Songs Your Mother Sang to You

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 11:15 AM

This is the closest version of the baby monkey song which my mother sang to us as children in the early sixties.Apparently her father sang the same childrens song to her as a young child. It is terribly sad

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Lucky
Date: 06 Jul 16 - 11:56 AM

Gonna dance with the dolly with the hole in her stocking
While her knees keep a knocki and her toes keep a rockin
Gonna dance with the dolly with the holes in her stocking
Gonna dance by te light of the moon

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 07:44 PM

So lulla lulla lulla lulla bye bye
Do you want the stars to play with
Or the moon to run away with?
They'll come if you don't cry.
So lulla lulla lulla lulla bye bye
In your mammy's arms a'creepin'
Soon you'll be a-sleepin'
Singing lulla lulla lulla lulla bye.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 06:00 PM

"Mairzy Doats"

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: 4ADiva
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 01:00 PM

My mother did not sing to me, nor did my father.

However, I sang for my son from before he was born.

When he was very small and couldn't understand lyrics, I often sang him Trevor Midgley's Roses of Eyam, just because it has a lot of verses and it's quiet and understated--perfect for sending a child to sleep. I guess it fits into that category of songs for children that actually have terrible stories/lyrics!

Later, I sang him The Rattlin Bog and Malvina Reynolds' Morningtown Train, which he renamed Train Whistle Blowing. Here in our local folk group, it seems everyone sang that one to their children and everyone changes the names in the song to fit the names of the child, parents, siblings, whatever. E.g.,

Bryn is at the engine, Mommy rings the bell
Daddy swings the lantern, to show that all is well

I even wrote him his own verse:

Freight train's a-coming, down the endless track
Engine keeps on pulling, never looking back
Box cars full of cartons, hoppers full of clay
All bound for Morningtown, many miles away

This tickled him to no end, because he was really into trains at that time and this gave him his very own verse in a train song! Also he loved using those special "train words" like "hoppers and "box cars."

He's graduating from high school next year and I hope he'll always carry with him the memory of me singing to him.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Mo the caller
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 04:52 AM

My mother sang all the time. Even walking down the street (to our embarrassment). Little snatches of song that seemed to fit the occasion.
Put your shoes on Lucy - that must have been in 1949 because I remember the garden I played barefoot in.
If I were a Blackbird.
Here we come a Wassailing.

Then we'd sing round the piano from a book of children's hymns (the green one with a picture of a baby playing the piano on the front, or the little hard-cover one with angels on).

And at the Christmas dinner table we'd go round and sing a song about the name of each family member. Hers was either
I'll take you home again Kathleen, or K K K Katy.
And for Auntie Vera - The great big saw (came nearer and nearer poor Vera).

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Doggie grannie
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 08:10 AM

Mother to two who are now 46 and 44! They remember this song so well

I think I can add to this song:

There was a Mummy monkey, lived up in a big tall tree.
She lived with Daddy monkey, as happy as could be.
They had a baby monkey boy who was their joy and pride;
Now listen while I tell you how baby monkey died.

He was a little monkey boy, with a great long curly tail;
He went out for a walk one day and fell into a pail.
When Mummy monkey found him, she cried and cried and cried,
But when she fished him out again, quietly he died.

Now poor old Mummy monkey, she was so very sad,
She'd lost her little monkey boy, the only one she had.
So tying on her bonnet, she ran to the store so fast -
And bought another monkey boy, exactly like the last!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Bruce B
Date: 13 Jun 13 - 06:15 PM

My mother used to sing the mother monkey song and here it is:
There was a mother monkey
who lived in a big tall tree
She lived with daddy monkey
was as happy as could be
they had a little monkey boy who was their joy and pride
now listen while I tell you how tommy monkey died

He was a little monkey boy
with such a tiny tail
he went out for a walk one day and fell into a pail
when mother monkey found him
she cried and cried and cried
and quickly hooked him out again but quietly he died

She put on her little bonnet
and ran to the shop so fast
and bought another monkey boy
exactly like the last.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 03:41 PM

My father's family all sang. Songs were part of me from birth. My mother had a terrible voice, however, and sang out of tune. I remember holding my hands over my ears, at the age of two, and screaming, "Don't sing Dottie! Don't sing Dottie!" Later we joked about that and it became a family story.
My mother always said she'd come back and haunt me with her singing.
I was 31 when she died and when I sorted her things I found an old cassette tape without a lable. I put it on the player and my mother's voice warbled out in a cracked and horrible out-of-tune version of "The Lord's Prayer."
Gave me a start.
Makes me sad now because we couldn't share the joke. We never did get along, really. We would have if she'd lived a bit longer I think.
66 years since I was two.
Oh! and it was "Rings on my Fingers" and "Pop! Goes the Weasel" that she sang then.
Joy

