Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap

Subject: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 10:38 AM

Looking for Lyrics/chords for Grandma's Lysol

Used to have it on a 78 rpm record.... done by Johhny Standley, I think .. seem to remember that it was recorded live, and that they changed the acetate recording disks to get the B side with this song DURING the performance.. something rather new at the time. Well before days of Viny LP's.

It's in the "Lily The Pink" tradition.

partly

Let's hear it now for Grandma's Lysol
Good for everything around the place
For your clothes, and dirty dishes,
For your hands, and for your face.


Also would be interested in any info on Johhny Standley.

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 10:51 AM

found in a thread about Lydia pnkham

Little Herman and Cousin Sherman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Washed them out with Grandma's Lysol,
They haven't heard a word in years.

Let's hear it loud and strong for Grandma's Lysol
Good for everything around the place
For your clothes, and dirty dishes,
For your hands, and for your face.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 10:55 AM

Thanks,
there were a couple more verses...

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 10:55 AM

aha! Grnadma's LYE SOAP

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 10:59 AM

Thanks,

Seem to remember it as LYESOL... but memory is the second thing to go

Can't remember what the first thing is...

Any info on the performer would be nice if anyone stumbles across any...

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 11:07 AM

OK,

Ho-o-old Da Bus!

I found the DT threads, but am still after anything about the two attributed authors.

Was Johhny Standley known for anything else?

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 06:17 AM

Definitely "Grandma's Lye Soap." I remember the record. It was a 10" 78 rpm, which gives you an idea of how old it is. I heard it in the late Forties-early Fifties. The flip side was "It's in the Book!" ("Mary had a Little Lamb" as read by a tent-meeting revival preacher, complete with footnotes and commentary). It was available as a single, but it also came in an album containing three or four similar records. I can't remember what all, but the album included a hilarious recreation of a guy announcing a horse race, and a riotous rendition of "Cloe." Ought to be a real collectors item.

Johnny Standley recorded with Spike Jones. Together they recorded a whole bunch of zany stuff. Mickey Katz also recorded with Spike Jones: an incredible version of "The Hawaiian War Chant" with all kinds of strange glottal noises combined with Bronx cheers and hiccups. Mickey Katz is the father of Broadway singer-actor Joel Grey. Really funny stuff!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From:
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 05:36 PM

Thank goodness I not daft. There are people out there who know about
grandma's lysol or lye soap (what ever you prefer). My brother brought that 78 record home one day and we play it and play it. It was a blast. And, just like some of you we had it committed to memory along with the preacher and Mary's little lamb (yes she did, and its fleece was white as snow, oh, yes it was).

There was another single that came out about the same time about "Dangerous Dan McGrew". Anybody hear that one.

Dick Arnold

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 06:34 PM

There are several parodies of it, but the original was by Robert W. Service. He also wrote "The Cremation of Sam McGee," which is also a winner.

Clicky

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 10:44 PM

Don,
"a hilarious recreation of a guy announcing a horse race"
was BeetleBaum, which is in the threads and probably DT perhaps under another slightly different spelling.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:38 AM

Lye soap was generally a homemade product. My own grandmother made it. Traditionally, lye was extracted from fireplace ashes by passing rainwater through it. Later, lye pellets could be bought in a can. Soap was made by mixing lye with rendered fat from a slaughtered animal. Lye + fat (or oil) is still the basic formula for soap (not to be confused with detergent).

Lysol is a commercial brand of "all purpose cleaner." I guess the brand name was invented to sound like "lye soap."

The song was GRANDMA'S LYE SOAP. "Grandma's Lysol" is a mishearing influenced by the fact that, by the 1950s, "Lysol" was a more familiar term that "lye soap"!

Anyway, the song comes from a popular comedy record by Johnny Standley called "It's in the Book" (1952) which incorporated the song. The whole performance was a spoof of a revivalist church service. The first part was a "sermon" using "Little Bo Peep" as the text, and the second part was the "hymn" GRANDMA'S LYE SOAP.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:21 PM

I had the record, but it was 10" LP, not a 78...There was time when I could recite the whole thing from memory, but I think I had my brain cells scrubbed with the Lye Soap...

Subject: Lyr Add: IT'S IN THE BOOK (Johnny Standley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 09:53 PM

Copied from http://www.turoks.net/Cabana/ItsInTheBook.htm

IT'S IN THE BOOK
(a.k.a. GRANDMA'S LYE SOAP)
by Johnny Standley

I have a message for you—a very sad message! My subject for this evening will be Little Bo Peep.

