There is, of course, a Wikipedia article on this song:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Bottles_of_Beer
The Traditional Ballad Index also has an entry:
Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer
DESCRIPTION: Need I really tell you? "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Ninety-nine bottles of beer, Take one down and pass it around, Ninety-eight bottles of beer...." And so on, ad nauseum, drunkenness, or exhaustion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 456, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 190, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text)
DT, BOT99*
Roud #7603
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eight Little Cylinders" (counting)
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (counting)
NOTES: Randolph's and Brown's texts, obviously, refers to "blue bottles" rather than "bottles of beer"; might this be an attempt to clean up the song for a temperate audience?
I will admit amazement that neither Randolph nor Brown seems to know this in its common form -- but then, they probably were born in the days before school buses took students on field trips. - RBW
File: R456Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song ListGo to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
Is it in the World's Greatest Songbook, the Digital Tradition? Of course: /@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4239
And yes, friends, the entire, unedited text of this song was posted at Mudcat by The Honorable Toadfrog: /detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=814677