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 12 - 02:00 PM

There was a mother monkey who lived in In a big tall tree
she had a little monkey boy as happy as could be
Now listen as I tell you how baby monkey died.
He was such a tiny monkey
With such a curly tail
He went out for a walk one day and fell into a pail
When mother monkey found him, she cried and cried and cried
And as she pulled him out again, quietly he died.

Now poor old mother monkey
She was so very sad
She had lost her monkey boy
The only one she had
BUT putting on her bonnet
She ran to the shops so fast
And bought another monkey boy exactly like the last!

This song was also sung to us by my mother when we were young, the expressions and hand movements were wonderful. The little monkey was only about three inches high when she explained hi. The fingers showed the curly tail etc. we would do the movements with her.
I am 63 years old now and I can still remember the wors as if it was yesterday.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Richard from Liverpool
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 05:03 PM

Songs I remember my family singing to me as a very young child:

From my mother - Trasna na dTonnta
From my father - Poverty Knock
From my uncle - Coulter's Candy and Ye Cannae Shove Your Granny Off A Bus

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 04:01 PM

Driving home from Cambridge today, a train of thought led me to singing to my wife Fred Astaire's We Joined The Navy To See The World ("and what did we see? We saw the sea!") from Follow The Fleet ~~ which I have unaccountably omitted above from the songs my mother sang me ~~ which was, of course, when the film was new ~ 1936 when I was 4.

So I hasten to record this world-shatteringly important fact here so that it shall not be lost to posterity.

♫ LoL ~Michael~ LoL ♫

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 01:00 PM

My mother had trouble holding onto a tune -- she would easily wander from one to another, especially if they were similar. I remember hearing "Goldfinger, wider than a mile..." coming from the kitchen one day.
Our young years were full of poetry: Rudyard Kipling, Mildred Plew Meigs, Ogden Nash, and so on and on. But once in a while we'd get a song: "Peek-a-boo, I See You"; "The Animal Fair"; "Mairsie Doats"; "The Keeper Would A-Hunting Go"; "Looking Through a Window, A Second-Story Window".
When we got older we were treated to a few special verses from Mom's Navy days, such as this spoof sung to the first lines of "Pretty Baby": "If you're nervous in the service and you don't know what to do, have a baby, have a baby...."

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 06:11 PM

I seem to be unique in that my wonderful Mum used to sing me rude songs:-

Oh what fun
oh what fun
Shooting peas up a nanny goats bum

Gemima Jones and me
we both sat up a tree
We had no shimmies
to cover our jimmies
Gemima Jones and me!

Mrs McGuire
weed on the fire
the fire was too hot
she weed in the pot
the pot was too round
she weed on the ground
the ground was too flat
she weed on the cat
And the cat ran away
with the wee on its back!

The corporation muck cart
was full up to the brim
The driver over toppled
And then he fell right in!

Quakers meeting has begun
Sing, dance fart or run
Show your teeth
Or whistle!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: RTim
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 05:27 PM

The songs my mother sang to me were always too fast, out of tune and badly scanned!
I am glad my father was a great singer....

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: kendall
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 04:20 PM

A bit more of the Darkie's Sunday school:

Adam was the first man to ever be invented
He lived all alone but never was contend

.....lost it....


Along came Noah stumbling in the dark
He picked up a hammer and he built himself an ark
For forty days and forty nights he sailed upon the foam
And he kicked out a Lion just because she was a blond.

and

Along came Eve looking for a battle
She climbed up a tree and shook down an apple
She shook down two and they each had one
And that is where all our troubles begun.

