qualities and their rendition was a hoot.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Genie
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 02:23 AM

Rich R,
Do you have the words to the Tom Paxton elephant song?

There's always "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy." One verse goes:

Way down south where bananas grow,
A monkey stepped on the elephant's toe.
The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,
"Why don't ya pick on somebody your own size?!"
Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: CapriUni
Date: 28 Sep 01 - 04:51 PM

There's a song my uncle used to sing (sorry, I don't have the tune for it) that was a very simple accumulative song (along the lines of "100 bottles of beer"), that went like this:

An el-e-pant went out to play
out on a spid-er's web, one day.
He had such e-NORM-ous fun,
he in-vit-ed an-oth-er el-e-phant to come.

Two el-e-phants went out to play

Etc. ...

The song would start with my uncle singing, and marching around the room. When he got to "he invited another elephant..." he would reach out and take the hand of another person there, and then the two of them would romp around the room, and it would continue until everyone in the room was part of the chain, which would end up marching through all the rooms on that level of the house...

Mind you, he did this with adults :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 27 Sep 01 - 03:04 AM

Sorry Argenine,

Baby Elephant Walk didn't have any lyrics on the sheet music I used to own...

Lin

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 27 Sep 01 - 01:42 AM

Thanks, Troll.

I was having a senior moment or something like that. Are there lyrics to Baby Elephant Walk?
Argenine

Subject: Lyr Add: JUMBO THE ELEPHANT (Evans, Snow)
From: raredance
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 09:17 PM

JUMBO THE ELEPHANT<
(words F H Evans, music J A Snow)

"O have you seen the elephant?" is all the people's cry;
The great and mighty elepohant who stands so broad and high.
He daily eats a ton of hay, and drinks upon the sly
A tub of circus lemonade and several pints of rye.

CHORUS: O have you seen the elephant, from England late he came
He is the king of elephants and Jumbo is his name.

Old Jumbo likes a social glass, but he is never drunk
Though people say he always keeps a bottle in his trunk.
But then there's always snakes around, and Jumbo thinks it right
To keep some rye on hand to cure and accidental bite.

When people went to see him first they wondered at his size;
And then he looked so funny too, and winked his knowing eyes.
But they were very much surprised when soon the monster ran
And left the ring between the acts to go and see a man.

from "Folksongs Out of Wisconsin" by Harry Peters (1977 State Historical Society of Wisconsin). song supplied by the Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin.

rich r

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: raredance
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 09:03 PM

"Englebert the Elephant" by Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Troll
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 08:22 AM

"Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini from the movie "Hatari!" starring none other than *JOHN WAYNE*. ta da

troll

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 26 Sep 01 - 03:33 AM

Are there any lyrics to the "Baby Elephant Rhumba" or whatever it's called?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 06:22 PM

Well, maybe somebody could put a tune to this one:

Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant
Oh, no, I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone
Whate'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk
The more he tried to get it free
The louder buzzed the telephee
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong)

I think that was in the Childcraft poetry volume, if anybody remembers Childcraft. I don't know who wrote it, but it sounds suspiciously like Mr. Nash.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 03:46 PM

You folks have given some leads to great songs. Keep it up, but I'm going to post a separate thread for Baby Gramps's song and the other elephant song, because the hippos have taken over this thread. (Nodody knows any Rhinoceros songs? Of-courseros not.)

Arge

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 02:27 PM

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack gets into elephants but it's a little peripheral...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 01:52 PM

Thank you, Metchosin--I've been trying to find out who wrote "If You Love a Hippopotamus" ever since I heard it at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop in 1986! It's one of my daughter's favorite songs. The person who sang it at PSGW (it was one of the members of "Motherlode", but I can't remember who) added this verse, which her daughter wrote:

If your friend the hippo
Is stuck inside the zoo
Just dress her up like a person
And sneak her out with you

Also, we sing the last lines of the last verse, "She'll tiptoe out hippopotamusly and shut the door" with a diminuendo and ritardando (quieter and slower!), followed by a l-o-o-o-n-g pause, then a shouted..."WHAM!!!!" Very effective.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Pelrad
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 01:40 PM

Song #4 on Metchosin's link above, Hippopotamus Rock, was written and recorded by RosenShontz. Their albums are still available from places like cdnow and amazon.com. Catchy tune; it's got a great beat and you can dance to it!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: breezy
Date: 09 Sep 01 - 03:58 PM

try jeremy taylor's Huberta the hippoppotamas and yougot nellie the elephant then there's one by leon rosselson which starts 'Jumbo the elephant, he wasn't elegant and his intelligence was small, But he was a sort of nice kind of elephant , ///// and mild ,like a lovable child obedient to anyones call---- then it goes on about its relationship with the mayor . if you locate taylor let me know.good luck

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Nigel.Parsons
Date: 09 Sep 01 - 01:00 PM

"When I see an elephant fly " has already been mentioned, but, also from Dumbo, there's "Pink Elephants on Parade", an amusing interlude when Dumbo is drunk.

Also, whilst on Disney, there's "Heffalumps and Woozels" (elephants & weasels ?) on one of the Winnie The Pooh videos.

What madness has of late possessed the brain ? Though few can write, yet fewer can refrain!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Metchosin
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 11:20 PM

You want Hippopotamus songs? Boy do these people here have Hippo Songs!

Mind you their composer information is a bit suspect. "If You Love A Hippopotamus" by Heather Bishop from her Album Bellybutton is listed as being written by someone called Bethie? But don't let that disuade you, its a great song, my kids and I loved it.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 11:05 PM

Thanks for that verse, Joe F.

Joe Offer, Thanks for the Hippo for Xmas link. The reason I hadn't looked it up before is that it was an afterthought--not the main focus of the thread, which is mainly to get the Baby Gramps song and the "Can I Have Dat Big Elephant" songs ( and any others I am not aware of).

Sorry for the duplication.

Argenine

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 08:14 PM

The 4th stanza (from memory):

The amorous hippopotamus whose love song we know
Is now married and father of ten.
He murmurs "God rot 'em!" as he watches them grow,
And he longs to be single again.
He'll gambol no more by the banks of the Nile,
Which Nasser is flooding next spring.
With hippopoTAmas in silken pyjamas
No more will he teach them to sing...

The switch from the Shalimar to the Nile was inconspicuous in that this stanza was sung, by itself, in the second show (_Another_ Hat).

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 03:42 AM

Hi, Argenine - be sure to try our Digitrad and Forum Search. Here's I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (click).

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 03:28 AM

There's an old thread: I Carried Water For The Elephant.

It has the lyrics to this old circus song.

Don't know the Baby Gramps song or the other one you mentioned, Argenine.

Sonja

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Argenine
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:17 PM

Uh-oh! Somehow the thread title got posted wrong even after I corrected the typo. How do I fix it?

(Can you fix it, Joe? If you can, thanks. Argenine)

Subject: Elephant & Hippo Songs
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:15 PM

There are two elephant songs and one hippopotamus song I'm trying to find -- and there may be other good suggestions, too.

One song is by Baby Gramps of Seattle, called "Go Wash An Elephant (If You Wanna Do Something Big)."

A second is an old jazz song that goes, "Daddy, can I have dat big elephant over dere?"

The third is "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas."

Does someone have lyrics and/or chords for these?

How about others?

I already know Flanders and Swann's "Hippopotamus" song (in the DT, I think) -- except for the 4th verse, after the hippopotamus gets married (and divorced, I think).

There's also "When I See A Elephant Fly," from Disney's "Dumbo."

What about other pachyderm songs (rhinos included)?

Genie