Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad

Subject: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 03:54 AM

There's an advert on TV for a child's toy called My Fairy Garden. They've taken a folk song and changed the words. It's driving me absolutely mad, as I'm certain the tune is familiar but I just can't identify it. You can hear it on Youtube. It sounds Scottish or Irish. Please, does anyone recognise it, before I go insane.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:31 AM

There might be dozens of ads Eliza.
It would be really helpful to incclude a link.
And maybe ask on the yt as well, maybe the producers are watching comments.

To get you started... This came up first
was it this one?

https://youtu.be/zfgSESqlsIw

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:50 AM

Is it The Cuckoo's Nest?

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 05:12 AM

Yes Freddy, that's the one. I'm so sorry but I'm not terribly techno savvy and have no idea about doing 'links' etc.

Please, does anyone know what this blessed tune is? I used to go to a folk club in Edinburgh in the early sixties, and I'm pretty sure I heard this tune/song there.

I don't think it's cuckoo's nest, Danoota. I know that one quite well.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 06:56 AM

It's a bawdy Scots song - bit ironic to find it used for advertising children's toys

THE CUCKOO'S NEST
From the singing of Jeannie Robertson

There is a thorn bush in oor kail-yard,
There is a thorn bush in oor kail-yard,
At the back o' thorn bush, there stands a lad and lass
And they're busy, busy fairin' at the cuckoo's nest.

It's hi the cuckin, ho the cuckin, hi the cuckoo's nest,
It's hi the cuckin, ho the cuckin, hi the cuckoo's nest,
I'll gie onybody a shillin' and a bottle o' the best,
If they'll rumple up the feathers on the cuckoo's nest.

It is thorned, it is sprinkled, it is compassed all around,
It is thorned, it is sprinkled and it isn't easy found.
She said: "Young man, you're blundering." I said it wasnae true
And I left her wi' the makings o' a young cuckoo.        

It's hi the cuckin.......

Jeannie

It's also found in the North of Ireland as 'The Magpie's Nest' - nice version of it recorded from Anne Jane Kelly from Keady, Armargh in the 1950s by the BBC
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 08:03 AM

It does have some similarities with Cuckoo's Nest, but it honestly isn't the same tune. Oh Lord, it's got into my head now, and is driving me round the bend. I'm just hoping someone on here can help!

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 08:11 AM

Like my father used to say.."It's the same, only different.."

I think they might have just messed with it to suit their purposes....................and people DO write tunes that are similar to other tunes now & then without actually knowing it.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 08:57 AM

Sorry, Eliza.
It does have a slight resemblance to Cuckoo's Nest, but it sounds to me, because it's so simple, like a tune somebody just made up. I doubt very much that it is consciously based on an existing tune.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 09:39 AM

I agree with Steve. It's likely that somebody composed it for the ad. At least, I've heard a good many tunes, and I've never heard that one.

For me, the music has two features. The first is the notes for "My Fairy Garden." They are a distinctive little run.

high D/ B A F#-E /low D

I think that recognizing an original tune for this would hinge on locating that little run.

But the run sounds modern to me. After that the tune settles into a comfy, minor diddle-diddle. Very conventional.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 09:51 AM

Thank you all for your comments. I'm going to have a nice bottle of Old Speckled Hen, and two buttered crumpets followed by a nice nap, and hope the blessed thing will have gone out of my head by this evening.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Will Fly
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 10:04 AM

Eliza, I advise two bottles of Speckled Hen and one crumpet - that'll probably get everything out of your head! :-)

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 10:19 AM

Tunes can often fortuitously resemble one another. I once pointed out to Peter Bellamy that 'I Once Lived In Service' in his The Transports was much like 'The Fair Maid On The Shore'. "People have said that to me," he said, "but I don't know 'The Fair Maid'. How does it go?" I sang him a bit. "Well," he said," maybe I did hear it once and remembered it subconsciously." But I think it was more likely coincidence.