Along comes Daniel he was an onery cuss
The king said he wouldn't have no such fuss
He threw him in the Lion's den way down deep
But Daniel was a dentist so he pulled the Lion's teeth.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Jan 11 - 03:58 PM

My mother used to sing "Close the door, they're coming in the window!" which even at that tender age seemed rather illogical to me. Also a song which went "Look at the coffin, bloomin' great 'andles, Oh aint it grand to be blooming well dead. Look at the 'orses, blooming well fed up" etc. Rather morbid for a three year-old, but I loved it!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Jean
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 11:18 PM

Oh, lovely memories! The 'Mother Monkey' song I remember went like this:

There was a mother monkey.
She lived in a big tall tree.
She lived with daddy monkey
as happy as could be.
They had a baby monkey.
Who was their joy and pride
Now listen while I tell you how Tommy monkey died.
He was such a little monkey
with such a curly tail
He went out for a walk one day
and fell into a pail.
When mother monkey saw him
she cried and cried and cried.
Then quickly she fished him out again
But, quietly he died.
Now poor old mother monkey she was so very sad,
she'd lost her little monkey boy,
the only one she had.
So putting on her bonnet she hurried to the shop so fast
and bought another monkey boy exactly like the last.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Crowhugger
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 03:53 PM

ooops, that would be a "frog" on a lily pad...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Crowhugger
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 03:50 PM

At our place, lullabies were sung to us at bedtime and everything else was taught to us. The lullies were:
-Hush Little Baby Don't Say a Word
-Say Goodnight Little One
-You Will Wear Velvet
-Scarlet Ribbons (she used it as a lullaby)

Songs she sang to to us till we were able to sing them with her:

-rounds like Frere Jacques, Row Row Row Your Boat, Fire's Burning.
-The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night
-Big Rock Candy Mountain
-The Gospel Train (she altered the tempo according to what the train was doing, totally a favourite as a child)
-The Sloop John B.
-Git Along Home Cindy, Cindy
-Uncle Reuben Caught a Coon
-Skip to My Lou
-Vive La Canadienne
-Hey-up! Judy Drownded
-Darling Clementine
-Guantanamera
-Un Canadien Errant
-Farm Out West
-Buckeyed Jim (another fave due to syncopation)
-Old Dan Tucker
-900 Miles
-J'Entends le Moulin Tique Tique Taque
-St. Louis Blues
-Why and Why
-something about "en revenant de ma jolie Rochelle..."
-Old Grandmere (which is about a town, not a person)
-Gently, Johnny My Jingalo
-Vatican Rag
-There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
-Spanish Is the Loving Tongue
-Linstead Market
-The Keeper Did A-Hunting Go
-What Color [sic] is a Man? (Bobby Vinton)
-one that starts "I met her in Venezu-e-e-e-e-e-e-ela...
-Skinny Man (a Fifth Dimension song in 7/8 time)
-Streets of Laredo
-Red River Valley (which we kids always thought was the one in Manitoba)
-Mississippi Mud (which we kids always thought was about the river some 30-40 minutes west of Ottawa)

And there was kids' song I loved with a first verse something like:
There's a little white duck swimming in the water,
A little white duck doing what he ought-er
He saw a from on the lily pad,
Took one look and he said I'm glad
That I'm a little white duck swimming in the water,
Quack, quack, quack.

That's the main bunch I can remember. There are probably a few more.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: blinddrunkal
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 07:49 AM

My mother would sing me to sleep with "The Wearing of The Green" - "Oh they're hanging men and women...." cheery stuff! She also loved to sing "chick chick chick chick chicken lay a little egg for me.....I haven't had an egg since Easter and now it's half past three, so chick chick....."

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:55 PM

More than I can possibly list here! Some beautiful & haunting, many just plain silly. Dad, too.
Thanks, mama!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Nick E
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:13 PM

Sad but sweet. It was "Don't you walk on my clean floor."

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: kendall
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:48 PM

The Gypsy's Warning.
The Gangster's Warning.
We are just plain folks.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:56 PM

As recorded in my baby book, I had learned the following from her by age 2 1/2: Lead Kindly Light, Jesus Bids Us Shine, Blessed Jesus, Silent Night, Frere Jacques, Au Clair de la Lune, Aupres de ma Blonde, Kommt a Vogel, Muss i Denn, Ah Wie ist's Moglich, Von Meinem Bergli, Guten Abend Gute Nacht, Oyfn Pripichook, Rozhinkas mit Mandeln, Come Let's Play We're Indians, Here Comes the Sandman, Lovely May, and a couple of dozen Mother Goose.

I have forgotten most of them.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: ragdall
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:43 AM

My mother sang hymns to me, sometimes in Swedish. When I was very young I remember my mother singing "The Old Rugged Cross", "Jesus Loves me", Jesus loves the Little Children" and others. She sang "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" to me as a lullaby.
My father would play his harmonica or sing "popular" songs, but he didn't know many of the words and he'd make up silly lines instead of the real ones. Some of his favourites were "The Old Grey Mare", "Old Dan Tucker", "Good Night Irene", "Oh Susannah", "Danny Boy", "Old Man River", "Camptown Races".

rags

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:11 AM

Hi Ho Silver Lining ?

