Magic money tree repertoire
Songs about money, business, finance, economics…
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Eddic Poem of the Vikinges Who Do Go Berserk | Le Vostre GC | en | 2014 | Nyne vikinges and a mightye troll / Joyne eight moore for sea patrol. |
| Estoy tocando fondo | Viudas e hijas de Roque Enroll | es | 1984 | Where the fondo may be the International Monetary Fund. |
| Ik ben Gerrit | Gerrit Dekzeil | nl | 1973 | My name is Gerrit and I steal like the ravens, / I am a rogue in the eyes of the goody-goodies. / But what can you do if you have nothing / In this world where everything's a con. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Ernie (the fastest milkman in the West) | Benny Hill | en | 1970 | |
| The bare necessities (The Jungle Book) | Terry Gilkyson | en | 1967 | |
| Ballad of Sigmund Freud | Chad Mitchell Trio | en | 1960 | Well, Doctor Freud, oh Doctor Freud / How we wish you had been differently employed / But the set of circumstances / Still enhances the finances / of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud |
| Inflation calypso | ET Mensah | en | 1958? | Pidgin English highlife from post-independence Ghana, now with extra verse about deflation. Useful for introducing basic economics to small beings. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| The country's in the very best of hands | Gene De Paul / Johnny Mercer / Al Capp | en | 1956 | From the 1956 Broadway show, Li'l Abner: The Treasury says the national debt is climbing to the sky / And govermnent expenditures have never been so high. / It makes a feller get a gleam of pride within his eye, / To see how our economy expands, / The country’s in the very best of hands… |
| Che sarà, sarà / Qué será, será / Whatever will be, will be | Doris Day / José Feliciano / Pink Martini / The Jukebox Sisters / Dave Cash | en es it nl yi | 1956 | Waltz |
| The old dope pedlar | Tom Lehrer | en | 1953 | When happiness is a powder, from the well-known Harvard mathematician. |
| 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. |
| I'm no communist | Carson Robison / Scotty Wiseman | en | 1952 | Cold War country alla Ronald Reagan: I'm no communist, I'll tell you that right now / I believe a man should own his own house and car and cow / I like this private ownership, I wanna be left alone / Let the government run its business, and let me run my own. |
| Bananas | Machito | en nl ca | 1950 | The mambo king indulges in a bit of self-parody. Available in English, Catalan or Dutch. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Unemployment Compensation Blues | Les Pine / Barbara Dane / George Browne | en | 1949 | And when I'm through with my weekly routine, / I spend my money on Benzedrine. / I've got those 'By the time I get my check, / I become a nervous wreck' blues. |
| Enjoy yourself (it's later than you think) | Guy Lombardo / Prince Buster / Specials | en | 1949 | Because when you kiss a dollar bill, it doesn't kiss you back. |
| Jolly Banker | Woody Guthrie / Wilco | en | 1940 | My name is Tom Cranker and I'm a jolly banker, / I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I. / I safeguard the farmers and widows and orphans, / Singin' I'm a jolly banker, jolly banker am I. |
| In the big rock candy mountains | Harry Kirby McClintock | en | 1940 | Utopia vagorum. |
| Pennies from heaven | Arthur Johnston / Johnny Burke / Bing Crosby | en | 1936 | You'll find your fortune falling all over the town / Be sure that your umbrella is upside down. |
| The Spring (Arrangements) Bill | A.P. Herbert / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1936 | Universal basic income, old style: If any person feels he must get out of London now or bust, because the Spring is in his bones, but he must work for Mr. Jones, it shall be lawful for the same to give the Treasury his name, and say 'Upon sufficient grounds I want about a hundred pounds': and there shall not be any fuss concerning sums expended thus. |