Another similarity is Jim Parker's tune for 'The Dancers of Stanton Drew', with one of Marie Lloyd's first ever songs, way back in the 1880s, 'The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery' by George Ware. Again, I am sure it was just coincidence rather than any plagiarism, conscious or unconscious.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Morris-ey
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 12:01 PM

The tune does sound familiar; the big problem for me is, having heard the words, getting the damn thing out of my head.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 12:02 PM

Warburton's crumpets I trust? I'm having 'em with Hopping Hare...

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 12:50 PM

Yes! Warburton's indeed Danoota! Loaded with real butter. I don't listen to all the cholesterol warnings.

Had my nap, but as Morris-ey has found, the tune is still playing in my head.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 01:29 PM

My darling Emma brings me two buttered Warburton crumpets with butter & jam for brekkie every morning before she goes off to work. Great start to the day.

I just know how much you have all been longing to know that. Especially all those so busy making notes for my biography!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 02:14 PM

I'm so pleased other people love crumpets too. I bet your biography would be very interesting, Michael!
(thread drift)

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 02:35 PM

That tune on the Warburton's Crumpets ad, it sounds very much like 'Bread of Heaven' to me.

I'll get me coat!

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 02:52 PM

Hahahaha Steve! I always say when/if I get to heaven, there'll be a large plate of crumpets ready-buttered and a LOT of Old Speckled Hen ale to drink. And all the angels will be Morris dancing.

Come on people, surely someone recognises this darned tune?

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 02:56 PM

I have very thinly sliced Norwegian Gjetost melted on my Warbs.

PS : I think that fairy garden tune might be related to this too; distantly, 2nd cousin twice removed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQTq88Ie5sU

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 03:04 PM

I wish to recommend in the strongest possible terms Waitrose crumpets made with buttermilk. Beware, they have cheaper ones. The Warburtons are a reasonable substitute. And butter. None of that low-fat rubbish or that I-Can't-Believe-That-Sane-People-Might-Even-Remotely-Think-That-This-Grease-Is-Butter. When I were a little lad in t'fifties oop north, me mum'd send me off to Billy Pendlebury's shop for a Warburton's sliced, a Warburton's Toastie and a "packet of towels." I never did work out how they got great big towels into those little packets or why I never saw new towels hanging up in th'ouse...

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 03:10 PM

No Warburton's crumpets are too thick - gooey in the middle. Thin crumpets are best.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 03:51 PM

I get through tons of REAL butter in a week. Irish butter. Any make of crumpet is fine by me. I also adore muffins (not those spongey cakey things, I mean proper muffins as sold by the muffin man) God, please take note. And I hope He also notes that I like Border Morris dancing best.


Look, concentrate everyone. Never mind crumpets. That song, that song...


Steve, I was sent for 'Dr White's' by my mother. I used to wonder who he might be...

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:10 PM

That was it, Dr White's. But that was the only brand Billy Pendlebury stocked, so she didn't have to specify. But was Dr White a woman...

If you lived in Cornwall you could avail yourself of Trewithen Farm's unsalted butter. I'll contemplate no other brand. My mum swears by Lurpak. Lard.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:24 PM

By the way, I toast my crumpet on the bottom before I turn it over.

I did try to phrase that carefully. It doesn't read too well, does it. Shut up if you're reading this, Musket.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:39 PM

Ugh no, not Lurpak. As you say, lard. Kerrygold is my favourite. I like a wee bit of salt in it for flavour.

I shall go to my grave never knowing what that song was...

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 04:59 PM

Talking about muffins -- why do those silly Americans call cupcakes "muffins", so that they are reduced to calling what are really muffins "English muffins"? And such is their pernicious power, dashit-all!, that these perverse usages are even catching on over here!

Chunter·chunter·bloodybloody·chunter..................

And I still say it's an original tune that sounds a bit like The Cuckoo's Nest just as Stanton Drew sounds a bit like Up In The Gallery.

