Songs in English
Ivor Cutler. Image: svennevenn.
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 becks | The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 2022 | Song suitable for young and old about Leeds's streams. Based on De Beken by Fred van de Ven. |
| Sleeping Beauty | George Szirtes | en | 2016 | A telling fragment from one of my favourite contemporary poets. |
| Wonderful | Cate Le Bon | en | 2016 | From her fourth album, Crab Day |
| Pablow the blowfish | Miley Cyrus | en | 2015 | Almost as good as Fluffy. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| God, I want to be an artist, in my heart | The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 2014 | Each verse increasingly unlikely to get past today's censors. |
| 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. |
| Croquetón / Sausage Man | The Singing Organ-Grinder | es en | 2013 | Incidental music written for a children's story by Eva Muñoz about what happens when your food comes fast and in Godzilla-sized portions. Virtual excerpt: Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Lady Java | Oracle / Lady Gaga | en | 2010 | |
| Cats on Mars | The Seatbelts | en | 1998 | Quasi-Japanese shit for your miniskirt moods. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| My pervert doppelganger | Momus | en | 1997 | Best song to mention Smithfield market, 'where refrigerated lorries unload dead cows.' |
| Bacteriën / The Virus Song | Willem Wilmink / Harry Bannink, trans. / arr. The Singing Organ-Grinder | nl en | 1996 | One of Wilmink's so-called intermezzos. When uncle Steve had had a poo / He scraped by hand each glob of goo / From his scrawny bum etc etc Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Miss van Houten's Coffee Shoppe | Martin Newell | en | 1995 | Great number from the wild man of Wivenhoe's Off White Album. |
| Een jongen krijgt een meisjesbrief / A boy receives a girlish note | Willem Wilmink / Harry Bannink | nl en | 1995 | One of Wilmink's so-called intermezzos. So in / My palace in the tallest tower / I read that round name, hour by hour: / Eva Cohen. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Appellation contrôlée | Fay Lovsky | en | 1992 | Chanson pseudo-française: nostalgia for bad French wine. 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. |
| Carloons in the Anguish languish | Doc Clay | en | 1992 | Thrill your friends with a homophonic carol service featuring classics like 'Oh, ladle down off Bath lay him' and 'Shingled hells'. |
| 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. |
| I can get along without you | Chas and Dave | en | 1989 | Great ballad from the kings of London pub rock |
| Fungus the Bogeyman | The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1985 | Inspired in some fashion by Raymond Briggs' graphic novel. |
| My Granny is a cripple in Nashville | Billy Connolly | en | 1981 | |
| Baggy trousers | Madness | en | 1980 | |
| 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: |
| You're wondering now | The Specials | en | 1979 | Break/termination marker. |
| A Martian sends a postcard home | Craig Raine | en | 1979 | Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings / and some are treasured for their markings - / they cause the eyes to melt / or the body to shriek without pain. |
| Song for the British working class | Cornelius Cardew | en | 1979 | Albanian scansion for one of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)'s more curious attempts to connect with normal people: Persisting in the face of every difficulty / In 1979 was formed our new party, a glorious victory. / Rallying to this flag is the only way, workers / To usher in, a bright new day of / Socialism in Britain. |
| You're the reason our kids are ugly | Lorretta Lynn, Conway Twitty | en | 1978 | |
| Hit me with your rhythm stick | Ian Dury | en | 1978 | Tropical stylee. |
| Clever Trevor | Ian Dury | en | 1977 | |
| Itsy bitsy teenie weenie | Wencke Myhre / Brian Hyland / Caterina Valente | de en | 1975 | Cha-cha |
| Synonyms / Shumba | Thomas Mapfumo / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1975 | Flagrant misuse of chiShona material by Zimbabwe's most interesting singer. 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. |
| 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. |
| Willow's Song, aka The Wicker Man Song | Paul Giovanni / Rachel Verney | en | 1973 | |
| Small axe | Bob Marley | en | 1973 | |
| The socialist ABC | Alex Glasgow | en | 1973 | Now Daddy was a lodge chairman / In the coalfields of the Tyne / And his ABC was different / From the Enid Blyton kind. |
| 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. |
| Magic egg | Barrow Poets | en | 1972 | Found on a 60s LP. The video is of another piece. Gerard Benson was one of the figures behind London's Poems on the Underground. Long, long ago before time had begun, the moon lost a pebble and away through space it spun, in the world far below only water could be seen, it sank down to the bottom and it lay there like a dream. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Alone Again | Gilbert O'Sullivan | en | 1971 | |
