Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Silly songs you remember from early childhood

178 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 20/04/2024 18:36

Mr Gasp is just running through a few of those on Spotify.

So far we've had:

Right Said Fred (made me sad, hearing dear Bernard Cribbins Sad)
Nelly the Elephant
Loving you has made me bananas
Run Rabbit Run

I'm hoping for A Windmill in Old Amsterdam soon.

Any other suggestions?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Houseinawood · 20/04/2024 23:22

She’ll be riding 6 white horses when she comes …

papa’s going to buy you a mocking bird

puff the magic dragon

alice the camel

5 little piggies

round and round the garden and are all time favourite in this family

five little monkeys

’do your ears hang low do they dangle to and fro’ ….

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/04/2024 23:25

My dad sang a lot of Flanders and Swann to my sister and me, when we were small - and I sang them to my children.

I love the All Aboard cd - lots of songs I sang along to in the car with the boys. Two Little Boys always made me snivel.

Iloveanicegarden · 20/04/2024 23:43

Pete Seager's Little Boxes, little boxes made of ticky tacky on the hillside and they all look just the same.
Inch worm
Ugly duckling.
Swim little fishy, swim if you can and they swam and they swam right over the dam.
Right said Fred (the song not the group) Bernard Cribbins I think, about moving a piano upstairs. Seems far fetched but we were in that position trying to move a sofa bed upstairs.

78Summer · 20/04/2024 23:43

Button Moon theme tune.

SeanBeansMealDeal · 20/04/2024 23:46

TitInATrance · 20/04/2024 22:49

369, the goose drank wine
Where’s me shirt
(monologue) Albert and the Lion

Of all the cool rock artists you could ever think of, Roger Taylor (of Queen) actually recently released a version of The Clapping Song (the 3,6,9 one)!

BlueThursday · 20/04/2024 23:48

Just clocked the title is silly songs and not first songs 🙈
probably Rat Rappin would be on the novelty end

Tarquina · 20/04/2024 23:50

My grandfather used to sing to me On Mother Kelly's Doorstep

RenoDakota · 21/04/2024 01:03

Feeling very nostalgic and warm and fuzzy at all of these.

One of my proudest achievements when young was learning all the words of (The Ladies of the Harem of) The Court of King Caractacus. Just tested myself and can still do it now!

And how the hell did I never know that Richard Stilgoe and Peter Skellern did comedy cabaret together?! Mind blown. Absolutely love them both but only knew of them separately.

What a lovely thread. Thanks, OP.

AdaColeman · 21/04/2024 07:33

When we used to put on our concert for our long suffering grandmother and assorted aunts, my lovely cousin was always top of the bill with her spirited rendition of Abdul Abulbul Amir, the story of Abdul and his dastardly foe Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

Amazingly, the song dates back to 1877 and the Russo-Turkish war, but it was a childhood favourite of ours, invariably getting an encore.

ayvasili · 21/04/2024 07:37

Starbugg · 20/04/2024 18:48

A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.

Mcdonald’s McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.

Omg...my mum used to be a kindergarden teacher in Hong Kong and this was one of the songs she sang to her kids..I just sang it out loud AND did all the accompanying hand movements hahahahaha

Justhereforthechristmasthreads · 21/04/2024 07:43

Agadoo and Superman - Black Lace
The Birdy song

From school:
Five little speckled frogs
Cauliflowers fluffy

MargaretThursday · 21/04/2024 08:04

Jonny's lost his marbles
Drill ye taveners drill
Blaydon races
Derby ram
One Friday morn as we set sail
Musket Pipe and Drum
Low bridge, everybody down
Smugglers' song
Poverty knocks
Football crazy
Bold gendarmes
Come day go day
Ill wind
Marri-ed to a merma-id
Allie Bally
We are the Famous Five
Mountain farm
Blow me over
Pack up your troubles
It's a long way to Tipperary
On a wonderful day like today
Quartermaster's stores
Our Sergeant Major
Coming in on a wing and a prayer
There'll always be an England
The thingabejibbit that makes the engine go
We meet again
Bless 'em all
Kiss me goodnight Sergeant Major
Run rabbit, run
Rabbit aint got no tail at all

scalt · 21/04/2024 08:19

My primary school once did a "Christmas sing-along", with parents invited, and the head teacher pointing at the words on a flip chart with a long stick, all neatly handwritten. (1980s technology, no Powerpoints there!) One song was "She'll be coming 'round the mountain". When it got to the verse "she'll be wearing pink pyjamas", one of the dinner ladies appeared in a pink tracksuit, and was chased by the Head with her stick.

"Here sits a monkey on a chair, chair, chair, she lost all her true loves" (which we children said as "chew loves"), in which people took turns to do some sort of action, but you had to choose one which nobody else had done.

