The "On top of Spaghetti" lyrics were covered in an earlier thread about songs you sang as a child. Probably a series of threads.

I grew up listening to Burl Ives, and I still have a bunch of old LPs, scratchy and beloved: BI sings songs of Ireland, songs of the Sea (or maybe the title is Down to the Sea in Ships), songs for and about men, plus a couple of children's LPs -- songs about whales, ducks, etc. I also have the in memoriam CD which includes Goober peas and a few other notables of his. He was a great popularizer of many, many folk songs, of all kinds -- but when I saw "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" the older "original" (?) lyrics to Big Rock Candy Mountain were a revelation, since I'd grown up on Burl Ives' version.