Continuing to be off topic but Mo started it :o}

In my childhood and as late as 2004 I've heard children sing the song "Punchinella" {not Punchinello}.

The Punchinella tune that I remember and that I've heard isn't like "Little Bunny Foo Foo". It's moderate tempo and thus faster than "Little Bunny" etc.

I can't think of a children's song that's similar to it and this is when I deeply regret that I don't know how to read or write music notes.

The words that I remember, and read, and collected are similar to the ones you gave, Mo. Here's the version from my childhood {Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1950s}:

PUNCHINELLA
What can you do
Punchinella, Punchinella
What can you do Punchinella in the shoe

[Oh] we can do it too
Punchinella Punchinella
We can do it too
Punchinella in the shoe

[Oh] who do you choose
Punchinella Punchinella
Who do you choose
Punchinella in the shoe

-snip-

In Pittsburgh, PA area children sang {and adults remembered the song as being- "What can you do Punchinella/47/what can you do Punchinella in the shoe." The rest is the same as above...

I think the 47 is from Heinz 47 {the catsup maker, because it's based in Pittsburgh..That's just speculation, but I can't think of any other reason for it.

I think the "in the shoe" version is folk etymology for a line I've read "Punchinella, funny you". The "in the shoe" version may come from the Buster Brown shoes that I can barely remember which apparently had a picture of Buster [or was it Buster Brown & his dog Tige inside the shoe. For more info on Buster Brown, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Brown

**

The Punchinella song that I recall from my childhood and that I've heard late 1990s/to date is similarly to the way you described it, Mo. And the play activity is just about the same, too. Here's some more details about the play directions.

Children {and adults joining with the children} form a circle with one center person. The people forming the circle clap while singing the 1st and 2nd verse. In the game song groups that I facilitated, children added foot stomping on beat to their accompanying hand claps. The person in the center of the circle doesn't sing. The center person does the same movement throughout the 2nd & 3rd verses {such as either hopping on one foot, jumping jacks, or a step from a popular dance}.

In the 4th verse, the people forming the circle either continue singing while clapping [and stomping] or they form hands and move counter clockwise while singing [this is the way I recall doing it in my childhood]. At the same time, the center person closes her {or his} eyes, covers her eyes with her right hand, and then standing in basically one spot, spins around in the center of the circle with her left arm outstretched, pointing to people who are forming the circle. The person who the center person is pointing to at the end of the song becomes the new center person.

Theoretically, the new center person is supposed to immediately go to the center of the circle and the old center person is supposed to immediately rejoin the circle. The game is then supposed to start without any break in performance. However, in my experience faciliating those after-school/summer program game song groups [for predominately African American girls and boys ages 5-12 years old 1997-2005] a lot of children were very hesitant to go into the center of the circle. Many of these children didn't want to be the center person because that would mean they would be the center of attention, and they feared people making fun of them. Therefore, when we got near the end of the last verse, these children would step away from the circle, or semi-hide behind someone else, or otherwise try to avoid being picked. Of course, there were also always some children {girls or boys} who loved being the center of attention in the center of the circle, and they would rush to take the place in the center for the person who really was picked.

Btw, this manner of picking the new center person is the one I remember from my childhood. And it's the same way the center person is picked for all circle games that I've seen African American and non-African American children play. However, I've read that at one time the new center person was purposely picked by the old center person strutting or dancing up to the person she or he wanted to select.

I'm curious about which way folks here recall and/or have observed the center person being picked.