Michael hath spoken --- ergo It Is So

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,"Top of the Muffin to You!,"
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 05:28 PM

muffins are more bread then cake

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 05:36 PM

I know Michael. And they're full of sugar. Now I admit my sin is dairy fat, but neither crumpets nor muffins have sugar in them. I believe sugar is far worse for you than dairy, so really I am a very good girl.(God please note that too.)

I honestly can't find much similarity between this tune and The Cuckoo's Nest. My husband is giving me fed-up looks, so I'd better stop playing it over and over on my laptop.

The words 'all around the town' seem to be connected with the song in my mind. A clue perhaps?

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 05:50 PM

They're not bloody crumpets, they're pikelets. A bit of crumpet is something else! Dr White's, no I'm not going there.

Nowadays I smother my toasted pikelets (Warburtons, okay) in Olivio, cover with beans, and toast on blue cheese.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 06:04 PM

A pikelet is thinner and flatter. I like crumpets, they're much thicker. (greedy)

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 06:31 PM

Pikelets? Avoid. Olivio? Not in my house, pal. Olive oil is for making soffritto and tomato sauce, pesto, dunking, baking ciabattas, dressing pizzas and pasta dishes and for salad dressings and basting basked fish. Not for converting into grease that would do more good packed into my bottom bracket. And don't delete the word bracket there in your mind if you disagree.

I listened to the tune, Eliza, and it does sound authentically folky. A bit on the mixolydian side, I'd say. Don't recognise it though.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: RTim
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 06:50 PM

I can get Crumpets here in the US and eat them regularly - love them with Provolone cheese and Canadian Bacon!!
My Mum also used to send me to the corner shop for Dr. White's - and they were NOT crumpets............

Tim Radford.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 07:22 PM

I recently went to the abc tunefinder for versions of the Cuckoo's Nest, and I stopped at 139 of them. True, some of them were the same. Nonetheless, identifying a tune as The Cuckoo's Nest is no help.

Eliza, there are two approaches to getting the tune out of your head. One is to memorize the entire jingle and sing it. The theory is that once you know it, your Inner Schoolmarm will excuse you from working on it anymore.

The other approach is to play, sing, or listen intently to something else. Put Beethoven's 9th on the stereo good and loud, then hope that the jingle has been driven out.

I've been in the same boat. I had "It's All in the Game" (sappy 1950's lovesong) stuck in my head for several days.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 07:38 PM

In America, cupcakes are small, sweet cakes that you cook in a cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers. You frost them. Cupcakes might be served at a birthday party.

There has been a big resurgence of cupcake consumption among people in their 20's and 30's lately. I suspect it is due to a lack of playful, affectionate mothering in childhood. ("Eat that Special K while I take a shower. I have to get to work!")

Muffins are cooked in the same kind of pan, but they are less sweet and often contain nuts or berries. They are often eaten for breakfast. They are delicious hot and buttered.

The flat, sour, holey thing you call a crumpet is called an English muffin in America. Never muffin, always English muffin. It, too, is usually breakfast food.

Me, I make cracked-wheat bread in the bread machine, then I toast it and dot walnut oil on it.

Subject: RE: Desperate to identify this tune
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 16 - 08:05 PM

I've seen it all now. A thing of great beauty referred to as a flat, sour, holey thing. Jesus, I'm depressed.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 03:22 AM

Of course, being good folkies we really ought to make our own...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/crumpets_61013

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 03:24 AM

As long as nobody describes YOU as a flat, sour holey thing Steve, you needn't feel depressed. And the holes are essential to allow the BUTTER (not horrible old olive oil) to melt and permeate the crumpet.

Thank you leeneia for your advice on getting rid of earworms. I'll try your second suggestion. I've been humming some of Enya's songs, and they're good for displacing other stuff. Trouble is, like the old lady who swallowed a fly, you then need another song to displace Enya etc etc.