| 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. |
| Run, Samson, run | The Click Kids | en | 1970 | Run, Samson, run, Delilah's gonna get you, / Run, Samson, run she's gonna cut your hair, / Run, Samson, run, you're gonna lose your power / You're gonna go to prison and lie down dead. |
| Junk | Paul McCartney | en | 1970 | |
| 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. |
| Love me tender | Elvis Presley | en | 1970 | |
| Ernie (the fastest milkman in the West) | Benny Hill | en | 1970 | |
| 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: |
| River man | Nick Drake | en | 1969 | |
| De Soldatenmoeder / The Soldiers' Mother | Zangeres Zonder Naam / Singing Organ-Grinder | nl en | 1969 | A Dutch neo-broadside ballad about the Vietnam War in my translation. Probably unintentionally, its theme is similar to Brecht's Mother Courage, but the treatment is more startling and profound. |
| Lily the pink | en | 1968 | See also the Ballad of Lydia Pinkham | |
| The bare necessities (The Jungle Book) | Terry Gilkyson | en | 1967 | |
| I wanna be like you (The Jungle Book) | Sherman Brothers / Louis Prima | en | 1967 | |
| Good morning, how are you?' 'Shut up!' | Ivor Cutler | en | 1967 | Don't give me the small talk, give me the big talk. Cutler's songs are both for and about children. Virtual excerpt: |
| I'm happy | Ivor Cutler | en | 1967 | And I'll punch the man who says I'm not. A boxing classic to be. |
| Darling, will you marry me twice? | Ivor Cutler | en | 1967 | Cartesian doctrine in micro format. |
| I'm going in a field | Ivor Cutler | en | 1967 | Green grass, yellow flowers / My lover’s eyes are blue. |
| Sing a Little Song - Terylene | Marks & Spencer | en | 1965 | Advert. M&S was of course founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| 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. |
| One-note samba (demo version) | en | 1965 | Used in how-the-organ-works talks. | |
| Chim chim cher-ee (Mary Poppins) | Sherman Brothers / Julie Andrews / Dick van Dyke | en | 1964 | |
| Feed the birds (Mary Poppins) | Sherman Brothers / Julie Andrews | en | 1964 | |
| The slow train | Flanders & Swann | en | 1964 | A nostalgic look at the Beeching cuts. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Amsterdam huilt / Amsterdam weeps | Kees Manders / Zwarte Riek / Singing Organ-Grinder | en nl | 1964 | Extraordinary Dutch khazan-style lament about the genocide of Amsterdam's Jewry. Evocative not only of the pre-nationalist-socialist ghetto, but also of a world still subconsciously recalled by Dutch wedding and light musicians. My translation. |
| Doctor Kitch | Lord Kitchener | en | 1963 | A girl asks a doctor for an injection, but his needle's very big and she moves a lot, and the penicillin ends up in the wrong hole. |
| Hungarian Goulash No. 5 | Allan Sherman / Johannes Brahms | en | 1963 | Do you like Hungarian food / They have a goulash which is very good. (Pumpernickel is also associated with Westphalia.) |
| Little boxes ('Ticky tacky') | Malvina Reynolds | en | 1962 | We all look just the same. |
| Rhythm of the rain / Ritme van de regen | The Cascades / Rob de Nijs | nl en | 1962 | Also on the soundtrack of Quadrophenia. |
| Crazy | Patsy Cline | en | 1960 | För Sveriges största gitarrist, Tom Coskeran. Done as a waltz |
| Strange | Patsy Cline | en | 1960 | Strange how you stopped loving me ... when she came along. |
| As long as he needs me | Lionel Bart | en | 1960 | Great torch song from Oliver. |
| 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 |
| Brazil / Aquarela do Brasil | Ary Barroso / Jimmy Dorsey / Xavier Cugat | en | 1960 | Samba: Where hearts were entertaining June / We stood beneath an amber moon |
| 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 | |
| On the ning nang nong | Spike Milligan | en | 1959 | Where the cows go Bong! |
| Manhã de carnaval | Luiz Bonfá / Antônio Maria / Perry Como | en | 1959 | Bossa nova recounting significant parts of my life: I'll sing to the sun in the sky, / I'll sing till the sun rises high. |
| What a difference a day makes | Dinah Washington | en | 1959 | |
| 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: |
| 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 super supper march | Dr. Seuss / Dean Elliott | en | 1957 / 1971 | Hungry, hungry, I am hungry / Table, table, here I come. Virtual excerpt: |
| Till there was you | Meredith Willson / Beatles / Peggy Lee | en | 1957 | Sophie Tucker never sang it. |
| The hippopotamus song | Flanders & Swann | en | 1957 | Mud, mud, glorious mud, / Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. |
| Nellie the elephant | Ralph Butler / Peter Hart | en | 1956 | Donald has asked me to revive this classic: Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk / And said goodbye to the circus / Off she went with a trumpety-trump / Trump, trump, trump. |
| The abominable snowman | Ogden Nash | en | 1956 | I've never seen an abominable snowman, / I'm hoping not to see one, / I'm also hoping, if I do, / That it will be a wee one. |
