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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copla del viudo del submarino | Juan Antonio Canta | es | 1996 | From the last Andalusian avant-gardist: En el fondo del mar tengo yo / Una novia en silencio / Un poquito de pescaito frito / Me trae su recuerdo 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. |
| Emigranten | Willem Wilmink / Harry Bannink | nl en | 1990 | One of Wilmink's so-called intermezzos. Veel emigranten over zee / nemen al hun gewoontes mee / naar de overkant. |
| Inland waterway | John Betjeman / Ben Sawyer | en | 1974 | On the opening of the Upper Avon Navigation by the Queen Mum in 1974, part of the irresistible rise of the Inland Waterways Association: The lock you have reopened will set free / The heart of England to the open sea. |
| Veerpont / The Floating Bridge | Drs. P (Heinz Polzer) / The Singing Organ-Grinder | nl en | 1973 | The proprietor of a floating bridge over the River Lea at the Anchor & Hope philosophises, in my translation, regarding the good times and the bad: We stand here on the banks of a river swift and hot / The other shore is over there and this one here is not. |
| 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. |
| 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: | |
| Theme from Star Trek | Alexander Courage / Gene Roddenberry | 1966 | With scam-meister Gene Roddenberry's lyrics. | |
| The slow train | Flanders & Swann | en | 1964 | A nostalgic look at the Beeching cuts. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Zuiderzeeballade | Willy van Hemert / Joop de Leur / Oetze Verschoor / Sylvain Poons | nl | 1959 | |
| De postkoets / La diligence | Jos Cleber / Ferry van Delden / De Selvera's / The Cats | nl | 1956 | |
| 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: |
| Capri-Fischer / Fishermen of Capri (Bella, bella Marie) | Rudi Schuricke / Gerhard Winkler / Ralph Maria Siegel | de en | 1949 | Wenn bei Capri die rote Sonne im Meer versinkt: Lola sings this tango in Fassbinder's Wirtschaftswunderbar, but the version by Gracie Fields is also rather special. |
| Aan de Amsterdamse grachten | Pieter Goemans / Johnny Kraaijkamp / Wim Sonneveld | nl | 1949 | Nostalgic waltz. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Ketelbinkie | Anton Beuving / Jan Vogel | nl | 1940 | When we from Rotterdam departed / In the Edam, an ancient hulk. Tragedy of a Dutch (colonial) ship's boy who misses his mum but doesn't know how to tell her. Illegitimate offspring of Thackeray's maritime parody? |
| Cool water | Bob Nolan / Hank Williams / Sons of the Pioneers | en | 1936 | Gloss on Psalms 42:1: I and my mule, Dan, are crossing the desert when we see a mirage: Can you see that big green tree / Where the water's running free / And it's waiting there for you and me? Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Zuiderzee | Louis Davids | nl | 1932 | The consequences of the construction of the Afsluitdijk dam, which turned the Zuyder Zee from a North Sea inlet into a fresh-water lake. |
| El nuevo Ford | Cubano | es | 1920 | |
| My old man said follow the van | Marie Lloyd / Lily Morris | en | 1919 | For Josep Viladot, great Londoner, exiled in Gracia, Barcelona. |
| Second Sonata, The Airplane, fragmento | George Antheil | 1916 | Everything's back to front: The Singing Organ-Grinder is the plane. | |
| Daisy bell | Harry Dacre | en | 1892 | Love on a tandem: But you'd look sweet / Upon the seat / Of a bicycle built for two. |
| 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. |
| Epitaph for James Bosworth, who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade and died, aged 70, a stationmaster at Northam, Southampton | Ben Trovato | en | 1882 | His name was actually John Hacker/Hucker Bosworth and his service overseas in the 1850s doesn't seem to include Balaclava, but still a splendid thing: Though shot and shell flew around fast, / On Balaclava’s plain, / Unscathed he passed, to fall at last, / Run over by a train. |
| Ride of the Valkyries | Wagner | 1880 | Kazoo special. | |
| De zilvervloot | J.P. Heije / J.J. Viotta | nl | 1870 | |
| Daar kom die Alibama | Trad. | af | 1863 | Commemorates the visit of the legendary Birkenhead-built Confederate Navy commercial raider CSS Alabama to Cape Town during the American Civil War. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| We three kings of Orient are | John Henry Hopkins, Jr. | en | 1857 | See also Carloons. |
| Row, row, row your boat | Trad. | en | 1852 | |
| When Birmingham is a seaport town | Andy Casserley / Trad. | en | 1851? | Set to a lively tune. |
| Little Billee aka Little Boy Billy | William Makepeace Thackeray / Bob Roberts | en | 1845 | Cannibal shanty based on Thackeray's parody of La Courte Paille / Il était un petit navire (C16th?). There are also Catalan and Italian versions, but the best are the Portuguese Nau Catarineta, sung ceremonially in parts of Brazil, and the Dutch Ketelbinkie. I believe the latter is also based on Thackeray. The best-known English melody is that of Bob Roberts and has much in common with that in Harold Scott's English Song Book (1925). Ralph Steadman did a nice piratey version. |
| Grace Darling, a ballad | George Lindley | en | 1838 | A great Victorian ballad for a great Victorian heroine: The danger past, her heart beats lightly, / Her silent transport no pride betrays, / Tho' grateful tears are round her falling, / And hearts are throbbing to her praise. |
| I saw three ships | Trad. | en | 1833 | |
| Ford V8 | Enrique Jardiel Poncela / The Singing Organ-Grinder | es | Cuban song in praise of Henry Ford's motors: ¿Y no callé siempre y siempre me callo / los contados días que tienes un fallo? |
Update: 2023/03/06