Please note:
- All these street organ arrangements for my modifed Topsy 3 are home-made. Contact me if you want a custom arrangement - whether a modification of a number below or something new - for your own street organ, musical box, barrel piano, or whatever.
- The MP3s below use Virtual Studio Technology: this is NOT the real sound, and someone needs to sing!
- Lyrics or translations can be displayed live on a screen, karaoke-style.
| Title | Artist | La | Year | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pablow the blowfish | Miley Cyrus | en | 2015 | Almost as good as Fluffy. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Cats on Mars | The Seatbelts | en | 1998 | Quasi-Japanese shit for your miniskirt moods. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| George is my horse | Fay Lovsky | en | 1992 | George says he don't like these cars / These stone trails, where's the grass? Fay was last seen playing singing saw with Robert Crumb. |
| Fungus the Bogeyman | The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1985 | Inspired in some fashion by Raymond Briggs' graphic novel. |
| Super Mario Sheep | 1985 | Mashup created for an agricultural theatre event. | ||
| Fluffy | Gloria Balsam / Richard van Dorn / Davey Sayles | en | 1980 | Her doggie gets lost in the woods, and Gloria is very sad: 'Here, Fluffy, where are you?' Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Brave Sir Robin | Monty Python | en | 1975 | Packing it in and packing it up / And sneaking away and buggering off / And chickening out and pissing off home / Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge. See also John Grubb, St. George for England. |
| King of Rome | Dave Sudbury / June Tabor / The Unthanks | en | 1970s? | A pigeon race from Rome to England in 1913: On the day o' the big race a storm blew in / A thousand birds were swept away and never seen again. |
| I don't eat animals and they don't eat me | Melanie Safka | en | 1970 | Things were pretty bad in the 70s: I don't eat white flour, white sugar makes you rot, / Oh, white could be beautiful but mostly it's not. |
| Postman Pat / Pat el Cartero / Postmann Pat | Bryan Daly / Ken Barrie | no en | 1970 | In English or Norwegian. Virtual excerpt: Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Theme from the Magic Roundabout | Alain Legrand | 1970 | The bits featuring a barrel organ were more popular in Germany. Video, possibly from another time or person: | |
| The bare necessities (The Jungle Book) | Terry Gilkyson | en | 1967 | |
| I wanna be like you (The Jungle Book) | Sherman Brothers / Louis Prima | en | 1967 | |
| Goldilocks and the three bears | Afferbeck Lauder | en | 1965 | In English, but also in Australian or Strine: Girldie Larks, Girldie Larks, where have you been? / I beat up London and vented my spleen, / And then I cummome menai harrased the Behrs; / I yay tarp their porridge and bro karp their chairs. / I savaged the beds and I tordan the fences. / And frightened a little mouse out of its senses. |
| La patita | Cri-Cri / Francisco Gabilondo Soler | es | 1960? | What will Mother Duck give her ducklings to eat now dad refuses to work and the market is so expensive? Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Ratón vaquero | Cri-Cri / Francisco Gabilondo Soler | es | 1960? | Cowboy mouse |
| Perrito | Cri-Cri / Francisco Gabilondo Soler | es | 1960? | Doggie |
| Puff, the magic dragon (Puff, el drac màgic) | Leonard Lipton / Peter Yarrow / Peter, Paul and Mary | en ca | 1960 | |
| Poisoning pigeons in the park | Tom Lehrer | en | 1959 | |
| Elube (Mi Churri, gran perrito/My doggie, big little doggie) | Ndirande Pitch Crooners / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1958 | The original song in Nyanja (Malawi) is about a girl, but it scans like a dog biting its tail, and so my English version is a homage to all the little doggies out there. |
| The hippopotamus song | Flanders & Swann | en | 1957 | Mud, mud, glorious mud, / Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. |
| El baile de los pajaritos / The birdie song / De vogeltjesdans | El payo Juan Manuel / Werner Thomas / Johnny Hoes | es nl en | 1955 | |
| I know an old lady who swallowed a fly | Burl Ives | en | 1953 | I think she'll die. |
| How much is that doggie in the window | Bob Merrill / Patti Page | en | 1953 | The one with the waggly tail. Lita Roza's version was Maggie Thatcher's favourite song. |