| 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… |
| Tea samba | ET Mensah | en | 1956 | Ghanaian tea ad from the 50s. |
| Sunday Mirror | ET Mensah | en | 1956 | Highlife ad for a 1950s Ghanaian newspaper. |
| 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 |
| Tulpen uit Amsterdam / Tulips from Amsterdam | Ralf Arnie / Van Aleda / Max Bygraves | nl en | 1956 | Typically Dutch: a German waltz about Turkish flowers. Virtual excerpt: |
| I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus OR I saw mommy kissing Yog-Sothoth | H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society | en | 1955 OR 2011 | Innocent entertainment from when all families were normal OR Christmas fantasy about the Myths of Cthulhu. |
| El baile de los pajaritos / The birdie song / De vogeltjesdans | El payo Juan Manuel / Werner Thomas / Johnny Hoes | es nl en | 1955 | |
| La Complainte de la Butte | Jean Renoir / Georges van Parys / Cora Vaucaire / Zaz / Rufus Wainwright | fr en | 1955 | |
| When you are old and grey | Tom Lehrer | en | 1953 | On request only. Virtual excerpt: |
| I hold your hand in mine, dear | Tom Lehrer | en | 1953 | I press it to my lips / I take a healthy bite / From your dainty fingertips. |
| The Irish ballad | Tom Lehrer | en | 1953 | Parody that says it all: About a maid I'll sing a song, / Sing rickety-tickety-tin, / About a maid I'll sing a song / Who didn't have her family long. / Not only did she do them wrong, / She did ev'ryone of them in, them in, / She did ev'ryone of them in. |
| The old dope pedlar | Tom Lehrer | en | 1953 | When happiness is a powder, from the well-known Harvard mathematician. |
| Frosty the defrosted snowman | Lonzo and Oscar | en | 1953 | |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Marijuana, the devil's flower | Mr. Sunshine and his Guitar Pickers | en | 1951 | |
| Joe Louis was a fighting man | The Dixieaires | en | 1950 | Another boxing number. |
| Don't laugh at me, cause I'm a fool | Norman Wisdom | en | 1950 | A hit by a minor British star dearly loved by Albanians during the dictatorship. |
| Time to go home (Andy Pandy) | Maria Bird | en | 1950 | We didn't have a telly, but for some reason it's still familiar. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Take you meat out me rice | Lord Kitchener | en | 1950 | |
| Victory test match | Lord Beginner | en | 1950 | Cricket, lovely cricket, at Lord's where I saw it |
| South of the border | Gene Autry / Patsy Cline | en | 1950 | Bolero |
| Smoke, smoke that cigarette | en | 1950 | ||
| 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. |
| 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. |
| London is the place for me | Lord Kitchener | en | 1948 | Sung by Lord Kitchener as he came off the Windrush at Tilbury Docks on June 21, 1948 Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| The blue Danube | Spike Jones | en | 1945 | It's green. |
| Karussell (Wir reiten auf hölzernen Pferden) / Carousel (We ride on wooden horses) | Leo Straus / Martin Roman | de en | 1944 | Translation of a song from the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. When you get off, will you be able to stand up? Quotes the Wiener Praterleben waltz by fellow-inmate of Death's waiting-room, Siegfried Translateur. |
| Stalin wasn't stallin' | Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet | en | 1943 | An American gospel quartet lauds Uncle Joe's revenge on his old friend Hitler. Not sure whether this will ever work again, after the Ukraine war. |
| 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. |
| All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth | Spike Jones | en | 1940 | A little girl's terrible lisp is caused by her insufficient dentition. Works well at primary schools and dental conferences. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| 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. |
| Hawaii | Mary J. Muckle / Anon / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1940 | There are three words that sweetly blend, / That on the heart are graven; / A precious soothing balm they lend– / They’re Mother, Home and Hawaii! |
| In the big rock candy mountains | Harry Kirby McClintock | en | 1940 | Utopia vagorum. |
| Begin the beguine | Cole Porter / Les Paul | en | 1940 | Beguine |
| Rose, Rose, I love you / Shanghai Rose / May Kway / 玫瑰玫瑰我愛你 | Chen Gexin / Yao Lee / Wilfrid Thomas / Frankie Laine | en | 1940 | Mandarin pop classic. Allegedly the only major popular music chart hit in the United States written by a Chinese composer. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Perfidia | en | 1940 | Bolero | |
| It's raining, it's pouring | Trad. | en | 1939? | |
| Lydia, the Tattooed Lady | Yip Harburg / Harold Arlen / Groucho Marx / The Muppets | en | 1939 | From At the Circus. Appears as Todd's new ringtone in Breaking Bad. |
| You are my sunshine | Jimmie Davis / Charles Mitchell / Pine Ridge Boys | en | 1939 | Foxtrot |