| A tale of the ticker | Frank Crumit | en | 1929 | I bought an elevator stock, / And thought that I'd done well. / Then the little bears all ran downstairs, / And rang the basement bell. |
| Mackie Messer / Mack the Knife | Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill | de en | 1928 | Originally intended for performance with barrel organ. |
| I can't give you anything but love | McHugh-Fields | en | 1928 | |
| Sheik of Araby | Smith-Wheeler-Snyder / Mr. Goon-Bones / Ted Baxter | en | 1921 | I'm the Sheikh of Araby, this sand belongs to me. Foxtrot |
| El dilluns jo no treballo | Valenciano | ca | 1920 | Song in Valencian lists the days of the week on which I don't work. Their number is lucky. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| El nuevo Ford | Cubano | es | 1920 | |
| 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.) |
| Had je me maar | Louis Davids | nl | 1916 | Song that provided the nickname for the Dutch anarchist politician, Cornelis de Gelder. |
| La violetera | José Padilla | es | 1914 | Early Raquel Meller hit: Como aves precursoras de primavera / En Madrid aparecen la violeteras / Que pregonando parecen golondrinas / Que van piando, que van piando. |
| Crits del carrer | Joan Amades Cançoner / English C17th canon | ca | 1910 | Audience participation required in this canon consisting of the cries (in Catalan) of the vendors of potatoes, hats and chocolate. As good in its way as Clément Janequin, Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris |
| Mamma mia, dammi 100 lire che in America voglio andar (Mum, give me 100 lire cos I want to go to America) | Anon | it | 1890ish? | About the great Italian emigration (late C19th - 1930s). Often used with children. Should 'America' now be replaced by 'London'? Cento lire io te le do, ma in America no no no! 100 lire I'll give you, but America, no no no! |
| Trenta giorni di nave a vapore (Thirty days in a steamship) | Anon | it | 1890? | About the great Italian emigration to the Americas beginning in the late C19th. |
| Manantiales de nitroglicerina (Nitroglycerin springs) | Anón | es | 1873 | Anarchist song: Nivelacion social!... Rota la valla / No más habrá, no más ladrones; / Partirémos sus bienes, sus millones / Cuando llegue su hora á la canalla. |
| De zilvervloot | J.P. Heije / J.J. Viotta | nl | 1870 | |
| Per fi ya enarbolat / veyem lo san pendó, / quens diu Societat, / Fraternitat y Unió. | Societat de Teixidós de Barcelona | ca | 1840 | Himno del primer sindicato en España, la (barcelonesa) Sociedad de Tejedores / Anthem of the first trade union in Spain, the (Barcelona) Society of Weavers |
| Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall | Trad. | en | 1797 | Riddles and nonsense. Some busts are for ever. |
| Budget day | John Freeth | 1790 | Government debt and a spendthrift establishment, but will posterity pay? | |
| La locura más discreta que se dice executó la villa de Níjar del obispado de Almería, el día trece de septiembre de este presente año de 1759 | Diego Ventura Rejón y Lucas | es | 1759 | Vía Ortega y Gasset, a tale of popular madness: Con aquestos desbaratos / toda casa esta assolada, / no dejando tales tratos, / cazos, sillas, platos, nada, / ni aun la nada entre dos platos. |
| London Bridge is falling down | Trad. | en | 1750ish (lyrics) / 1879 (tune) | |
| Sing a song of sixpence | Trad. | en | 1744 | |
| Chanson nouvelle sur les cris de Paris / New song on the cries of Paris | Anon | fr en | 1738 | Translated excerpt, featuring organ-grinders and their marmots. |
| Baa, baa, black sheep | Trad. | en | 1731 | |
| Villançico contrahaziendo a los mocaros que sienpre van ynportunando a los peregrinos con demandas | Juan del Encina | lf | 1520ish | A beggars' song: the poet was in the Holy Land in ±1520 and tried to reproduce the lingua franca of the hordes of fake amputees and saints who plagued poor pilgrims there and at home: 'Benda ti istran plegrin: / benda, marqueta, maidin. / Benda, benda stringa da da / agugeta colorada. / Dali moro namorada / y ala ti da bon matin.' |
Update: 2023/03/06
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