| My girl's pussy | Robert Crumb & his Cheap Suit Serenaders | en | 1940 | Often it goes out at night, returns at break of dawn / No matter what the weather's like it's always nice and warm. |
| The tale of Custard the dragon | Ogden Nash | en | 1936 | Very childish: the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard |
| My brother makes the noises for the talkies | Albert Whelan / Jack Payne / Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band | en | 1931 | |
| De kikkertjes | Anon | nl | 1930? | Dutch frogs are a sight for sore eyes. |
| La gallina Papanatas | Monreal | es | 1930 | Mexican corrido about a prolific hen. |
| The barking policeman (parody of The laughing policeman) | George W. Johnson / Charles Penrose / Richard Littlejohn | en | 1922 | Tribute to PC Steve Hutton of Swindon, who devised an interesting way of mitigating police cuts. |
| Panpipe call used by an itinerant French pot-mender and pig-gelder in Galicia | Trad. | es fr | 1920 | With humorous quotes from Spanish Golden Age theatre (inc Quevedo and Calderón), sketching the accent, appearance and behaviour of French castrators and pot menders in the 16th/17th centuries. (Ambulant moped-chain-powered knife-grinders in Barcelona and other Mediterranean cities still use panpipes as advertising medium, but with less sophistication.) |
| The teddy bear's picnic | John Bratton | en | 1907 | Don't go into the woods. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Incy wincy spider | Trad. | en | 1900? | |
| Away in a manger | Trad. | en | 1884 | |
| Ballet of the unhatched chicks | Modest Mussorgsky | 1874 | Edited from an early piano roll. Virtual excerpt: | |
| k Zag twee beren | nl | 1850? | ||
| Coplas novas y divertidas las cuals esplican los mals ratos que solen donar las pusas los polls y las chinchas com nu veurà lo que no sirà siego | Ramon Barrull (Lérida / Lleida, C19th, printed by Coromines) / The Singing Organ-Grinder | ca | 1850 | Broadside ballad about vermin: Las chinchas es cosa bruta, / Conforme hos he dit; / Perque se solen posar, / A los pots y banchs dels llits. |
| Mary had a little lamb | Sarah Josepha Hale / Lowell Mason / Afferbeck Lauder | en | 1830 / 1965 | In 19th century English and then in 20th century Strine: So Mary Header little lamb / With vedgies and mint sauce. / 'Oh dearest lamb,' she cried, 'I am / As hungry as a horse.' |
| I love little pussy | Trad. | en | 1830 | Cats and mice |
| Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? | Trad. | en | 1805 | Cats and mice |
| El lobo devorador | Trad. | es | 1800 | A ravenous wolf in 19th century Spain. I don't think it's a metaphor for George Borrow: Es posible, justo cielo / que permita tu bondad / que contra el hombre se ensañe / una fiera sin piedad? |
| Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall | Trad. | en | 1797 | Riddles and nonsense. Some busts are for ever. |
| Hey diddle diddle | Trad. | en | 1765 | Riddles and nonsense. |
| Hickory dickory dock | Trad. | en | 1744 | Cats and mice |
| Who killed Cock Robin? | Trad. | en | 1744 | One of the greatest murder songs in English: Who killed Cock Robin? / I, said the Sparrow, / with my bow and arrow, / I killed Cock Robin. |
| The dragon of Wantley | Trad. | en | 1740ish | Zoomorphication of Sir Richard Wortley, persecutor of his neighbours: To see this fight, all people then / Got up on trees and houses, / On churches some, and chimneys too, / But these put on their trowses. |
| Baa, baa, black sheep | Trad. | en | 1731 | |
| La poule (Suite in G major/G minor) | Rameau | fr | 1726? | With added chicken noises |
| St. George for England | John Grubb | en | 1688 | The story of King Arthur old / Is very memorable, / The number of his valiant knights, / And roundness of his table |
| Three blind mice | Trad. | en | 1609 / 1805 | Both the original and the modern versions are available |
| Ding dong bell, pussy's in the well | Trad. | en | 1580 | Cats and mice |
| A frog he would a wooing go | Trad. | en | 1548 | Fate |
| The worm song (nobody likes me) | en | |||
| La fiera malvada de Jerusalén | Trad. | es | Ballad about mythical monsters: Dos cuernos en la cabeza / también alas que volaba / vestida como una tortuga / no la hería ninguna bala. | |
| Jilgueros | Libertad Lamarque y Joselito | es | Finches | |
| Pican los mosquitos | El payo Juan Manuel | es | Me duelen los hue...sos |
Update: 2023/03/06