| The Workman's Friend | Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1939 | Porter meets the Plain People, from At Swim-Two-Birds |
| With her head tucked underneath her arm | Rudy Vallee / Cyril Smith | en | 1937 | Comic Anne Boleyn ghost song. Tenuous Yorkshire connection: the 2021 Channel 5 period drama was filmed entirely in Yorkshire, featuring Bolton Castle, Markenfield Hall (Ripon), Ripley Castle, Fountains Hall and Castle Howard, Oakwell Hall, Harewood House, East Riddlesden Hall and St Michael’s Church, Emley. |
| Leaning on a lamp-post | George Formby | en | 1937 | Surprisingly well-known on 21st century London streets. |
| The tale of Custard the dragon | Ogden Nash | en | 1936 | Very childish: the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard |
| When I'm cleaning windows | George Formby | en | 1936 | From the film, Keep Your Seats, Please |
| 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: |
| 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. |
| Wunderbar | Zarah Leander | en | 1935? | Popularised in Britain as 'Wonderbra' |
| Shave 'em dry | Lucille Bogan | en | 1935 | I've got nipples on my titties big as the end of my thumb / I got something tween my legs 'd make a dead man come. |
| To The Tabulating Machine Division (IBM Songbook) | IBM employees | en | 1935 | Punch a card for every sale that's made. / There's a record which will never fade. / Sort them out by man and state - / Speedily we tabulate. Etc. etc. |
| Rosetta | George Handy / Bob Wills | en | 1935 | Western swing |
| Old Dan Tucker | Cackle Sisters | en | 1935 | Song about a simple man, with cackle chorus. Why? Because that's how the sisters sang. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Nobody loves a fairy when she's 40 | Arthur Le Clerq / Tessie O'Shea | en | 1935 | |
| Your feet's too big | Ada Benson / Fred Fisher / The Ink Spots | en | 1935 | |
| Ugly woman | Roaring Lion / Sir Lancelot / Jimmy Soul | en | 1934 | If you want to be happy and live a king's life, never make a pretty woman your wife! |
| Isle of Capri / C'est à Capri | Will Grosz / Jimmy Kennedy / Lew Stone | en nl fr | 1934 | Sometimes with lyrics featuring the River Lea / Lee in East London: Twas on the banks of the Lea that I met her / Under the shade of an old apple tree / Now I can still hear the sirens around me / As I lie bleeding in A and E. |
| Stalin epigram | Osip Mandelstam, trans. Dmitri Smirnov, music Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1933 | We are living, but can’t feel the land where we stay, / More than ten steps away you can’t hear what we say. |
| Love is the sweetest thing | Al Bowlly / Ray Noble | en | 1932 | |
| Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun | Noël Coward | en | 1931 | A masterpiece of rhythm and rhyme dealing with the importance of adjusting one's dress to circumstances: The toughest Burmese bandit can never understand it. / In Rangoon the heat of noon is just what the natives shun. / They put their scotch or rye down, and lie down. |
| My brother makes the noises for the talkies | Albert Whelan / Jack Payne / Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band | en | 1931 | |
| Oh zwarte zigeuner / Oh, play to me gypsy (Cikánka) | Harry de Groot / Karel Vacek / Melody Boys / Willy Derby / Willy Alberti / Johnny Jordaan / Gracie Fields | nl en | 1931 | Slow foxtrot. |
| Doris the goddess of wind | Douglas Byng | en | 1930? | From his royal campness. Used in Alan Bennett's 2010 play The Habit of Art. |
| Howling Cowman Blues | Wolfman | en | 1930 | The Organ-Grinder is better at cows than wolves. |
| Seven skeletons found in the yard | Lord Executor aka Felix Garcia (ca.1878-1952) | en | 1930 | From a calypso genius and the king of extempo: Hideous discoveries and monstrous crime / Always happen at the Christmas time. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Organ grinder's swing | Jimmie Lunceford | en | 1930 | Slow foxtrot |
| Chinatown, my Chinatown | Jean Schwartz | en | 1930 | Jackie Chan edition. Virtual excerpt: |
| It's only a paper moon | Harold Arlen | en | 1930 | |
| Breakaway (Fox Movietone Follies of 1929) | Jack Hylton | en | 1929 | Foxtrot. It's got the snappiest syncopation. |
| Tarantella | Hilaire Belloc | en | 1929 | Belloc met Miranda Mackintosh at an inn in the Pyrenean hamlet of Canranc on the River Aragon in 1909. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| 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. |
| Canto Siboney | Ernesto Lecuona | en es | 1929 | Nino Rota's use of this in multiple guises dominates the soundtrack of Fellini's Amarcord. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| 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 | |
| Cabaret boys | Douglas Byng / Lance Lister | en | 1928 | Camp classic from the Pansy Craze, with numerous double entendres |
| The lonesome road | Nathaniel Shilkret / Gene Austin / Joan Baez | en | 1927 | |
