What songs did you sing at Primary School?

[KurriKurri]

I don't mean playground songs, I mean the sort of thing you'd sing as a class?

This morning I was trying to remember the words to In the Fields in Frost and Snow, and wikkied them here

In the Fields in Frost and Snows,
Watching late and early;
There I keep my Father's Cows,
There I Milk 'em Yearly:
Booing here, Booing there,
Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo,
We defy all Care and Strife,
In a Charming Country-Life.

Obviously a kind of old version of Old Macdonald. I went to school in the 60's we also sang one about a tiger 'prowling round the forest while the nights were dark and wild' and 'Bessie was a Black cat as old as the house'.

And one which went

'The ladybird and the centipede got married,
the ladybird and the centipede they wed,
on their wedding night I've heard it said,
fifty one pairs of slippers were by their bed,
the ladybird and the centipede - something something (forgotten)'

My headmaster was a great pianist and loved music, and we had singing everyday first thing, and entered lots of festivals etc. I loved it.

Does anyone else have any favourites they remember?

Raindrops keep falling on my head was the first song to enter my head upon reading the title.

Can't remember others which is embarrassing as i am only 30!

The singing teacher/piano player (Mr White ) at our school was into Joseph and we sang lots of the songs. My favourites were the finale of Any Dream Will Do and Close Every Door.

My favourite hymn in Assembly was Lord of the Dance.

Puff the magic dragon makes me cry I really think they should have put it in Toystory 3.
There's another song we used to sing, after we had put our chairs on the tables at the end of the day, it began:

Hands together softly so,
Little eyes shut tight...

Can anybody remember the rest?

My favourite was the one about the mouse lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam... because of our thick Lancashire accents (think Jane Horrocks) our pronunciation of the chorus used to drive our head teacher to distraction

"I saw a mouse. Wurr? Thurr on the sturr. Wurr on the sturr? Right thurr... etc."

She used to be jumping up and down enunciating 'where' on the 'stair', right 'there' - to no effect whatsoever.

Hands together, softly so,
Little eyes shut tight;
Father, just before we go,
Hear our prayer tonight.

We are all thy children here,
This is what we pray,
Keep us when the dark is near,
And through every day.

Is this it Emmanana?

(When we said our end of day prayer the teacher would say 'Hands together eyes closed' and we would all mutter 'stick your fingers up your nose' )

Ah KurriKurri Thank you, I can remember the tune, but never the words!

loads of hymns- It was a Catholic school.

The ink is black
where have all the Flowers gone
Bread and fishes
Blowin in the Wind
Sloop John B
Alice the camel
Sosban fach
Lots of other welsh stuff

Anything from "come and praise" - there's even a facebook appreciation page for it !

John Barleycorn accompanied by a cracky folk LP. I have heard the song since but never to quite the same tune.

Many of the above including Charlie is my Darling & What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor and you can miss out My Grandfather's Clock - beautiful tune and lyrics.

CAN'T miss out, sorry...

Okki Tokki Unga was a great song book - there was a series of them, mega evocative of the early 80s primary school.

Ah, the come and praise books!

We only had 5 new shiny books and all the rest were old and battered - everyone used to fight over the new ones!
Loved: colours of day, who put the colours in the rainbow, all the nations ofthe earth, when god made the garden of creation, water of life.

We used to sing water of life with a deliberate glottal stop (the whole school!) 'there's wa-er, wa-er of life' . . .
whole school detention for that!

The new Come and Praise were green and yellow and the old ones were blue.

Am loving the 'wa-er of life'.

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210712759 - Come and praise facebook page !

"At half past 3 we go home for tea" - the greatest song ever!

That's brilliant!

"Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All"..... with individual children shouting out 'Bill Brewer!', 'Jan Stewer!', 'Peter Gurney!', 'Peter Davey!', 'Daniel Widden!', ''Harry Hawk!' in the chorus. :)

Lots of these, too!

Anyone else remember the one which went

Milk bottle tops and paper bags
Iron bedsteads, dirty old rags
Litter on the pavement, rubbish on the street
Is this really (clap clap clap clap)
What we want to see? (clap clap clap clap clap)
No! No! No!

Lord of the dance
The dinosaur chorus
The ink is black
Morning has broken
When a knight won his spurs
He's got the whole world in his pants hands

Lots and lots of hymns from the Veritas Hymnal. We had a singing exam every year and singing anything except a hymn was frowned upon. We each had to stand up at our desks and sing (you could use the hymnal) in front of everyone. The horror of it still haunts me. I remember one girl singing 'Yesterday' and Sister R raising a eyebrow to the point of no return; the girl got a B...

We listened to Singing Together and I remember Quenoro's Pearl, The Erie Canal, Casey Jones and many more. In an earlier class we had a very energetic nun who taught singing and played the piano. I still remember 'My Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown' which was a big hit in 1919, and 'Two Little Maids', probably of the same vintage, and 'Little Mister Baggy Breeches' (from c. 1915)

Plus a lot of songs in Irish and a few in French ('Mademoiselle Angele', 'Brave Marin').

Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh is really good Chil1234. esp. singing the chorus faster and faster as you go through

We did a lot of traditional folk songs, - Sweet lass of Richmond Hill, The Ash Grove, Early One Morning,and the one that goes 'Oh No John, no John, no John no' (not sure if that's the title of it or something else)

Oh and we used to do 'O Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me?' with boys singing the soldiers excuses, and girls singing the other part.

There was one we used to sing, - it had loads of verses, one was
'he sat on her tombstone and laughed 'til he cried, laughed 'til he cried ....
then 'the tombstone rolled over and squish squash he died..'
anyone know that one?, I can't remember any more of it.

Ooooh The Ash Grove, lovely, and Greensleeves.

Was it Oom Plucky Plucky? ('He said that he loved her but oh how he lied, oh how he lied, oh how he lied') Looking back, that was a song about a psychopath if ever there was one.