It's true isn't it Steve, the tune does sound authentic. The two identical lines followed by a third which is different is rather Celtic in form. I reckon it's a Scottish song.
On my tombstone as an epitaph it will say 'She never found out what that song was' RIP.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 03:30 AM

PS : Those in the North West will prefer Greenhalgh's crumpets, a superior, more authentic alternative to Warbs. Puzzlingly, they also do a Crumpet Loaf:

http://www.greenhalghs.com/products/bread/crumpet-loaf

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 03:37 AM

Oh Danoota!! A whole loaf of crumpets!!! I'm looking up trains to the North West at this moment.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 03:42 AM

This hardly does them justice:

http://www.greenhalghs.com/products/bread/crumpets-4-pack

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 09:10 AM

Steve, really?

Is a crumpet not flat? Can't argue with that.

Does the crumb not include holes?

Sour is not a pejorative in the world of bread. Sourdough, for example, is famous and popular.

Be comforted.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 09:44 AM

OK, that's a relief. I'm a huge fan of Greenhalgh's pies. They have a shop on Bury Market. I'm never happier than when I'm sitting on the bench outside the shop, eating a hot meat and potato pie with a plastic fork out of the paper bag. Except when I'm on my second one. I will definitely try the crumpets next time I'm there. End of April, very likely.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 10:38 AM

Try the nursery rhyme "Round & round the garden Like a Teddy Bear"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_gTDehxbQ

Was that what you had in mind, Eliza?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 10:40 AM

A tune can easily sound folky but that doesn't mean it had a pre-existence. Any tune with a simple note sequence can sound folky. Generally speaking the people who are paid to come up with these jingles know all about the appeal of a simple, easily memorised (and dare I say earwormish) tune, and might even be inclined to play on something else familiar. Quite often on British adverts it's a lot easier to lift a tune that's in PD and this covers all the bases, and in fact that is often what they do. They can also lift common tunes from other genres as well but they usually have to pay for these, opera for instance.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 12:58 PM

I expect you're right and some clever composer has made up this tune for the advert. It's just that it stirs something in my old head, and I'm nearly sure I've heard it many years ago. The last two notes of each line used to have two firm beats of a drum (boom boom) It's so familiar, but I'll have to let it go.

Teddy Bear, again, is similar but not exactly right Michael.

When/if I get to heaven, I'll tackle the crumpets and Old Speckled Hen first, then God will say, "By the way, Eliza, you know that song that drove you mad? Well, it's ..."
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply everyone. Much appreciated.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Mar 16 - 01:21 PM

Okay, here's my last shot.

Donald, where's yer troosers!

I've jist cam doon frae the Isle of Skye,
I'm no vary big but I'm awfu' shy,
A' the lasses wink their eye,
Donald, where's yer troosers?

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Harry Rivers
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 02:44 AM

Yesterday, I inadvertently discovered a way to get all other tunes out of my head.

I was working away from home and in answer to my wife's text asking whether I'd had my morning coffee I stupidly replied:

"Yes, and, because I like a lot of chocolate on my biscuit, I've had a "Club".

All you British folk of a certain age: what tune is in your head now?

It's been in mine (and my wife's) for over 24 hours and doesn't look like leaving anytime soon.

Those jingle writers are evil; just plain evil!!!

Harry.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 03:33 AM

Don't think it's much more than a made up on the spot musical chant relating to anything else - an uninteresting tune for a ghastly product.
If anything, it resembles one of those came-and-quickly-went early sixties pop songs - musically (if that's the word) it is reminiscent of the Freddie and the Dreamers song, 'You Were Made for Me'.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 04:29 AM

Not clear if it's the Club bikkie or the children's' Fairy Garden toy which you are denouncing as 'a ghastly product', Jim. But either way, aren't you being perhaps a bit over-censorious about something which is a harmless source of pleasure to some? To quote President Lincoln yet again, "People who like this sort of thing..."

