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?

lemonmousse- how could I have forgotten The Volga Boat Song?

I loved that one... can still remember it all actually...

Sorry... it's Stenka Razin, not volga boat song...

Chateau ah yes - Stenka Razin - cue much schoolgirl giggling about 'Stinky Raisin'
He threw his bride into the Volga if I remember? Or did she throw herself in?

And, we also used to sing "What shall we do with the drunken sailor". Do they still sing this?

Yes - but now also "What shall we do with the grumpy teacher" (thanks to the un-grumpy music teacher).

Kurri, the 'tombstone' one is 'Under the lilacs' ...here you go

She sat under the lilacs and played her guitar

Played her guitar, played her guitar

She sat under the lilacs and played her guitar

Played her guita-ha-ha-ha

He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar

Smoked his cigar, smoked his cigar

He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar

Smoked his ciga-ha-ha-ha

He said that he loved her, but oh, how he lied...

She said she believed him, but oh, how she sighed...

They were to be married, but somehow she died...

He went to her funeral but just for the ride...

He sat on her tombstone and laughed till he cried...

The tombstone fell on him and squish-squash, he died...

The parson was passing and popped him inside...

She went to heaven and flip-flap she flied...

He went to t'other place and frizzled and fried...

The devils they ate him with pitchforks and knives...

The moral of this story is don't tell a lie

Don't tell a lie, don't tell a lie, don't tell a lie

The moral of this story is don't tell a lie

Don't tell a li-hi-hi-hie

Oh thank you Grimma, I knew it had loads of verses, typically I only remembered the particularly grisly one

Oh, did anyone else sing Moscow Woods btw?

We were singing at my choir this week, and I'm sure I knew it from childhood.
This was the only recorded version I could find, but it's lovely, especially with a bit of harmonising added.

Our teacher was a bit of a hippy so we sang lots of folk songs and the like along to her strumming the guitar.. as well as songs like Aiken Drum, Alexander's Ragtime Band, My Old Man, Michael Finnigan and various Irish trad songs etc.

Bizarro!

ChateauRouge - I think if the song we had in mind were Irish, it would have turned up on Google without too much trouble. I do know some of those Irish songs with similar choruses, and it's definitely not one of them. No, I'm going with Czech for the time being :)

"But the phrase 'Tirra Lirra' is actually from 'The Lady of Shallot" by Tennyson, so I'm wondering if it's a song about the Lady of Shallot, considering a castle is also mentioned? " - An alternative explanation is that I forgot the nonsense syllables which were in the song from Singing Together, and substituted ones which were floating around in my head, my brain having subliminally made the connection with castles!

LongWayRound - I found this book by googling and the bottom tune on the song list is 'Will You Come To My castle' - so I'm wondering if this is the song I remember can find the words to it though.
Next time I'm near a music shop I'll try to find the book (and look at the song without buying it )

The Bare Necessities

WhatsWrongWithYou - The original is German (Austrian, according to one recording on youtube), and if you look for "Horch was kommt von draussen rein" on youtube you'll find lots of recordings.

Thank you KurriKurri! I'm nowhere near a music shop myself, so please let me know when you've found the book, this is starting to bother me. It would be nice to know whether my memory has been playing tricks on me all these years.

We had to sing You'll Never Walk Alone every morning in assembly because our headmaster was a massive Liverpool FC fan

We also sang The Streets of London which I loved but also made me a bit sad.

Another one I loved was:

Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Don't worry if you're not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song

Oh, and This Little Light of Mine, another favourite!

MNHQ have asked me to let you know that this thread is being moved so it doesn't get lost. I think it will either be in Primary Education or Other Stuff.

thanks for all your great posts

Polly Wolly Doodle. Somehow the title of that just came to me a second ago. Can't remember any more about it but the name stuck with me!

Great thread just found this!

Galena the Little Boxes I remember from my parents. Nina and Frederick were the musicians. A real sixties protest song about uniformity and urbanisation. Even as a child it brought up questions for me but we used to sing it in the car on long journeys.

Going to think of more songs now.

The whole school sang this as Grace before lunch:

Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you God for everything

Blimey, projected me back 40 years! Singing together!

Does anyone remember the round:
'At last unto the mountains I'm returning, I'm returning,
Oh mountains of my childhood I'm returning to thee...'

OR:
'My love I praise the red rose,
because its scent is far sweeter
Than the pale rose that strews its dusty petals underneath your feet..'

OR:
'Andulko quickly come down, my dear
Before it's too late
All your fine geese have escaped, I fear
They've run through the gate...'

OR:
'Up to the meadow lands we go., Walking in the sunlight, walking in the sunlight,
Up to the meadow lands we go
Where the waving fields of barley grow HEY
Streamlets are rushing by,
Down from the mountains high,
Singing they on onward go,
Swiftly their waters flow..'

OR
'Swiftly (?) a mountain horn now I hear, sounding afar and echoing near
Day now is ending, all creatures wending homewards from far and near'

And how did that gypsy one go?
'And the forest is our shelter,
And the green leaves are our tent...'

Finally, I recall assembly with
'All round the world, the children sing their song
From East and west their voices sweetly sing..'

'Hills of the north rejoice,
River and mountain spring
Hark to the advent (?) voice
Valley and lowland sing
Though absent long, your Lord is nigh,
His judgement brings and viiiiictory'.

God!

Does anyone remember the song after the ball was over Katie took out her glass eye, put her false teeth in a jam jar, hung out her wig to dry! I cannot remember the rest of the song, but sang it to my granddaughter today & she commented on what horrible songs you sang nana when you were a child

I remember this song I sang in 1995, when I was 7, in Year 3, in the lower juniors, at my primary school, called 'Hand in Hand'. These were the lyrics I can remember:

Hand in hand (I think it was 'means all together')
With our friends in every land
If you want to ask us whether

I remember it ended with the line (sang twice) 'peace on earth and our world is our goal'

Does anyone remember this song, and what the other lyrics were?