Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket

Subject: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 02:45 PM

A-Tisket, A-Tasket
(Ella Fitzgerald & Al Feldman, 1938)

A-tisket, a-tasket
A brown and yellow basket
I sent a letter to my mommy
On the way, I dropped it
I dropped it, I dropped it
Yes, on the way I dropped it
A little girlie picked it up
And put it in her pocket
She was truckin' on down the avenue
But not a single thing to do
She went peck, peck, pecking all around
When she spied it on the ground
She took it, she took it
My little yellow basket
And if she doesn't bring it back
I think that I will die

A-tisket, a-tasket
I lost my yellow basket
And if that girlie don't return it
Don't know what I'll do
Oh dear, I wonder where my basket can be
(So do we, so do we, so do we, so do we, so do we)
Oh gee, I wish that little girl, I could see
(So do we, so do we, so do we, so do we, so do we)
Oh, why was I so careless with that basket of mine
That itty-bitty basket was the joy of mine

A-tisket, a-tasket
I lost my yellow basket
Won't someone help me find my basket
And make me happy again, again

(Was it green?)
No, no, no, no!
(Was it red?)
No, no, no, no!
(Was it blue?)
No, no, no, no!
Just a little yellow basket.
A little yellow basket.


song wiki: A-Tisket, A-Tasket

""A Tisket A Tasket" is a nursery rhyme first recorded in America in the late nineteenth century.”

“The rhyme was first noted in the United States in 1938 as a children's rhyming game.”

Have not checked those wiki source dates or what they're for however, in the Bahamas it was a circle game sung to a tune something like Ballymena which goes back at least to Paris, 1922. The lyrics were by American children's author Elbridge Brooks.

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Ella Fitzgerald recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjJry0vhHj4

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 02:49 PM

First(?) audio recording by: Frank Luther (Francis Luther Crow, 1899-1980.)
Frank Luther, Nursery Rhymes, Decca 384, 1935, 78rpm, Side A, Trk.5.


""But, say; what is it all about?" Ruthie asked the Chief of the Gamekeepers, for she had not quite got it straight in her mind. Then the whole court, turning towards her, sang in chorus:

A Tisket ; a Tasket ;
A green and yellow basket!
I sent a letter to my love,
And on my way I dropped it —
I dropped it ; I dropped it; —

"Oh, I know where it is then!" burst out Ruthie; and springing into the circle, she parted the valiant knights who were hammering away at each other's helmets, grasped the Duke and the Count by their arms and sang loudly:

A little darky picked it up
And put it in his pocket —
His pocket ; his pocket! —

"And see, there he goes — green and yellow basket, letter and all," she added as she spied the "little darky" running for dear life across the Brussels carpet. Dropping the arms of the champions she dashed after the fugitive, followed by the Chief of the Gamekeepers, the Duke of Tisket and the Count of Tasket, the squirrel, the goat, the boyhorses and all the court….”
[Brooks, Elbridge S. , In No Man's Land, Wide Awake, Vol.R, (Boston: D.Lothrop, 1884, p.401)]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 03:43 PM

There's an interesting article about the song at the Smithsonian Institution Website:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/tisket-tasket-hit-song-her-basket-ellas-rise-fame

There sure isn't much information about "Tisket-Tasket" as a nursery rhyme or play-party game. It's not listed in any of the Opie books I have. It would be nice to find a printed source earlier than Ella Fitzgerald. I checked Google Books, and the one-and-only 19th-century reference I find to the names Tisket and Tasket together, is the 1884 story Phil found (reprinted in another book in 1885). So, I guess we can say that the earliest printed version of the verse that we found is in a story titled In No-Man's Land by Elbridge S. Brooks, published in an 1884 collection titled Wide Awake, Volume 18, pp 400-402. So, was Brooks the author of the rhyme?

There's a nice page on the song at https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=2275.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 04:20 PM

Roud 13188 (with a tisket a tasket in title or 1st line (or All 13188).

Here's a version from JAFL 33, 1920: Some Play-Party Games In Michigan (version d and e next page).

There are earlier references to other titles listed under 13188.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: Monique
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 05:41 PM

You can find part of it on this page -from "English folk-rhymes, a collection of traditional verses relating to places and persons, customs, superstitions, etc." by G.F. Northall, London, 1892.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 07:57 PM

Ahhhh. Thanks, Monique and Mick.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 11 Jun 19 - 11:11 PM

The letter is from the Chief of the Gamekeepers to Queen Anne-who-sits-in-the-sun:

Queen Anne Queen Anne
Queen Anne, Queen Anne! you sit in the sun,
As white as a lily, as fair as a swan:
I send you these letters; I pray you read one.
"I cannot read one unless I read all;
So pray, little darling, deliver the ball."

Brooks is operating in American pop entertainment's "Humpty Dumpty" genre. Some of the stories and games go way way back but he's the earliest for Tisket-tasket; dropped it... &c &c, so far.

Same general audience: Children Under a Palm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Jun 19 - 08:57 AM

It was a party game for young children in London in the 1940s/ 50s.
Children sit in a circle facing inwards.
One walks round the outside singing (chanting?)
"I sent a letter to my love
On the way I dropped it
One of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket"

She drops a handkerchief behind someone who then (when they notice) races in the other direction. The first to reach the gap sits in it, the other is 'it'

There wouldn't really be much room for this in an average sitting room, so I suppose it was more for organised events like Sunday School parties, Brownies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A-Tisket, A-Tasket
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 13 Jun 19 - 04:58 PM

"A-Tisket" is like "Duck, duck, goose."

"Queen Anne and Her Maids," is a bit older than the character in Brooks. The game was played sort of like "Button-button (who's got the button) and could be played as teams or singles.