Thursday Thirteen

Today I offer you up 13 songs from childhood.

1. Senor Don Gato. We sang this song in elementary school. You can see a youtube vido of it here. The words are included.

2.  Goodbye, Ol' Paint, I'm leavin' Cheyenne. I couldn't find a video of this song, but found some words similiar to what I recall here. I still say this to my husband. I say, "Goodbye, Ol' Paint," sometimes when I am leaving. It has perplexed him for nearly 30 years. "Why do you call me Ol' Paint?" he says.

3. The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I know I did not make this up but I cannot find it online anywhere. It went like this:
This is the story of the three billy goats Gruff,
and the giant who owned a bridge.
One was named Taffy, the other called Creampuff,
and the tiniest goat was called Midge.

4. Lavendar Blue. I think, but am not sure, that this was on the soundtrack to a Disney record, possibly called So Dear to My Heart. My brother loved this song for some reason, if I am remembering correctly. Here's a youtube video of it.

5. The Big Rock Candy Mountain. This is actually a song about drinking and being a hobo, but I learned it as a child. Here are the lyrics.* This is not the same version as you hear on O Brother Where Art Thou.

6. 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Okay, so apparently I learned a lot about alcohol when I was small. But I have been singing this for as long as I can recall. 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall. 98 bottles of beer on the wall . . . all the way to "no more bottles of beer on the wall." And yes, I have sang it to the end.

7. I've been Working on the Railroad! All the live-long day. Here's a rather interesting kid's video of this song.

8. She'll be comin' round the mountain . . . when she comes! (when she comes). One of the verses says "and we'll all have figgy pudding when she comes" and I never did know what that meant. At least that is what I thought it said. Anyway, here's a video, though I can't say I've ever actually heard it sung this way before. It doesn't have the figgy pudding line, though.

9. Daisy, Daisy, or A Bicycle Built For Two. My grandmother used to sing this song to us to shush us when we were crying or needed a nap or something. I can still see her rocking my brother and singing it to him to put him to sleep. Here's a Nat King Cole version of the song.

10. Down in the valley. The valley so low. I loved this song, still play it sometimes on my guitar. It's rather melancholy, though. Here's a version from the Andy Griffith show. Hear the wind blow, dear.

11. Froggie Went a Courtin'. Here's a funny version from Tom and Jerry (remember that cartoon?). And here's a Burl Ives version.


12. Jimmie Crack Corn. I always thought this song was about moonshine for some reason. Back to that alcoholic drinking theme, I guess. Here's Bugs Bunny singing it.

13. On Top of Old Smokey. This song was mutilated many times to have something more to do with spaghetti than losing a love. Even so, it's worth a mention. The only video I could find of it was of Hank Williams and I just didn't want to link to that. But here are the words to the mutilated version, as I recall them:

On top of ol' sghetti, all covered with cheese!
I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed!
It rolled off the table, and onto the floor,
and then my poor meatball, rolled on out the door.
It went down the sidewalk, and under a bush
and now my poor meatball, is nothing but mush.

Have a Happy Thursday!


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 268th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

*Corrected, thanks Alice!