100

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Desi C
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:00 AM

it was my Gran who I remember singing to me, she was a multi instrumental Trad Irish player. But she loved old American songs, 'Tom Dooley' was a fav and 'How Much Is That Doggie' 'Campdown Races' 'Old Folks at Home' and an Irish song I do now myself 'The Spinning wheel' Great Memories

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:38 AM

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and Spice and everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

What are ladies made of?
What are ladies made of?
Silk and laces and sweet pretty faces,
That's what ladies are made of.

I don't remember if there is any more to this song but she would sing this to me all the time. A song that was popular in our house was Maurice Chavalier's 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' which my aunt would sing to me when she took turns to take me up to bed to give my mum a rest.
Songs like 'This is the way the ladies ride, and Ride a Cock Horse' was regularly listened to on a children's radio program 'Listen with Mother' I never missed one. The narrator would ask if we were all sitting comfortably, and began with a story and sure enough we were sat cross legged and ready. The innocence of that time!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Liz
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:47 PM

this is to Sarah the flute I sing the monkey song at the nursery I work in along with lots of old ones and the children all love it probably because he DIED

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You - So close!
From: GUEST,grew up with this song - it goes EXACTLY as
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 12:53 PM

There once was a mother monkey
who lived in a tall tall tree
She lived with daddy monkey as happy as can be
They had a little monkey boy who was their joy an pride
Now listen and I'll tell you, how Tommy monkey died

He was such a tiny monkey, with such a curly tail
He went out for a walk one day and fell into a pail

When mother monkey saw him, she cried and cried and cried
She tried to fetch him out again but quietly he died

Now poor old mother monkey, she was so very sad
She had lost her monkey boy, the only one she had

So putting on her bonnet. she ran to the shops so fast
And bought another monkey boy exactly like the last!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 12:37 AM

And Dad sang; This is the way the ladies ride (Bounce the child on knees sedately) ladies ride ladies ride. This is the way the ladies ride, so early in the morning.
This is the way the gentlemen ride (Bounce the child less sedately on knees.)
This is the way the farmer boy rides. (Slide the child from side to side on knees, since the farmer boy can't sit a horse.)
This is the way the robbers ride. (Bounce rapidly, since, as a young lady of 4 told me once, the robbers are riding fast to get away from the police.)
The tune is This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Neighmond
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 05:03 AM

This came along at a good time-my Ma will be gone a year on the 17th of July.

Mammie sang "you are My Sunshine" and a little old gospel. I think she sang us "Shine on Harvest Moon" once or twice.

My Grannie used to sing "A Bushel and a peck" (and a hug around the neck)

Dad had one:

Well, I knew an old bum and he had a wooden leg,
and he never had tobacco so he always had to beg
'nother old bum, just as sly as any fox,
and he always had tobacco in hos old tobacco box!
Says the first old bum, "Won't you let me have a chew?"
Says the second old bum "Be damnded (darned) if you do!
If you save all your money and you save all your rocks
You'd always have tobacco in your old tobacco box!"

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: LadyJean
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 12:30 AM

Dad used to sing to me "Your Feets Too Big". And: "Lord Jeffrey Amherst was a soldier of the king, and he didn't like Indians not much. He fought all the Indians that ever he could see, and he looked around for more when he was through." Which is odd, because dad was sympathetc towards Native Americans, and he went to Princeton.

Mom knew every show tune ever written, not to metnion a fair chunk of Harry Lauder's songs.

And then there were here collection of naughty songs. I sang "Sister Lucy Had a Low Necked Dress, There's No Hiding Place Down There" to another catter. While I was at it, I recorded a couple of others, including "Around a corner, and under a tree, a sergeant major, made love to me." Mom sang the unexpurgated version of "Bell Bottom Trousers" and the sanitized version of "Gay Caballero from Rio Janero" (Which I think is funnier than the dirty one.) I ended my recording session with JohnEdward by singing an old favorite of Mom's, "Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be 3 Old Ladies Were Locked In a Lavatory". After I sang about Harriet Bender (Who came in to fix a suspender (( garter in British)) which flew up and hit her feminine gender.) he paused, briefly and said, "She taught you that?!"
Yeah, she did.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 10:10 PM

