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Old childhood songs

(32 Posts)
Foxglove77 Wed 03-Jun-26 19:12:04

I came across an article remembering old songs we used to sing as children. Like Soldier, Soldier (will you marry me?) and What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor. I was surprised how many of the words came back to me.
Happy memories, my dear Mum used to sing these to me.

Whingey Wed 03-Jun-26 21:24:48

My bonnie lies over the ocean
My bonnie lies over the sea
My daddy lied over my mummy
And that's why they got little me😀

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 21:17:37

I only lnow a couple of words of fhis song- it was Allira- who remindede of it a while back.
Its a guy singing about hos brother (Silvestre??)
Hes got an arm
What's it like??
Its like a leg!!

Grannybags Wed 03-Jun-26 21:12:12

So many memories here!

Grannynannywanny Wed 03-Jun-26 20:57:34

We had an LP by Mitch Miller and his orchestra with lots of sing a long songs. My dad used to play it on the radiogram on a Saturday morning and sing his way through all the songs. I particularly remember My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean as I could never figure out what it was about. I think I was about 10 before I discovered it wasn’t my body lies over the ocean! 😆

I’ve just found it on YouTube.

youtu.be/gCUGhVXUCSg?si=fMOdl9YvwFWK51vg

Foxglove77 Wed 03-Jun-26 20:56:39

Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly ...

Oreo Wed 03-Jun-26 20:46:18

My Nan taught me all the words of the rhyming song Oranges and Lemons but I hated the ending ( here comes a chopper to chop off your head!)

Oreo Wed 03-Jun-26 20:43:49

Fallingstar

merlotgran

My grandmother used to teach me old music hall songs - most with questionable lyrics. 😂

Ha ha, my old dad knew a few, I think he learned them in the navy during the war, I remember one that was not too bad -
‘There I was standing at the Church
Standing at the Church
Standing at the Church
All at once he left me in the lurch
Oh ‘ow it did upset me
Then he sent me a little note
Here’s the little note
This is what he wrote
Can’t get away to marry you today
My wife won’t let me’

My Dad used to sing some really old songs, he must have heard from really old relatives.
One of the ruins that Cromwell knocked abaht a bit.
Come round any old time, make yerself at ‘ome.
Only a bird in a gilded cage.
Come into the garden Maude.
All music hall songs but probably from Victorian times?

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 20:43:27

Little boxes, little boxes, amd fheyre all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same...

watermeadow Wed 03-Jun-26 20:37:31

In primary school we sang dozens of songs from ‘The National Songbook” and also did country dancing. I wonder if children today have any fun at all at school?

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 20:30:42

A mouse lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam.
A windmill with mice in is hardly surprising...

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 20:26:56

Will you miss me tonight, when I'm gone
(Boom, ahh! Ya ta ta taa!)

Morcambe and Wise.

Hang on, you're booming and ya-ing, when you should be ya ta ta yaaing... grin

lixy Wed 03-Jun-26 20:25:13

‘There’s a hole in my bucket’ was one of our favourites on a long car journey

My grandparents used to take me to their Darby and Joan club on a Friday afternoon sometime. There was always a singalong session - In Dublin’s Fair City and the one about the windmill with a mouse wearing clogs were regular features.

I loved Danny Kaye’s Ugly Duckling too grannywannynanny and the one about the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud.

Fallingstar Wed 03-Jun-26 20:18:29

This was always a favourite round the piano with my uncle Vinny playing -
‘Daisy, Daisy
Give me your answer do
I’m half crazy
All for the love of you
It won’t be a stylish marriage
I can’t afford a carriage
But you’ll look sweet
Upon the seat
Of a bicycle made for two.

Singing on coach or car journeys I remember ‘ten green bottles’ and ‘one man went to mow’ being sung.

Nannee49 Wed 03-Jun-26 20:05:50

Westering home with a song in the air...

Early one morning just as the sun was rising I heard a maiden sing in the valley below....

What care I for my goose feather bed
My blankets strewn so comely -o
Tonight l lie in a wide open field
In the arms of my raggle taggle gypsy-o...

Mollygo Wed 03-Jun-26 20:04:18

MissAdventure

Don't jump off the roof dad!
Youll make a hole in the yard.
Mother's just planted petunias- the weeding and seeding was hard...

If you must end it all, dad
Why don’t you give us a break
Just take a walk in the park, dad and throw yourself into the lake!

In yonder pet shop sits a vulture
What it cost, I do not know
Should I swap it for my ferret?
Should I let my ferret go?
Oh no John, noJhn, no!

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 19:48:40

Don't jump off the roof dad!
Youll make a hole in the yard.
Mother's just planted petunias- the weeding and seeding was hard...

sandelf Wed 03-Jun-26 19:47:17

I wish community singing was popular now - I like to sing, but not as a show.

Marmin Wed 03-Jun-26 19:45:25

I am still word perfect on 'When father papered the parlour' thanks to my grandad singing it almost daily.

Mollygo Wed 03-Jun-26 19:43:47

Fallingstar I remember that one too!

Grannynannywanny Wed 03-Jun-26 19:43:25

My favourite as a small child was listening to Danny Kaye singing Ugly Duckling on the wireless in the 1950’s.
youtu.be/nDZOJVR8e6M?si=pNS3AywSNlgUllqG

BoggledMind Wed 03-Jun-26 19:42:41

This has brought some memories back.

As very young children, most likely pre school, we sang things like Teddy Bears' Picnic and Me And My Teddy Bear - just the chorus from what I now know is a Rosemary Clooney song.

Fallingstar Wed 03-Jun-26 19:42:11

merlotgran

My grandmother used to teach me old music hall songs - most with questionable lyrics. 😂

Ha ha, my old dad knew a few, I think he learned them in the navy during the war, I remember one that was not too bad -
‘There I was standing at the Church
Standing at the Church
Standing at the Church
All at once he left me in the lurch
Oh ‘ow it did upset me
Then he sent me a little note
Here’s the little note
This is what he wrote
Can’t get away to marry you today
My wife won’t let me’

Foxglove77 Wed 03-Jun-26 19:41:05

Miss Adventure I was singing that as I read! Was the missing bit "cats and rats and elephants..."?

merlotgran Wed 03-Jun-26 19:36:13

My grandmother used to teach me old music hall songs - most with questionable lyrics. 😂

MissAdventure Wed 03-Jun-26 19:33:21

Some green alligators, some long necked geese, some humpty back camels amd some chimpanzees... blah blah di blah do something, but oh so forlorn, i just couldn't see no unicorns...