| Barnacle Bill the sailor | Hoagy Carmichael / Bix Beiderbecke / Tex Morton / Betty Boop | en | 1927 | It's only me from over the sea / I'm all dressed up like a Christmas tree. With interludes featuring Benny Hill alla turca and the Beautiful Blue Danube (it's brown). Virtual excerpt: Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Don't have any more, Mrs Moore | Lily Morris | en | 1926? | Too many double gins / Give the ladies double chins |
| Lavender cowboy | Harold Hersey / Burl Ives | en | 1923 | A gayboy & western classic: He died with his six guns a-smoking / But only two hairs on his chest. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| It's a long way from amphioxus | Philip H. Pope | en | 1921 | Evolution, sung to Tipperary: Well, it's goodbye to fins and gill slits, and it's welcome lungs and hair! / It's a long, long way from Amphioxus, but we all came from there. |
| Silent night | Trad. | en | 1920 | See also Carloons. |
| I'm living alone and I like it | Sophie Tucker | en | 1920 | |
| Five foot two, eyes of blue | Henderson | en | 1920 | Foxtrot |
| Don Pasquito at the seaside (Façade) | Edith Sitwell / William Walton | en | 1920 | |
| On the sunny side of the street | en | 1920 | Foxtrot | |
| Jingle bells / Campanelle, campanelle, belle belle | en it | 1920 | Anglo-Italian version based on Lou Monte. Virtual excerpt: | |
| My old man said follow the van | Marie Lloyd / Lily Morris | en | 1919 | For Josep Viladot, great Londoner, exiled in Gracia, Barcelona. |
| K-K-K-Katy | Geoffrey O'Hara | en | 1918 | |
| Mashup: Petrushka + My old man's a dustman | Igor Stravinsky / Lonnie Donegan | en | 1915 | Portrays on the organ the orchestral imitation by Stravinsky of a barrel organ and a musical box. The video shows the Bolshoi dancing my arrangement. Ends with one of my favourite children's songs. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| My old tunes | Edward Elgar | en | 1915 | From Elgar's incidental music for The Starlight Express, a children's play by Violet Pearn based on the imaginative novel A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood: My old tunes are rather broken / And they come from far away, / Bring just a little token / Of a long-forgotten day. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Ballad of Lydia Pinkham | en | 1914? | ||
| Sports et divertissements | Erik Satie | en | 1914 | A selection, in English. |
| Le pont Mirabeau | Guillaume Apollinaire / Léo Ferré | fr en | 1912 | |
| Woad aka National Anthem of the Ancient Britons | William Hope-Jones | en | 1910 | To Men of Harlech: Saxon, you can waste your stitches / Building beds for bugs in britches: / We have woad to clothe us, which is / Not a nest for fleas. |
| England and America. I. On a Rhine Steamer | James Kenneth Stephen | en | 1909 | In short it's due to thee, / Thou kind of Western star, / That we have come to be / Precisely what we are. / But every now and then, / It cannot be denied, / You breed a kind of men / Who are not dignified |
| The teddy bear's picnic | John Bratton | en | 1907 | Don't go into the woods. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Frankie and Johnny were lovers | Frank Crumit / Hughie Cannon | en | 1904 | She done him wrong. |
| The clean song | Trad. | en | 1900s? | There once was a farmer who sat on a rick / A ranting and raving and waving his / Fist at some people who sat on his walls etc. etc. |
| She moved through the fair | Trad. / Alan Stivell | en | 1900s | One of the most beautiful songs around. Stivell's version famously floated the melody over the accompaniment. |
| Incy wincy spider | Trad. | en | 1900? | |
| O sole mio | Giovanni Capurro / Eduardo di Capua | it en nl | 1898 | |
| The Organ-Grinder's Serenade | Charles K. Harris | en | 1897 | He plays for a small girl in life and death: She's going to die. Please sir, don't cry. / Play her your serenade. |
| Paternal. Tornant del Liceu en la nit del 7 de novembre de 1893 | Joan Maragall / The Singing Organ-Grinder | ca en | 1893 | I've done this a few times in Catalan and English but don't really know where to take it next. |
| Happy birthday to you | en es ca | 1893 | I believe I can sing this now without being sued by copyright lawyers. Video, possibly from another time or person: | |
| Daisy bell | Harry Dacre | en | 1892 | Love on a tandem: But you'd look sweet / Upon the seat / Of a bicycle built for two. |
| Tha-ma-ra-boum-di-he / Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay | Mama Lou / Lottie Collins / Polaire | en fr | 1891 | |
| She'll be coming round the mountain | Trad. | en | 1890s | |
| Two lovely black eyes / Twee ogen zo blauw | Charles Coborn / Willy Derby | en nl | 1886 | I learnt the Dutch lyrics first, but my Dad croons this Gladstonian warning by an East End comedian of the dangers of politics: Two lovely black eyes! / Oh! what a surprise! / Only for telling a man he was wrong, / Two lovely black eyes! |
| The spring-time, o the spring-time! | Alfred Austin / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1885 | From Headingley's Poet Laureate: When little birds begin to build, and buds begin to swell. |