Oi! A list like you wouldn't believe.
Ballads: 2 versions of The 4 Marys, Barbra Ellen, Omy Wise, Poor Ellen Smith, Pretty Polly, Lord Bateman, Frankie & Johnny, as a partial list.
Rounds: Dona Nobis Pacem, O Wie Wohl ist Mir am Abends, a French one about a cat getting the cream, White Coral Bells, On Yonder Hill There Stands a Maiden, again a partial list.
Other Stuff: I Ride An Old Paint, Hush Little Baby(...Mocking Bird), Go To Sleepy Little Baby(2 versions),Santa Clause Blues, Go Down Ol' Hannah, What Month Was Jesus Born In, No Room at the Inn, & at 1 point she began singing parts of Tam Lin, another partial list.
She loved Danny Kaye & sometimes got to see him in clubs in NYC. She sometimes sang fragments of his material as she remembered them. Not the cleaned-up versions from his movies...Many years ago, as the crow flies, she would come visit us in So. Austin when tmy kids were little & she'd do Anatole of Paris. We were all mesmerized...Tw

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Dave Thomas Indianapolis
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 02:17 PM

O by jingle had a lover,
he was always undercover
do de dodedodedolu um bop um bop um bop.

They all sang a different lingo
but they all loved o by jingle
so every night they would sing by the pale blue night
oh by de by gee by gosh by gum by jew by giminy
please dont bother me

so they all went away singing
ob gosh by gum by jingle your the only girl for me.

Second verse:

From the fields and from the marshes..........??

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:19 PM

I think I put this on a lullaby thread somewhere. Our family lullaby going back 4 generations or so is related to an earlier fragment here which I haven't yet identified.
It is in two parts to 2 tunes so may have been part of a medley.
First bit is a remnant of a 19thc broadside 'The Soldier's Poor Little Boy'

Early pearly snow on the ground
The wind was bitter and cold,
When a poor little beggar boy out in the snow,
Came up to a rich lady's door.

the lady sat in the window so high
And loudly she did call,
Come in, come in, you poor little boy
And you shall have a warm.

Spoken--And this is the story he told
(What follows is related to the bit back up the thread and is sung to 'Home Sweet Home')

I am a poor little beggar boy
My mother she is dead
My father is a drunkard
And will not give me bread.

I sit beside the window
to hear the organ play,
god bless my dear old mother
Who's dead and far away.

Apart from that my mother sang us 'Still I love him', 'I wish I was single again', 'Toora loora loora', 'Any umberellas', Three little fishies', 'Go to sleep my baby' and lots lots more.
You can hear her singing 'Still I love him' and 'Early pearly' on the Yorkshire Garland Website www.yorkshirefolksong.net There's also a longer version of 'Early pearly' on there.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:10 PM

Many thanks, SuperKrone. Did you notice a quite recent thread about Die Lorelei and supposed similarities of its tune to the song in Cabaret, Tomorrow belongs To Me. Tho I pointed out that the cabaret song even more resembles Rout Of the Blues. In vase you missed it, I will refresh that thread,

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: SuperKrone
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:38 PM

MtheGM: No need to say sorry--- I never saw it in writing, and don't know German. I doubt if my Granma Collett knew the language either. I suspect she just knew this one song, sort of like lots of people know a few Frech songs, but not French.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 12:35 PM

Sorry ~ someone trying to put me down on another message-board site remarked that "MtheGM's pedantry is legendary": meant as a put-down, I think, but I took it as a great compliment ~

all this as prelim to saying, "Sorry SuperKrone; but 'DIE LorElei'."

Hasty exit...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: SuperKrone
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 12:22 PM

From my Father's mother (who had her last child in 1914): Stephen Foster "Skeeters am a humming in the honeysuckle vine, sleep Kentucky Baby" "Don't know what they call him, but he's mighty like a rose", "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair", and "Das Lorilei", in English and German.

From my Mother's older sister (second generation Czech immigrants): "The Blueskirt Waltz", "Annie goes to the cabbage patch", and "Johnie Verbeck", who made cats and dogs into sausages, until he was accidetly made into sausage himself,

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Neil
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 09:18 AM

There was a mother monkey who lived in a big tall tree
There was a daddy monkey, as happy as can be
They had a baby monkey, he was their joy and pride
Now listen while I tell you, the baby monkey died

He was such a tiny monkey, who had such a curly tail
and walking in the woods one day he fell into a pail
his mother when she found him, she cried and cried and cried
and then she fished him out again and quietly he died

pause

Now putting on her bonnet she ran to the shops so fast
and bought another monkey boy exactly like the last

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 02:06 PM

loads of stuff... she is always singing...

