Lyr Req: 3 Little Fishes? / Three Little Fishies

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 Little Fishes? / Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,GUEST: Donna
Date: 31 Jan 17 - 09:39 PM

Would you believe, I lived in Hamilton, Ohio when I was young and this song came out on a record which we came on the back side of a cereal box! We cut it from the box and played it in our record player. This was some time in the early 1950's!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 Little Fishes? / Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,Kathleen Sisson
Date: 23 Jun 11 - 01:28 PM

My father Gregory Doyle Smith told me that he was double-dating during a Chicago winter storm in the late 30's. It was so cold and snowy that the four of them didn't want to get out of the car. They sat in the car and composed "Three Little Fishies" in baby talk. They sat there quite a while composing and memorizing it. He knew all the original lyrics and enthusiastically explained how they came up with the ideas. They were all excited when they went into the bar and told everyone they had a new song. Pretty soon everyone in the bar was singing it and within a few weeks, it went natonwide and worldwide. It was sung by dozens of other singers. He is dead now but was well-known in Tacoma, WA for being a very honest man in all his dealings. The 4 composers never got credit or compensation for their original work of art, so I want to give credit here. I don't know the names of the other composers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 3 Little Fishes? / Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,GUEST: Cece
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:31 PM

DATE: December 17, 2010
For loads of information about "Three Little Fishies"
Songs, lyrics, chords....Try Google Search and type in
Three Little Fishes-Sheet music...You will get a wealth
of good information.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Fishies
From: Genie
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 08:29 PM

Does anyone have the earlier lyrics (the more "trad" version)?

Subject: Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,mike
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:51 PM

They also have a Wiggles rendition for kids, except it involves more animals than just fish. You can check it on YouTube. Not bad for that "demographic" :) Really catchy tune!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,Richard Dowell Garrison
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 01:52 AM

The writer of the three little fishies song was my mother's first cousin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:22 AM

All honor to Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge (which I remember hearing on radio in the 40s), but he was just messin' around with something a lot older.
   
If you search "Over In the Meadow" in the DT, you'll find the original of this, Olive A. Wadsworth's 19th century poem.
   
With the addition of a pretty tune, it entered tradition quickly, probably by 1900 at the latest, became part of the folk roots, and has been printed in many folksong collections dating back into the 1930s. In 1955 I recorded the North Carolina singer Maud Long singing it as she had learned it from her mother, the famed Jane Gentry, around the turn of the century or so.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Fishies
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:12 PM

GUEST, Philip - he said "I have high hopes..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Fishies
From: GUEST,freddiec
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:09 PM

Hello,

I am looking for the version in "swingaroo" that was
a pop slang in the 40's the group sounded like the Modernairs
the Miller group. It's really cool lets find it!

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 May 05 - 07:57 PM

I knew the composer's name was Dowell so I searched for Dowell, using the search function at the Indiana University web site. That gave me the first line; then I used that with Google to find the second quote.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: semi-submersible
Date: 26 May 05 - 11:11 AM

How in the Hey did you locate that last version? I find it hard to imagine a search phrase that would turn it up!

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 May 05 - 11:20 PM

Here's the index entry from Indiana University Sheet Music Collections. Who would have guessed how the first line was spelled?

Title: THREE LITTLE FISHIES
Title: Itty bitty poo
Composer: Dowell, Saxie
Name: Hal Kemp
Role: P
Publisher: Santly-Joy-Select Inc.
Place of publication: New York
Date of publication: 1939
Call Number: M1 .D48 Box: 086 Item: 081
Performance Medium: Piano, Voice and Chords
First Line: Down in de meddy in a itty bitty poo, fam fee itty fitty

A few more lines copied from http://shadowstar.ymakadomain.com/bards/unknown.htm:

Down in de meddy in a itty bitty poo,
Fam fee itty fitty and a mama fitty, foo.
"Fim," fed de mama fitty, "fim if oo tan,"
And dey fam and dey fam all over de dam.
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
And dey fam all over de dam.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 May 05 - 02:07 PM

Kididdles lists sheet music and songbooks at: Three Little Fishes
Also Disney Silly Songs cd (scroll down)

The song is under copyright, and thus is not available as lyrics or midi at Kididdles.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: clueless don
Date: 24 May 05 - 12:17 PM

I heard a slightly different version, which I like better, of the second verse. My wife heard it sung on TV by Madonna:

"Swim," said the mama fish "but don't you get lost"
but the three little fishies didn't want to be bossed.
Three little fishies going out on a spree
and they swam, and they swam, right out to the sea.

I'm very pleased to have the last two verses, which I had never heard before.

Don

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 May 05 - 08:18 PM

some time ago, i downloaded from somewhere what i beleive to be an Andrews Sisters 1960's re-recording
in really cool beat-group style..

i'd sure like to find that version on CD somewhere..

Btw.. this has always been one of my favourite songs

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Compton
Date: 23 May 05 - 08:08 PM

We Brits know the Frankie Howard Version which is much the same!

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 23 May 05 - 02:04 PM

I am a Yr 1 teacher and want to use the song Three Little Fishes for my class assembly. I have the lyrics but need either the music score or an audio of the song. Could you please help me. Judie Veith

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GUEST,Phillip
Date: 18 Sep 01 - 09:56 AM

What did the fish say when he bumped his head on a concrete wall?

Dam!!

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 18 Sep 01 - 05:01 AM

Ah, yes, GutBucketeer, I remember Ish Kabibble!

George, t'anks for da links!

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Greyeyes
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 07:40 AM

See also this thread

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 01:23 AM

Actually, Kay Kyser's hit with Three Little Fishes was in 1939/ I don't know yet, (Haven't compared the lyrics) what the differences in the lyrics are but have a look:

Three Little Fishes
 
Three Little Fishes
 
Three Little Fishes
 
Encyclopedia of Music Listing
 
Lyrics World Listing
 

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 01:20 AM

Thanks Genie!