"Can you mend a chair?" said the crow to the frog.
"I can do that," said the nosey dog.
(Actions of mending a chair)
Last verse: "Can you run away?" said the crow to the frog.

The Big Ship Sails on the Ally Ally Oh, with its complicated movements: everyone held hands in a line, and the head of the line would walk through the first "arch" formed by the last two people, and this was repeated, so that everyone ended up with arms crossed.

"Sally go round the sun, Sally go round the moon, Sally go round the chimney pots on a Sunday afternoon." The catch was that the next verse would be Monday, Tuesday, etc. Any child who sang the wrong day was out.

The Muffin Man. Two of us were blindfolded, and everyone would sing "You can't see the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man" etc. One person pointed at by the teacher would then sing in a disguised voice: "I can see the Muffin Man", and the two who couldn't see would guess who it was.

We had a record of Pete Seeger visits Sesame Street, which had songs such as:
Skip to my Lou.
This land is your land.
The garbage song. "What will we do when there's nothing left to watch, nothing left to touch, nothing left to walk upon, nothing left to talk upon, nothing left to see, but garbage".

TroysMammy · 21/04/2024 08:26

The chorus of "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow wow". I just looked it up and it's a Victorian music hall song. As my grandmother was a pianist, she used to play for silent movies (sometimes forgetting to play as she was so engrossed in the film), she must have sung it to me.

SevenSeasOfRhye · 21/04/2024 08:27

BlueThursday · 20/04/2024 23:22

ie before its ban

If there were any local, non BBC stations in reach where you lived, it might have been one of those because in response to the BBC ban, all the independents played it to death!

I wanted a Relax t-shirt but my parents (as usual) wouldn't 'waste money' on it 😁

SevenSeasOfRhye · 21/04/2024 08:30

TroysMammy · 21/04/2024 08:26

The chorus of "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow wow". I just looked it up and it's a Victorian music hall song. As my grandmother was a pianist, she used to play for silent movies (sometimes forgetting to play as she was so engrossed in the film), she must have sung it to me.

One of my grandmothers, also a musician, used to sing that to me. "I've got a little cat, and I'm very fond of that, but I'd rather have a bow-wow-wow". Also 'chick chick chick chicken, lay a little egg for me".

JenniferandJuniper · 21/04/2024 17:29

Waltzing Matilda
All the Frank Ifield yodelling songs
Take me back to the black hills from Calamity Jane. We sent that up as a request to Children's Favourites with Uncle Mac who did the programme. Our names weren't mentioned though
Burl Ives -
Lavender Blue
Big Top Candy Mountain
Ugly bug ball

scalt · 21/04/2024 18:27

I remember the bow-wow song, but I didn't know it meant a dog.

Giggorata · 21/04/2024 22:04

Remembered some more:

the Galloping Major
You are my Honeysuckle, I am the Bee, sung to me by my Dad.
Little Red Monkey

mumpenalty · 21/04/2024 22:16

I love this thread so much. Going to look up a few of these forgotten classics on Spotify tomorrow night with my kids.

I adored The Frog Song aka We all Stand Together. Bom-bom-bom. Also, star trekking across the universe, only going forward as we can’t find reverse. And the spitting image song! The joy of an 80s childhood!

Recently our first and only experience of a European kids mini disco introduced us to some absolute classics - choco-choc-o-late and chu-chua.

FruityPolos · 21/04/2024 22:54

I am an 80s child, grew up in a very working class area. We used to sing this in the playground in infant school:

Maggie Thatcher throw her in the bin
Put the lid on sellotape her in
If she pops out bomp her on the head
Glory glory Maggie Thatcher's dead

SeanBeansMealDeal · 21/04/2024 23:00

mumpenalty · 21/04/2024 22:16

I love this thread so much. Going to look up a few of these forgotten classics on Spotify tomorrow night with my kids.

I adored The Frog Song aka We all Stand Together. Bom-bom-bom. Also, star trekking across the universe, only going forward as we can’t find reverse. And the spitting image song! The joy of an 80s childhood!

Recently our first and only experience of a European kids mini disco introduced us to some absolute classics - choco-choc-o-late and chu-chua.

The Frog Chorus actually got banned!

Frog Song gets banned from 80's radio

Frog Song gets banned from 80's radio.Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse - Smashy and Nicy end of an area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pTTyGQbWns

Warmhandscoldheart · 21/04/2024 23:12

We're all going to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow

3 wheels on my wagon and I'm still rolling along

Happy memories

chocolateisavegetable · 21/04/2024 23:22

Dr Who song
Kissing with confidence

ToWhitToWhoo · 22/04/2024 01:24

Warmhandscoldheart · 21/04/2024 23:12

We're all going to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow

3 wheels on my wagon and I'm still rolling along

Happy memories

My friend and I used to sing the zoo one as 'We're all going to the loo tomorrow' - as little kids, we thought that was the height of wit,