Any traditional leap year songs?

Subject: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: DMcG
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 05:33 PM

I was discussing seasonal songs with someone earlier today and they asked if there were any traditional songs speficially for singing on leap-year day (ideally) or otherwise specifically about leap years.

I can't think of any, but maybe you can?

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Feb 08 - 07:19 PM

Here's one I found for kids:

Leap Year Song(Tune of Bingo)
There was a year called Leap Year,
And February was its name-o,
L-E-A-P Y-E-A-R,
L-E-A-P Y-E-A-R,
L-E-A-P Y-E-A-R,
And February was its name-o.

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 07:46 AM

I've found a reference to The Lady's Song in Leap-Year but don't know it. Has anyone a copy?

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 07:52 AM

Write your own. It's been done before and you might win a prize!

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 08:01 AM

Ah, I've no doubt there's plenty of Mudcatters who could write such a song at the drop of a hat. But the root of the discussion was whether there were songs collected from the tradition and reason it was put that way is partially the difficulty of collecting such songs in the field - the actual number of occasions such a song might be encountered being unusually restricted - and correspondingly similar restrictions of such a song being passed down the generations.

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Feb 08 - 08:21 AM

People born in a leap year are called leaplings I believe, unless it only refers to Feb 29.

That might reveal something you are looking for. But not according to my searches.

Alltheweb found a few possiblities from the 50's and The Leap Year. Song. Words and music by D. Caldwell by David Caldwell (Unknown Binding - 1908) Currently unavailable

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 04:31 PM

Not quite trad, but . . .

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Helen
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 04:52 PM

Interesting article about leap years including a section about the differences in calculations in the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar, which apparently is more mathematically accurate.

Why don't we have a leap year every four years?

Not a song, but there is the mnemonic rhyme for remembering the days in each month:

30 Days Has September

All right, I take it back. Someone has made it into a song.

I really can't remember ever hearing a song about leap year or mentioning leap year, however my good friend Google came up with this website:

Top 10: Songs for Leap Day

1. "Leap Year Blues," Big Bill Broonzy
2. "A Strange Day," The Cure
3. "Jump," Van Halen
4. "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards," Billy Bragg
5. "29," Ryan Adams
6. "Here Today," The Beach Boys
7. "Leap of Faith," Bruce Sprinsteen
8. "The Calendar Hung Itself," Bright Eyes
9. "Jumpin' Jack Flash," The Rolling Stones
10. "Another Day," Paul McCartney

I'd be surprised if they all actually relate to leap year. Some of them might have been chosen simply because the title includes the word "leap" or even "jump" or "29".

The Big Bill Broonzy song might be worth a listen:

Leap Year Blues

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Abby Sale
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 05:53 PM

1. Shaker founder Ann Lee b2/29/1736 (d9/8/1784)
        I will bow and be simple,
        I will bow and be free,
        I will bow and be humble,
        Yea, bow like the willow tree.

                "I Will Bow And Be Simple,"
                DigTrad filename[ BOWSMPLE

2. Losing an arm and decorated for heroism in the Russo-Japanese war, Joseph Trumpeldor became the 1st Jewish officer in the tsarist armies. Leader of Jewish Legion at Gallipoli, defence corps leader in the Galilee, Trumpeldor was killed in battle at Tel Chai at age 40 (2/29/1920)

        B'chol makom, uv'chol rega, tizk'ru oti,
        Ki nilchamti, v'gam nafalti, b'ad molad'ti!
        Kol hayom ani charashti, uvalayla,
        K'ney rovi b'yadi achazti ad harega ha-achron."

        Every place and every hour, remember me, remember me,
        For I battled and I fell for my Galilee.
        I plowed the land,I watched my land,
        And fell with the rifle in my hand.

                "B'tel Chay," A Treasury of Jewish Folksong,
                Ruth Rubin

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 07:45 PM

Although not quite 'Trad'. The whole theme of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" is that Frederic has been apprenticed to be a pirate until his twenty first birthday. On achieving the age of 21 he (believing he is no longer a pirate) informs on his colleagues. But as his birth was on 29 Feb, he has not enjoyed 21 'birthdays' and so is a pirate still.

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 05:38 AM

On finding out, does he go Ahrrrrrrrrrrrr?

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Feb 24 - 07:15 PM

… and refresh again!

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Feb 24 - 01:16 AM

The link posted by GUEST,Starship - Date: 28 Feb 20 - 04:31 PM don't work no more. Perhaps it was to the scene in Pirates of Penzance in which Frederic finds out that, having been born on 29 February, he has had only five birthdays, and not 21. Here is how he reacts:

How quaint the ways of Paradox!
At common sense she gaily mocks!
Though counting in the usual way,
Years twenty-one I've been alive,
Yet, reckoning by my natal day,
I am a little boy of five!

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 10:45 AM

Nigel, beat me to Pirates.

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 04:23 PM

William Tell Overture (aka The Lone Ranger)
The Barber of Seville

In fact anything by Rossini (b. 29 Feb 1792)

Similarly, anything by bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (b. 19 Feb 1904)

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 04:25 PM

**Correction**
Jimmy Dorsey (b. 29 Feb 1904)

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 06:06 PM

Another leap year baby is
Khaled Hadj-Brahim, also known as Cheb Khaled.
Algeria, 29 Feb 1960
leading artist of the genre called "rai"

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 06:56 PM

There’s the old rhyme that we were taught at school, tho don’t think it has a tune:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except for February alone,
Which has but twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each Leap Year.

Subject: RE: Any traditional leap year songs?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 24 - 06:57 PM

I could have sworn that Al Capp's Sadie Hawkins character proposed on Feb. 29, but I seem to have mangled my memories of the Li'l Abner cartoon with the February 29 "Bachelor's Day" tradition and lore.