Actually Kay Keyser didn't do the singing. It was one of his horn players that came down and did Novelty tunes from time to time. He went by the name of Ish KaBibble.

Kay Keyser made it a hit in 1941.

JAB-

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 14 Sep 01 - 12:29 AM

George,
I've no doubt that the posting has the author right, but are you sure it was not originally published before 1939? I could have sworn that the Kay Kyser recording I heard was about 1937. [I was wrong once before, though.]

As for the lyrics, the ones in the DT were not the same as on the Kay Kyser tape, so I posted those. I don't know which ones, if either, are the original.]
G

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 10:24 PM

Genie, Sue Wichers posted the author of the song and year it came out in.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Genie
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 10:18 PM

Two mistakes I caught.
In the chorus, it's "...right out to the sea," not "...all out to the sea."

[Maybe

In the third verse, it should be " ...day is done!"

Genie

P.S., Joe O., I know you don't like duplicate postings, but the one you have in the DT seems to have strayed quite a bit from the original lyrics (thought the story is intact), and there was a request for chords, so I thought I'd post both here.

Subject: Lyr Add: THREE LITTLE FISHIES (Saxie Dowell)
From: Genie
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 10:12 PM

Here are they lyrics as sung by Kay Kyser [Kayser?], whose band popularized the song in the mid 1930's [and who may have written it]. BTW, this song, like "Doggie In The Window," and some other "kids' songs" was not originally a children's song, but a song popular with the teenagers and young adults.

THREE LITTLE FISHIES
(Saxie Dowell)

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool,
Swam three little fishies and the mama fishy, too.
"Swim!" said the mama fishy, "Swim if you can!"
And they swam and they swam right over the dam.

cho: Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, shoo
Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, shoo
Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, shoo
And they swam and they swam all over the dam.

"Stop!" said the mama fishy, "You'll get lost!"
But the three little fishies didn't want to be bossed,
So the three little fishies went out on a spree
And they swam and they swam right out to the sea.

chorus

"Whee!" said the little fishies, "This is fun!
Let's swim and swim 'til the day is done1"
So they swam and they swam, and it was a lark.
Then, all of a sudden, they saw a shark.

chorus

"Help!"cried the little fishies, "Look at all the whales!"
And the three little fishies, they turned on their tails.
And back to the pool in the meadow they swam
And they swam and swam back over the dam.

chorus


A simple but effective way to play it is with a simple, repeated chord progression of G,Em,C, D7 on each of the first two lines of each verse [and the chorus], a progression of G, Em, C, A on the third, and D7, D7, D7, G on the last line.

Kayser, of course, then repeats the whole song in baby talk, e.g.:

Down in da meadow in a itty bitty poo,
Fwam fwee widdo fiddies and da momma fiddy, too.
"Fwim!" ted da momma fiddy, "Fwim if oo tan!"
And dey fwam and dey fwam wight ova da dam.
etc.

He also does not sing the same chorus twice. Each chorus is a different set of nonsense syllables, until, on the last one, it is only a lot of silly sound effects that most of us can't readily do.

Maybe someone has a link to a recording. I got it from a tape at the library.

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 09:30 PM

Does anyone have the chords to this too?

JAB

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 13 Sep 01 - 08:48 PM

I noticed that in the DT, the author and date information isn't there. See the message above DT Version

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 28 Oct 97 - 12:59 AM

Try:

http://www.vhf.com/~kennyb/lyrics.htm#C

And look under Children's Songs/Kid's Songs - Lullabies

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 08 Apr 97 - 06:47 PM

Re-upping this one in response to new request

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 21 Feb 97 - 08:32 PM

This Tune Was recorded by Spike Jones and His City Slickers and the recording is available on CD, His Trumpet player sang the song and he also sang ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 20 Jan 97 - 05:43 PM

I think the lyrics were originally written in baby talk. "An dey fam and dey fam all over de dam!

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 19 Jan 97 - 12:05 PM

My recording is by Kay Kyser

Bob S.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 26 Dec 96 - 09:29 PM

Hi- thanx. The Andrews Sisters did this to death, but that was more than 50 years ago, and I guess it's time for a resurrection

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From: Sue Wichers
Date: 26 Dec 96 - 02:51 PM

It's written by Saxie Dowell, 1939 and is The New Novelty Songbook.

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 23 Dec 96 - 04:58 PM

Bob - Thanks SO MUCH! The best part of this song is the chorus: Boop boop diddle daddum whattum choo! and now I can sing it two more times. Merry Christmas to you too.

Susan-Marie

Subject: RE: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 23 Dec 96 - 01:26 PM

Here are the last verses as I hear them:

Whee yelled the fishes, oh here's a lot of fun.
Swim in the sea 'til the day is done
So they swam and they swam, it was all, a lark.
'til all of a sudden they saw a shark.

Whoa(?) cried the fishes, oh look at the whales
Quick as they could they turned on their tails
Back to the pool in the meadow they swam
And swam and swam back over the dam.

Merry Christmas HO HO HO

Bob S.

Subject: lyrics req: 3 little fishes
From:
Date: 23 Dec 96 - 12:57 PM

I remember a song from my childhood about 3 little fishes but I can't recall the third verse.
The first two are:

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool
Were three little fishes and their mommy fishy too
Swim! said the mommy fishy, Swim if you can!
And they swam and they swam right over the dam

Stop! said the mommy fishy, You'll get lost!
But the three little fishes didn't want to be bossed
So the three little fishes set off on a spree
And they swam and they swam right out to the sea

My daughter wants to know what happened next
- can anyone help out?