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 05:34 AM

Not really Mike - always worried about girls being given frothy dolls to play with and similar with boys and their guns - sexual stereotyping had always disturbed me.
As for the "fairies" - the images presented have nothing to do with fairy lore proper and is, if fact. based on Victorian hypocritical paedophelia - the flimsily-dress and very vulnerable little girls - harmless - a moot point, I would say.
I wouldn't in a million years censor these things, but I'm happy to exercise my freedom of speech in pointing out what they are and the effect they have.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 07:29 AM

Yah, whevs. Still think you are being a bit po-faced about what is basically a harmless manifestation, even tho not to your personal taste; but there you go — there's quite a lot we don't agree about but manage to coexist despite: this doesn't strike me as a particularly major instance! Esp as both sorts of 'fairy' are imaginative manifestations of the non-existent at that, eh? And as to your 'Victorian' -- have another look at Midsummer Night's Dream! And some of the paintings of Henry Fuseli 1741-1825, & William Blake's
"Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing" c1786 in the Tate.


One recollection from my childhood, by a train of thought drift, which I recall with amusement [don't know if it will amuse you!]: my mother would never buy me guns to play with when we visited FW Woollies in Golders Green Rd back in the 1930s, tho all the other children had them; but one day I kicked up such a fuss that she agreed to buy me the smallest one!

Best

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 08:14 AM

"a bit po-faced about what is basically a harmless manifestation"
In your opinion Mike - stereotyping of the sexes has become more and more a no-no in modern society.
Drifting a bit, we were watching an interesting television programme last night entitled, 7 Women, on how women were literally airbrushed out of Irish history - it ended with the historic photograph of Pearse surrendering the GPO to an English officer in 1916, followed by the original shot still showing the feet of the nurse standing next to him which was later airbrushed out for later consumption.
As Peggy Seeger used to sing; "Penelope isn't waiting anymore"
The romantic misconception of fairy folklore has, as you say, always been there, but it became the accepted image of the fairy in Victorian times.
I suggest you take a look at Maureen Duffy's 'The Erotic World of Faery" - a highly readable study of the subject, from Arthurian legend, through Shakespeare, Milton, the Victorian wet-dream aspect of fairy lore, through to the present day (1974) with dips into Finian's Rainbow and Bambi.
I have little doubt she would have included Barbie and Ken had they been issues at the time.
Just flicking through it, her note to the 19th century depiction of Titania as "an excuse for refined pornography in 1867
It really isn't being "po-faced" - I find these subjects both interesting and entertaining ans well as educational.
Nor is it a matter of personal taste - still find it a bit of a turn-on, even at my age!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: clueless don
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 08:41 AM

Pursuing the thread drift: Over here in the US, we have "flat" things called English Muffins (the prime example being Thomas's English Muffins.) These are not to be confused with muffins. However, I have seen and bought crumpets in specialty grocery stores (e.g. Trader Joe's), and they are not the same as our English Muffins.

Don

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 12:43 PM

After playing the Fairy Garden again(why did I do that) and wondering if it was some old guitar riff the tune I've got worming me now is
Hendrix - Voodoo Child

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 02:25 PM

Harry, you horror! That Club biscuit song is now rolling around in my head.
I never was a child who particularly liked the idea of fairies. I thought them a bit wet and weedy to be honest. My Irish auntie was a very feisty woman and hated anything 'frou-frou' such as floaty dresses and wand waving. If I ever tried to be dainty and dance around, she'd scoff and say, "Oooh! Enter the fairies, dancing and singing!" (She was a drama tutor at a college.) She must have been a feminist in the fifties.

Actually, I believe that the first concepts of 'fairies' were of rather malevolent and mischievous beings who enjoyed tricking mortals and leading them into bogs (not the toilet variety, I mean marshes) You had to watch out when dealing with the blighters.