It says here, "Little Bo Peep"—who was a little girl—"has lost her sheep, and doesn't know where to find them." Now that's reasonable, isn't it? It's—it's reasonable to assume if Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep, it's only natural that she wouldn't know where to find them. That, that basically is reasonable, but, uh, "leave them alone". Now that overwhelms me—completely overwhelms me. The man said she lost her sheep, turns right around and boldly states, "She doesn't know where to find them". And then has the stupid audacity to say, "Leave them alone!" Now! Now, now think for a moment! Think! If the sheep were lost, and you couldn't find them, you'd have to leave them alone, wouldn't you? So, "Leave them alone." "Leave them alone." It's in the book!

"Leave them alone and they"—"they" being the sheep—"they will come home". Ah, yes, they'll come home. Oh, there'll be a brighter day tomorrow, they will come home! It's in the book!

"They will come home—a-waggin' their tails—". Pray tell me what else could they wag? "They will come home a-waggin' their tails behind them—behind them!" Did we think they'd wag them in front? Of course, they might have come home in reverse. They could have done that, I really don't know. But, none the less, it's in the book!

So now if you will, kindly pick up your books, and turn to page 222. We'll ask you all to sing. You'll find your books on the backs of your seats. Are we ready?

Everyone, 222. Let's really enjoy ourselves, let's live it up. All together.

Do you remember grandma's lye soap?
Good for everything in the home,
And the secret was in the scrubbing,
It wouldn't suds and couldn't foam.

Then let us sing right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap
Used for—for everything, everything on the place,
For pots and kettles, the dirty dishes,
And for your hands and for your face.

So we'll now sing the second verse. Let's get it with great exuberance, let's live it up. It's not raining inside tonight. Everyone, let's have a happy time. Are we ready? All together, the second verse.

Little Herman and brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the lye soap.
And they haven't heard a word in years.

Then let us sing right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap.
Sing all out, all over the place.
For pots and kettles, the dirty dishes,
And for your hands and for your face.

Well, let's sing what's left of the last verse. Let's have a happy time, everyone. The last verse, all together. Every one!

Mrs. O'Malley, out in the valley,
Suffered from ulcers, I understand.
She swallowed a cake of grandma's lye soap,
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land.

Then let us sing right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap.
Sing right out. All over the place.
The pots and—the pots and pans, oh dirty dishes,
And for your hands and for your face.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 11:40 PM

Beside the links at the top of the page to numerous past discussions of this song, see also the following, which for some reason have been omitted:

Lyr Req: it's in the book
Lyr Req: It's In the Book
Lyr Req: it's in the book/little bo peep

They mostly contain the same information, of course.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From:
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 03:18 PM

Would love to have a copy of this--but I don't have a player for 78 or 33.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 05:45 PM

Johnny Standley's performance of IT'S IN THE BOOK appears on the various-artists compilation "Big Hits of the 50's," Cema Special Markets CD #19472, 1998. (Since it doesn't specify Part 1 or Part 2, and since the length is 6:02, I assume it includes both parts.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: GUEST,Wayne
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 07:23 AM

Still have the original 78 record, with the song on one side, and "in the book (little bo-beep has lost her sheep)" on the other.
Unfortunately it's badly scratched. Still plays, but knowing the lyrics helps.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 02:57 PM

If anyone wants a CD, please contact me at [e-mail].

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 08:18 AM

Is there an upload of Standley's "Grandma's Lysol" (he clearly sings that, not "lye soap") which cuts straight to the song? I couldn't find one on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 08:31 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aExUGQOnI0

Here it is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 08:50 AM

Liverpool version
Oh little Willie, he dad a seizure
He found he could no longer pee
He took a dose of medicinal compound
And now they pipe him out to sea

The Duke of Windsor had influenza
He found he could no longer shag
He took a dose of medicinal compound
Now forty kids all call him "dad"

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 09:25 AM

Starship's link goes to the start of the record - I was after a clip of the song on its own. I can't figure out how to do a "from here" link on YouTube now, maybe they've removed that option.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: cnd
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 10:55 AM

Jack: https://youtu.be/7aExUGQOnI0?t=211

Get to where you want in the video and then right click on the video and select "Copy video URL at current time"

There's also a slightly cleaner recording here

You more than likely won't find Standley's version starting at "My Grandma's Lye Soap" because it was the second part of a two-sided record, "It's In the Book (pt. 1 and 2)"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 11:09 AM

Using the versions of Safari and YouTube I have access to (on an iPhone 4S) there's no "copy link at this time" option as I'm used to - but thanks, I can fake the URL manually now I know the syntax.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grandma's Lysol? / Grandma's Lye Soap
From: EBarnacle
Date: 24 Apr 20 - 03:52 PM

Someone, I believe Ray Bradbury, wrote a short story called "Grandma's Lie Soap." I suspect he heard the song. The premise was that anyone whose mouth was washed with the product was unable to lie. It would do wonders for some of our politicians, wouldn't it?