I am sure I first heard The Spanish Lady from The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. This would have been in the summer of 1967 when I was in high school. Probably next came a similar version by The Corries known as Then Ettrick Valley. The melody was the same and the words were very similar but the chorus was:

Fala Tala roodum roodum roodum

rather than:

Wack Fala toora

Then came a version by Gordon Bok with the lines Round and round goes the wheel of fortune, where it stops worries me.

and the chorus: she had 20, 18, 16, 14.....

Then I heard Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise sing The Wheel of Fortune version at Old Songs around 1983 leading me to think that the Irish version had "Wack fol..." The Scottish versions had "Fala Tala Roodum...." and the other British Isles versions tested your counting skills.

Since I liked every version I heard I just sort of jumbled them all together and I perform that way.


Don Meixner