If I had had a daughter, I'd have been frankly disgusted if she'd wanted me to buy her this feeble plastic rubbish. My two nieces were real tomboys as children, and my sister encouraged them to be non-weedy!
I've tried very hard to get this tune out of my head, and I've found several crumpets have helped enormously. Not to mention OSH ale.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 03:47 PM

Still drifting -- but, Jim, can't see what Barbie & Ken have to do with fairies. They are just a modern variant of the dress-up humanoid doll which many children -- girls mainly, tho Action Man managed ingeniously to produce what was in effect a doll for boys -- have always liked. Nothing of the "faerie" in them whatever SFAICS.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 03:49 PM

"Actually, I believe that the first concepts of 'fairies' were of rather malevolent "
Upp to comparatively recently belief in 'The Good People' as beings to be avoided at all costs was still to be found in rural Ireland - and elderly lady we knew told a friend who asked her if she believed in fairies, "Of course I don't, but they're there all right".
The most prevalent stories were of peole being 'taken' - especially children, and a substitute changeling put in their place.
The story linked below actually occurred at the end of the 19th century and was used by parliamentarians opposing Irish Home Rule to refuse granting Independence
Narsty little baskits
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 21 Mar 16 - 04:52 PM

Perhaps we ought to petition toymakers to respect FLP (Fairy Lore Proper) and produce a range of authentic changeling dolls. Introducing the Brewery of Eggshells range, each one able to utter a few suitable phrases if you press its belly, such as : 'Gimme a light for me pipe!' & 'Gimme a coal there out the fire!' and the classic: 'Acorn before oak I knew, an egg before a hen, but I never heard of an eggshell brew a dinner for harvest men.'

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Danoota
Date: 22 Mar 16 - 05:25 AM

Actually, I think it's already been done by the look of THESE. Bit of shamrock thrown in there for good measure, begorrah! The horror, the horror...

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 Mar 16 - 09:13 AM

Good grief Danoota, aren't they....well....the only word is creepy! I wasn't much of a doll enthusiast either as a girl. Dolls and fairies - er, no. Riding ponies and climbing trees - yes!

There's a house near us (village in the sticks) painted all over a ghastly shade of girlie pink. And in every window sit several strange dolls, looking out with menacing expressions. I sometimes wonder if they are the only residents there. Shudder!

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 16 - 10:13 AM

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Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Glenno
Date: 13 Oct 16 - 12:43 PM

Speeded up version of old man by Neil Young

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Oct 16 - 11:38 AM

Hold hard! Back up! I think I've remembered the song that's tantalizing Eliza.

cats in the cradle
===============
It occurs to me that Tantalizing Eliza would be a great name for a dance tune.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Senoufou/Eliza
Date: 14 Oct 16 - 12:13 PM

Ha leeneia! I'm not sure. The Fairy Garden thing starts 'High high low low' and 'Cat's In The Cradle' starts 'low low high high' (Sorry, can't do notes of music and all that.) But the form and rhythm are very similar.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Oct 16 - 01:37 PM

This is the tune, with some rhythm adjustments: Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Helen
Date: 14 Oct 16 - 05:06 PM

I can definitely hear some of Cat's in the Cradle, from the start of the singing, not from the instrumental start of the tune.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: leeneia
Date: 15 Oct 16 - 12:50 AM

The tune in the ad is not identical to 'Cat's in the Cradle', but enough alike that the ad tune brought it to my mind.

I disliked pop music, and I probably heard 'Cat's in the Cradle' only 2 or 3 times when it was on the hit parade. For me to recall it after all these years, the similarity must be pretty strong.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Oct 16 - 09:34 PM

Sorry, this is my first post.
The tune originally requested sounds in parts like The Bedmaking, to me at least.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Helen
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 02:17 AM

Hi Guest,

Is this the song you are referring to?

The Bed Making Song

Helen

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 06:40 AM

Oh wow! That Bedmaking song is the closest yet! The rhythm is exactly the same and the tune extremely similar.