I remember from very little 3 - 5 years old.

TURN AROUND
(Malvina Reynolds, Alan Greene and Harry Belafonte)

THREE LITTLE FISHES
(Saxie Dowell)

WITCHES ON BROOMSTICKS
(Lillian Mohr)

And of course

TAMMY'S IN LOVE
(Jay Livingston and Ray Evans)

And why shouldn't she since she named me after the character in the film.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 09:15 AM

Snuffy - Thank you so much — only time I have come across it anywhere else; even the Opies didn't know it, as I said. & it was local to my mother's district about 1915 - 20. Where had it been between then & 50s in Cheshire! really fascinated!

- Michael

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 08:39 AM

I learned 'Poor old Millwall, Can't play football' in 1954 or 55, but not from my mother. From other kids as we queued to go into Sunday School at Hazel Grove, Cheshire (nowhere near Millwall!)

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 01:41 AM

No-one has identified the fragment in the very OP: 'Mama done told me when I was in pigtails, a man is a two-face' [male version, I recall, was 'when I was in kneepants, woman's a two-face']. I remember it was a 40s song called Blues In The Night - hang on while I google: - here I am back: Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer - who better! - 1941.

I just heard a remake of this on the local jazz station! It was by Eva Cassidy, who apparently passed away in 1996.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 10:52 AM

My mother used to sing at the table. Our favourites were Tom Lehrer's "Irish Ballad" and a wonderful but unfortunately no longer funny ditty called "It's Sister Jenny's Turn to Throw the Bomb". Childrena are such bloody-minded little beasts.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 09:23 AM

... oh, & Aunt Rhody, Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night, Down In The Valley, Streets Of Laredo ... Something tells me I might just have had a copy of THE BURL IVES SONG BOOK AT THE TIME — LET'S HAVE A LOOK ON MY FOLK BOOKS SHELF — yep, still there, tho falling to pieces a little bit maybe.
[Sorry about caps — not shouting, just clumsy Cap-Locking].

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 09:07 AM

Wonderful that his beautiful thread has been refreshed so that we newbies can join in. No-one has identified the fragment in the very OP: 'Mama done told me when I was in pigtails, a man is a two-face' [male version, I recall, was 'when I was in kneepants, woman's a two-face']. I remember it was a 40s song called Blues In The Night - hang on while I google: - here I am back: Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer - who better! - 1941.

Should add that when I lived at my sister's for a bit in 1950s, she once asked me if I would tell my nephews a bedtime story - I replied I'd rather take my guitar up & sing to them; which then became a nightly ritual (It is no longer, as they are now 60 & 57!). They are now both folkies - one of them started Israel's first folk club 30+ years ago, called Jacob's Ladder in Kibbutz Machenayim. Tho he is now living in Devon, the younger one still out there producing tv films. Anyway, their fave songs, I recall from about 1956-7, were Jesse James, Widdecombe Fair, Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Blue Tail Fly, &, for some reason, the older reminds me (I just called him to check what he remembered as I was typing this), Chevaliers de la Table Ronde ...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 03:02 AM

When I was v small [about 1933-6] my mother [b Hoxton, E London, 1909] would sing me eclectic mix of old music-hall [Two Little Girls In Blue], current pop from then prominent singers [Shirley Temple's Good Ship Lollipop, Gracie Fields' Isle of Capri]; WWi [K K K Katie]; G&S [I Have A Song To Sing-O from Yeomen Of The Guard]. Also whenever the Westminster chimes came on wireless, she would sing along with them 'Poor old Millwall, Can't play football', which she had learned at school, Millwall FC, based near London Docks on Isle Of Dogs, being the local football [soccer] team in her childhood:— I gave this jingle to the Opies in the 70s as they had not previously come across it; not sure if they ever published it anywhere; I still can't hear Big Ben chiming without singing those words in my head.

Like most children I would watch my father (b 1901) shaving. While doing so, he would sing me from side of mouth 'When I am dead don't bury me at all, Just pickle my bones in alcohol, ...'; 'Gaudeamus igitur'; Dibdin's 'Right Little, Tight Little Island'; & loved also to la-la-la the Coldstream Guards regimental march version [which he had marched to in his school cadet days in Hackney Downs, London] of Mozart's Non Piu Andrai from Marriage Of Figaro.