| Zwei blaue Augen / Twee blauwe ogen / The two blue eyes of my sweetheart (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) | Gustav Mahler / Dutch translation: Jan Rot / English: T.E. Clark | de nl en | 1885 | Auf der Strasse stand ein Lindenbaum, Da hab' ich zum ersten Mal im Schlaf geruht! |
| Away in a manger | Trad. | en | 1884 | |
| 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. |
| Th' owd knocker-iup | Henry Yates ('Tansy Tuft') | en | 1880s? | Lancashire dialect song by a cotton worker and amateur poet from Blackburn |
| Erev-Yonkiper nokhn halbn tog / 'Twas on the eve of Yom Kippur | Anon | en yi | 1880 | Yiddish ballad of forbidden love between a Goy & a Yid, Singing Organ-Grinder's translation: 'And now is come the time of love: / Say unto me but yea or nay.' / 'Lov'st thou me yea, or lov'st me nay, / We must now part, my parents say.' Whereupon he shoots her. |
| What an afternoon! | Charles Collette | en | 1875 | From the farce Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata, which partnered Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial By Jury on the latter's premiere: He polished his socks with pumpkin squash, / And always sent his teeth to the wash. / He dined as a rule off a camomile pill, / In a three pair back in Haverstock Hill. |
| The cummerbund: an Indian poem | Edward Lear | en | 1874 | |
| The owl and the pussy-cat | Edward Lear / Mátyás Seiber | en | 1871 | Can be performed with a projection of the 1952 Halas and Batchelor cartoon short for which Seiber's music was written |
| O little town of Bethlehem | Phillips Brooks / Henry Garman / Ralph Vaughan Williams | en | 1868 (lyrics) | See also Carloons. |
| The clown in the pantomime | William Lingard | en | 1868 | The last that I heard / Of her and her Joey the clown, / They played in the streets / And trudged it from town into town ... If you for amusements wish, / Take advice from me in time, / You should take your girl to a music-hall, / Not to a pantomime. |
| The Organ Grinder | Arthur Lloyd / G.W. Hunt | en | 1865 | Some guy's girlfriend, a banjoist, eloped with one. References Babbage and Bass's campaign against organ grinders. |
| The woollen aristocracy of Yorkshire | William Henry Tucker / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1864 | |
| Poor Bill Brown | Anon | en | 1860s | The popular, London, revenge version of the ballad of an 18th century Brightside (Sheffield) steelworker and poacher, who was fatally shot and stabbed by a gamekeeper near Rotherham |
| We three kings of Orient are | John Henry Hopkins, Jr. | en | 1857 | See also Carloons. |
| Land of my fathers | Evan James / James James / Private Eye | en cy | 1856 | Phonetic transliteration of the Welsh: My hen laid a haddock on top of a tree / Glad farts and centurions throw dogs in the sea. |
| Row, row, row your boat | Trad. | en | 1852 | |
| When Birmingham is a seaport town | Andy Casserley / Trad. | en | 1851? | Set to a lively tune. |
| Ostavaysya, brat Vanyukha / Stay well put, oh brother Johnny | Russian folk | ru en | 1850ish | In the repertoire of Grigorovich's Petersburg Organ-Grinders |
| Dance to your daddy (when the boat comes in) | Trad. | en | 1850? | Games and dances Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Once In Royal David’s City | Cecil Frances Alexander / Henry John Gauntlett | en | 1848 | |
| Limericks | Ranjit Bolt, Edward Lear et al | en | 1846-2014 | High-class doggerel. |
| 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. |
| Parody of Heavenly Union | Anon | en | 1845 | Parody of Come, Saints and Sinners, Hear Me Tell, a hymn popular in the South, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845, the Anti-Slavery Office) |
| The teetotallers | Rev. John Mason Neale | en | 1843 | Neale was a CoE conformist activist and scourge of dissenters |
| Here we go round the mulberry bush | Trad. | en | 1840s | Games and dances |
| The loving ballad of Lord Bateman | William Makepeace Thackeray / Charles Dickens | en | 1839 | Parody of a popular ballad. |
| 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 | |
| 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 |
| Cease, ye noisy Minstrels, cease | Anon | en | 1826 | Splendidly awful poem about street performers. |
| Ode to Joy / An die Freude | Schiller / Beethoven | de en | 1824 | The recording is of a version for Alan Pell Mini 20. Rowan Atkinson did it all rather differently. Virtual excerpt: Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Aiken Drum | Trad. | en | 1820 | Riddles and nonsense. |
| The patriot's hymn | Samuel Bamford | en | 1815 | Parody on God Save the King in response to Waterloo |
| The Famous Battle of Waterloo | Anon. | en | 1815 | Ballad lament |
| The holly and the ivy | Trad. | en | 1810? | |
| Twinkle, twinkle, little star | Trad. | en | 1806 (melody 1761) | Lullabies |
| Marmotte (Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern / Op. 53 no. 7) | Goethe / Beethoven | de en | 1805 | Parody of a Savoyard organ grinder and his marmot at a fair: It's many a land I've travelled through, / Avecque la marmotte, / And I always found some thing to chew, / Avecque la marmotte. |
| Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? | Trad. | en | 1805 | Cats and mice |
| Polly put the kettle on | Trad. | en | 1803 | See also O du lieber Augustin. |
| The Barrel-Organ | Charles Dibdin | en | 1802 | Parody of a London German organ-grinder, who intersperses his song with other Dibdin songs: De midshipman wid de pretty girl, / He say for a tune are you willing; / So I pull out de stop and I grind and I twirl, / And all to get an odd chilling. |
| The Maudlin Fair at Hedon | Anon / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1800 | Here’s wrestling and vaulting, and dancing on wire, / With fiddling, and juggling, and men eating fire, / Bold sergeants recruiting, lads ‘listing for life, / And family lessons from Punch and his wife. |
| Hot cross buns | Trad. | en | 1798 | Food |
| Diddle diddle dumpling | Trad. | en | 1797 | Lullabies |
| Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall | Trad. | en | 1797 | Riddles and nonsense. Some busts are for ever. |
| Tom, Tom, the piper's son | Trad. | en | 1795 | |
| The birdcatcher's song (Magic Flute) | Mozart | en | 1791 | |
| Ring a ring o' roses | Trad. | en | 1790s | Games and dances |
| Herr Bacchus | Anon | de en | 1789? | Comparisons with Apollo in a drinking song! |
| Rock-a-bye baby | Trad. | en | 1765 | Lullabies |
| Hey diddle diddle | Trad. | en | 1765 | Riddles and nonsense. |
| O come, all ye faithful | Frederick Oakeley / John Francis Wade | en | 1751 (tune) / 1841 (English lyrics) | |
| London Bridge is falling down | Trad. | en | 1750ish (lyrics) / 1879 (tune) | |
| Oranges and lemons | Trad. | en | 1744? | Games and dances |
| Mary, Mary, quite contrary | en | 1744 (lyrics) | ||
| 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. |
| Sing a song of sixpence | Trad. | en | 1744 | |
| 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. |
| 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 | |
| Little Jack Horner | Trad. | en | 1725 | Food |
| Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man | Trad. | en | 1698 | Food |
| Noë per tsanta à la Grand Messa / Noel to be sung at the Great Mass | Trad. | oc en | 1690? | Savoyard carol in Provençal from Bessans in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, early focus of organ-grinders and other ambulants. Features angels singing like organs and marmottes. Abridged translation into English. |
| 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 |
| The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield, with Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John | Milbourn / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1685 | Late 17th century broadside ballad. |
| Sussex Carol / On Christmas night all Christians sing | Luke Wadding / Ralph Vaughan Williams / David Willcocks | en | 1684 | |
| Here, here, here is pig and pork | en | 1680s | Irish anti-Catholic song: Giving an Account of a Father Wifely, the Popish Bishop of Kildare in Ireland, and a Shop-keeper's Wife in High-street, Dublin. | |
| Barbara Allen | Joan Baez / Jim Moray | en | 1660s? | Great song: Young man, I think you're dying. |
| To a lady that desired me I would beare my part (sic) | Richard Lovelace / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1649 | First use of 'serenade' in English: What, though 'tis said I have a voice; / I know 'tis but that hollow noise / Which (as it through my pipe doth speed) / Bitterns do carol through a reed. |
| The World Turned Upside Down (melody: When the King Enjoys His Own Again) | Anon / Martin Parker | en | 1646 | A protest from the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts against Parliament's proscription of Christmas traditions. Not to be confused with the Leon Rosselson song made famous by Billy Bragg. |
| Upon Yorkshire ale | Mathew Stevenson / Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1645 | Pox take your Yorkshire Ale, / It did so firk my tail / That I had like beshit me [...] And know'st thy wily wort, / Is wont to make us squort / Over a thousand hedges |
| The grand old Duke Of York | Trad. | en | 1642 | |
| Dialogue Between a Glutton and an Echo | Anon | en | 1634 | Echo verse with audience participation. Lead: My belly I do defy. Echo: Fie! |
| A dogge of warre | John Taylor | en | 1628 | In doggrell Rimes my Lines are writ, / As for a Dogge I thought it fit. |
| O Jesulein süss! O Jesulein mild! | Georg Christian Schemelli | de en | 1620 | O little one sweet, O little one mild, thy Father's purpose thou hast fulfilled. |
| O Tannenbaum / Oh Christmas tree | Ernst Anschütz / Melchior Franck | de en | 1615 | On request I will also sing the mildly smutty Low Saxon version. |
| A roaring boy's description | Samuel Rowlands | en | 1612 | London hooligans, from 'A Paire of Spy-Knaves' |
| The three ravens | Trad. | en | 1611 | A dead knight's hawks, hounds and girlfriend deny them dinner |
| Three blind mice | Trad. | en | 1609 / 1805 | Both the original and the modern versions are available |
| Sweetest love, I do not goe | John Donne / Ralph Steadman / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1600? | It cannot be / That thou lov'st me, as thou say'st, / If in thine my life thou waste, / That art the best of me. |
| Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen / Lo, how a rose e'er blooming | Michael Praetorius | de en | 1599 | My favourite Marian hymn. |
| The willow song | Trad. | en | 1590s? | Desdemona sings it and then her beloved Othello murders her |
| Good King Wenceslas / Tempus adest floridum | John Mason Neale | en la | 1582 (melody) / 1853 (English lyrics) | Bohemian fantasy. |
| Ding dong bell, pussy's in the well | Trad. | en | 1580 | Cats and mice |
| Old 100th / All people that on earth do dwell / Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir | Loys Bourgeois / William Kethe | en de | 1561 | Available in full version and in mid-C19th small organ pastiche. |
| A frog he would a wooing go | Trad. | en | 1548 | Fate |
| The hunt is up | William Gray | en | 1540? | 16th century Brexit metaphor? The hunt is up, the hunt is up, / And it is well nigh day; / And Harry our king is gone hunting, / To bring his deer to bay. |
| Coventry Carol | Robert Croo | en | 1534 (lyrics) 1591 (tune) | Herod is slaughtering the Innocents: Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee, / And ever mourn and say; / For Thy parting, nor say nor sing, / By, by, lully, lullay. |
| A the syghes that cum from my hart | Anon. | en | 1500? | Farewell, my joy, and welcome pain |
| Es ist ein Schnee gefallen | Anon | en de | 1467 | Wonderful translation by J.K. Annand: It's snawin cats and dugs, / Winter's owre early, / Hailstanes blatter my lugs / The road is smoorit fairly. |
| Der Kampf des Roraffen mit dem Hanen | Anon / The Singing Organ-Grinder | de en | 1450? | Translated excerpt from a Low German saga in which a puritanical rooster-man drives a fun-loving monkey-man out of Strasbourg Cathedral. |
| For hagese | Anon / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1430 | Rhymed medieval haggis recipe: Þe hert of schepe, þe nere71 þou take, / Þo bowel no3t þou shalle forsake. |
| The cherry tree carol | Trad. | en | 1400s | Based on the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and probably basically C15th: When Joseph was an old man, / An old man was he, / He married Virgin Mary, / The Queen of Galilee. |
| John Ball's letter and rhyme to the commons of Essex | John Ball / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | 1381 | John the Miller hath ground small, small, small; / The King of Heaven's son shall pay for all. (There is as far as I know no evidence for the claim that Ball was from Colchester, rather than York, where he first worked.) |
| In dulci jubilo | Heinrich Seuse / Robert Pearsall | en de la | 1328 | I do both the German-Latin original and the popular Pearsall Anglicisation |
| Sumer is icumen in | Anon. / Ezra Pound / Peter Firmin / Oliver Postgate | en | 1250 | Round progressing from Wessex Middle English (The bullock stirs, the stag farts, / Merrily sing, Cuckoo!) via miseryguts' Ancient Music (Winter is icumen in, / Lhude sing Goddamm) to the Bagpuss mice (We will fix it). Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| The Summoner's Tale (excerpt) (Canterbury Tales) | Geoffrey Chaucer / The Singing Organ-Grinder | en | Lordings, there is in Yorkshire, as I gesse, / A marshy country called Holderness, / In which there went a limitour about, / To preach, and eke to beg, it is no doubt. | |
| The wanton wife of Castlegate | The Watersons | en | C17th ballad, Roud V14112: Tinkers they are drunkards, / And masons they are blind, / And boat-men they make cuckolds, / Because they'r used kind. | |
| The Richmond Hagmena song | Anon | en | As performed on New Year's Eve by the town crier | |
| Bloody Orkney | Trad | en | Substitute any trochaic township. | |
| Come on chaps | Trad | en | Teasing/bragging song: Blackpool is the place for me, / a fishing from the rock. / I never use my fishing line, / I always use my... / Dainty little fingers... | |
| Cowtown | They Might be Giants | en | Video, possibly from another time or person: | |
| The galaxy song | Monty Python | en | This is the extent of my physics. Video, possibly from another time or person: | |
| Sabre dance | Aram Khachaturian / Andrews Sisters | en | Pure Orientalism: Drums are booming, cellos zooming, / Cymbals crashing, sabres flashing in a willy nilly sort of way,. | |
| The worm song (nobody likes me) | en | |||
| My uncle's Sunday School | en | Lighthearted Bible education. My mum used to sing the verse about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (The Lord provides his children with an asbestos shirt). Chorus: Old folks, young folks, everbody come,/Join my uncle's Sunday School & make yourselves at home:/ Bring your sticks of chewing gum and sit upon the floor,/And we'll tell you bible stories that you never heard before Video, possibly from another time or person: | ||
| The first Nowell | en | Born is the King of Israel. | ||
| While shepherds | en | Washed their socks by night. | ||
| Cowboy Fred | Willem Wilmink / Frank Dieman / Triooo | nl en |
Update: 2023/03/06