I reckon they've made up the song for the advert, but have drawn from the songs/tunes suggested here.

Every time I listen to the blooming thing on Youtube, it sticks in my head for days. I'll take the advice on here for losing an earworm.

Thank you everyone for helping!

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 08:20 AM

Thanks guest & Helen
And here is Martin Carthy's version
(skip to 0:43) :
https://youtu.be/rXjxY_btDA4 

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 09:42 AM

Helen: BINGO!

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 10:23 AM

I find it amusing that, right at the start of the thread 'The Cuckoo's Nest' was suggested by Danoota and quickly dismissed.

Now however seven months later, we have Martin Carthy's 'The Bedmaking', decided upon as the right answer.

If you look at the sleeve notes for Crown Of Horn, you will find that Carthy comments:

"It was the redoubtable Mrs Marina Russell of Upwey in Dorset who gave the tune, a version of The Cuckoo's Nest, to the Hammonds at the turn of the century."

But there you go...

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Helen
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 02:46 PM

Guest, Ed. From what leeneia said, she couldn't identify the specific tune called The Cuckoo's Nest which was being referred to, so she was not dismissing it as a candidate.

"From: leeneia - PM
"Date: 18 Mar 16 - 07:22 PM

"I recently went to the abc tunefinder for versions of the Cuckoo's Nest, and I stopped at 139 of them. True, some of them were the same. Nonetheless, identifying a tune as The Cuckoo's Nest is no help."

When comparing tunes, I find it very difficult to just listen to the tunes. I need to see the dots.

When I listened again to the fairy garden tune, it just seemed to be an arrangement of notes in chords from a fairly common chord progression which could compare the tune to many different tunes with a similar chord progression. My personal take on the quest is that ad people are unlikely to listen to folk music, so on probability alone, they are more likely to poach tunes from pop than folk. But that's just me surmising about ad people. No basis in fact at all. (Ad people are very low on the food chain, in my estimation. Sorry for any offence, if you are one.)

I could hear more similarity in Martin Carthy's version than the one recorded in a pub.

Maybe, Eliza, you can now rest easy. Until the next earworm hits you.

My latest earworm is Westering Home.

Helen

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Helen
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 02:51 PM

Another thought just struck me about my comments about ad people and folk music. Cat Stevens now known as Yusuf Islam, would have listened to folk music, I think, so by a process of evolution the ad people may have arrived at their jingle via Cat's in the Cradle, which may have inspirational links to The Bedmaker.

Just me surmising again.

Helen

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Senoufou/Eliza
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 03:06 PM

It's been interesting hasn't it? So many suggestions and likely candidates.
I'm sorry to say I already have another earworm... I watched a rerun of The Full Monty on TV last night, and that lovely song by Hot Chocolate ('I Believe In Miracles') has got into my head. My husband was a bit startled to hear me warbling, "Where you from, you sexy thing..?" while having my bath. :)

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 08:06 PM

Good for you, Eliza. If that doesn't get rid of My Fairy Garden, nothing will.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST,Marc
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 03:24 PM

Hi all I know it's a little late but I heard the advert today for the first time and literally ruined my brain trying to figure out what song it way, then stumbled across this page.

After hours of playing with the songs speed and pitch I found out its actually ugly kid Joe with cats in the cradle.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 02:29 PM

This has been playing on my mind and I reckon that both in structure and delivery it sounds a bit like a song from the early 90s - Primitive Man by Ruby Blue.

Subject: RE: Desperate-ID tune from My Fairy Garden toy ad
From: Helen
Date: 17 Sep 18 - 03:34 PM

This was a fun thread, even including the off-topic waffling.

Primitive Man song has similarities to the ad song too. I suppose the final answer would be to ask the ad-jingle composer what sort of music they listen(ed) to and decide whether it was folk-inspired or pop-inspired. Other than that, great detective work everyone and keep eating those carb-rich breakfast items.

Helen