The yoof of today...

Oh the memories!

I remember most of these and:

20 tiny fingers, 20 tiny toes
2 angel faces, each with a turned up nose
One looks like mommy with a cute little curl on the top
And the other one's go a big bald spot exactly like his pop

So many more spring to mind

Once you start with Flanders and Swann you can't stop. If you aren't English maybe you shouldn't listen. And it is definitely not PC.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdY1Y5XNJBY

I'm with whitewave I have no idea!!

Anyone remember this one (sung by my naughty uncle to us, so perhaps he made it up himself)

The Corporation muck cart was full up to the brim,
The Corporation driver fell in and could not swim.
He sank right to the bottom, just like a little stone,
And you could hear him whistling, "There's no place like home"

The other he sang, I know existed in other families:

You can't put your muck in our dustbin, our dustbin, our dustbin,
You can't put your muck in our dustbin, our dustbin's full.
There's rats in, there' s cats in't, there's me faitiher's auld spats in't
So ye can't put your muck in our dustbin, our dustbin's full.

My dad always told that one to my DSs MissAdventure they loved it. Stanley Holloway did it as a monologue.

Mud, Mud was one of the songs of Flanders and Swann, who also did Have some Madeira, and The Gasman cometh. and One about London Buses.
We don't ask much for wages. We only want fare shares.
So pull down all the stages and put up all the fares.
If tickets cost a pound a piece why should you make a fuss?
It's worth it just to ride inside a 20foot long by 10 foot wide
London Transport, scarlet coated,Diesel engined, 97 horsepower, omnibus
For a great laugh-(but maybe not if you are having work done on your house)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyeMFSzPgGc

I loved Pip's song: I dink I saw a puddy cat a cweeping up on me. I say I SAW A PUDDY CAT A CWEEPING UP ON ME

How about the little boy called Albert, who was taken to the zoo, and eaten by a lion? And mother was 'vexed'?
He had a stick with a horses head handle. Albert, that is; not the lion!

We called her dear Liza, dear Liza, but I cannot remember the name of the brother whose bucket had the hole!
Was he Willie? or am I mixing him up with Old Father William?

Flanders and Swann were great for these types of songs, funny, a little bit risqué and wonderful for singalongs.

Have some lovely memories of (almost) speeding along, with my mum driving her bright yellow escort, and my daughter in the back, with the three of us singing "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly".
Happy days, they were.

JanaNan,

You can push your OTHER granny off a bus
You can push your OTHER granny off a bus
You can push your Other granny
For she's your Daddy's mammy
You can push your OTHER granny off a bus!

"There was a mouse there,where ? there on the stair where on the stair right there,a little mouse with clogs on well I dispair going clip clackerty clop on the stair.
My Grandfather taught me all the old songs when he looked after me when mum worked the best was "Why does everybody call me bighead" wonderful memories all being passed down to DGCs.

When very young I heard "Hang down your head Tom Dooley". It made me very sad even though I didn't understand it. I also remember "Nelly the Elephant" which I loved.

Another song remembered from my Scottish granny,s side of the family. You Cannae push you granny of a bus.....for she,s your mammy,s mammy....oh you Cannae push your granny of a bus. Can,t remember all the words to this but some of our uncles used to sing this to us. Lots more verses and choruses but I only remember the first bit now and the tune.

Going back to my childhood there used to be a programme on the radio on a Saturday morning called Children's Favourites.....later known as Junior Choice I believe. This consisted of requests sent in by children and if you were lucky yours was played. The songs were all especially made for children ...such as Nellie the Elephant......How much is that Doggie in the Window......I,m a pink Toothbrush. All these types of songs were made with children in mind, unlike the songs of today which are often for much older people. Nowadays you only seem to get children's songs at nursery or playgroup. We use to love this radio programme as my sister and I were forever writing in for a request and used to listen in every week in the hope it would get played. Needless to say we knew all these songs off by heart as we only had a radio in our house which seemed to be permanently on. Think children were still allowed to be children back then, and not rushed into being mini adults before their time.

Lots of the songs of that era are in a piano book called Apuskiduski which I played and sang with my children (and now my GC) when they were little.

Mud mud glorious mud, and the woman who swallowed a fly - love them!

You can't put your muck in my dustbin
Fish and chips and vinegar
One bottle top, two bottle top,
Molly Malone
Sing even now

I remember lots of these songs, especially the ones that used to be on children's favorites like I'm a pink toothbrush. I loved Sparky and the magic piano.
As for the hippopotomas song, someone performed it at a recent concert and the under 50s were amazed when all us oldies joined in with the chorus: Mud, mud, glorious mud!
My father used to sing Sammy was a sailor to us as children - does anyone remember that? I know all the words.
My GC like it when I sing There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, or The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea....

Old Mother Hubbaby
Come to bed and cuddle me.
Cock yer leg all over me
And call me Sugar Baby.

More of a rhyme really. Taught to me by my Granny.

And then there was skipping/ball bouncing songs.

One, two, three canary,
I saw sister Mary,
With a soldier in the dairy.
One, two, three canary.

Innocent little bundles we were.

Right said Fred, both of us together, one each end and steady as you go. Piano shifters song.
I'm a pink toothbrush you're a blue toothbrush.
Albert's been eaten by a lion.
Sparky's magic piano.
Girl guide songs sung in rounds.
Love to come out with old favourites and watch GD's faces, they think I am batty.

I was singing "Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken lay a little egg for me" to DGD the other day and was very glad to hear that it is sung to the children in the nursery DD works in when they collect the eggs! And I too can remember Paddy McGinty's Goat and Delaney's Donkey. And Mud, mud glorious mud - another good one for an outdoor nursery!

Right Said Fred was the one about the piano.

When my boys were in Scouts (we found a local American Cub Scout group) we had a sort of gang show one day and the Americans just loved it! I played the song with a cassette recorder, dressed up in dungarees and acted it all out for them! (Quite exhausting!)

There was a song about unicorns, explaining why there aren't any - because they were messing around and didn't board the ark. "Green alligators, and long neck geese. Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees"

One, two, three.
Mother caught a flea.
She put it in the teapot
And made a cup of tea.
The flea jumped out.
Mother gave a shout
And Father came a-running
With his shirt hanging out.