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. |
| 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: |
| Jan Klaassen de trompetter | Lennaert Nijgh / Boudewijn de Groot / Rob de Nijs | nl | 1973 | The life and loves of Jan Claesen, a legendary Dutch figure, supposedly trumpeter in the army of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau, afterwards a type of Punch figure. |
| 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. |
| Colonel Bogey | Kenneth Alford / Tijuana Brass | 1965 | ||
| James Bond theme | John Barry | 1962 | Quasi-ska version. Virtual excerpt: | |
| De blinde soldaat / The blind soldier | Zangeres Zonder Naam | nl | 1961 | A soldier back from the front can't see his new-born son because he has lost his sight. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Complainte pour l'orgue de la nouvelle barbarie | Louis Aragon | fr | 1940 | Wartime poem from after his conversion to Marxism: Ceux qu'arrêtèrent les barrages. / Sont revenus en plein midi. / Morts de fatigue et fous de rage. |
| Утомлённое солнце (Weary sun)/To ostatnia niedziela (This is the last Sunday) | Jerzy Petersburski / Zenon Friedwald / Iosif Alvek / Pavel Mikhailov | ru | 1935 | Polish tango about failed love, also done in a Russian, Black Sea-ish version. Featured in Yuriy Norshteyn's stunning Tale of Tales. Video, possibly from another time or person: |
| Frankie and Johnny were lovers | Frank Crumit / Hughie Cannon | en | 1904 | She done him wrong. |
| Whip and spur | Thomas S. Allen | 1890 | Morning, ladies. | |
| 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. |
| Blaze away march | Holzmann | 1880 | ||
| In een blauwgeruite kiel (Draaiersjongen) | Anton de Rop | nl | 1875 | |
| 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: |
| 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. |
| The grand old Duke Of York | Trad. | en | 1642 | |
| When that I was and a little tiny boy (Hey, ho, the wind and the rain) | William Shakespeare / John Harle | 1601 | Feste the Fool's closing song from Twelth Night. Version of Elvis Costello's version of the traditional version sung by Alfred Deller. | |
| Het Wilhelmus | Trad. | nl | 1570? | Naar de versie voor Dubbele Biphone die door de Leidse politie in 1940 in beslag werd genomen en in 2012 voor het eerst opnieuw werd uitgevoerd. |
| 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. |
Update: 2023/03/06