Here are two more examples:

1)  The Ballad of the Sad Young Men (written by Tommy Wolf and Fran
Landesman) has these opening lines:  "Sing a song of sad young men/ Glasses
full of rye... (as sung by Rickie Lee JOnes on 'Pop Pop'), which I find a
very clever remake of "Sing a song of sixpence/ A pocket full of rye..."

2) I Wanna Count the Sheep 'Til the Cows Come HOme:  "LIke little Bo Peep, I
wanna count the sheep til the cows come home" (as I remember the lyric from
an old Eddie Lang & Joe Venuti recording)

As to why lyricists incorporate children's/nursery rhymes and lore, I agree
with the points made by Thor. I would add that this material seems to be
part of formulaic style, ready made chunks that are engraved in our early
memories and remain through our lives thanks to their internal
linguistic/musical properties (rhyme, assonance, alliteration, metrical
patterns, grammatical parallelism, etc.) but also to  their associations
with places, people and events that have marked us. These fragments can be
used as part of a conscious commercial strategy, to "hook" the audience, but
they are also part of  a largely unconscious body of floating phrases that
contribute to our verbal & musical creativity. Bob Dylan, for one, is a good
example of a lyricist who has tapped into these folk resources.

Cheers and keep the examples/comments coming,

Andy


"=?iso-8859-1?Q?Thor_G._Nor=E5s?=" a écrit :

> Thank you indeed Andy.
> My thesis are that one of the reasons for why pop-songs and jingles and
> film music hits so hard into the child population is the close
> connection between the songwriters/composers/arrangers close reminicens
> of own childhood and therefore use phrases (text or musical), maybe not
> to sell into the child community, maybe there is some facinations with
> childlore and childrens way of handling their situation.
> Not only text and tunes are interesting, also the way artists move
> regarding to space time movement rhytm and flow. Are there connections?
> That childrens dance routines are copied in artist's stage performances
> and therefore recognizable in a playground context?
>
> Do anyone have more samples like these Andy Arleo provides?
>
> All the best,
>
> Thor G.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Children's Folklore Mailing List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andy Arleo
> Sent: 16. mars 2003 11:04
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Singing games
>
> This is a fascinating topic. Many popular songs contain allusions to
> nursery
> rhymes:
>
> Ain't Misbehaving:  "Like Jack Horner in a corner/ Don't go nowhere,
> what do I
> care..."
>
> France's Serge Gainsbourg put new words to the traditional handclapping
> game
> "Trois p'tits chats". Charles Trenet also did a take a pastiche of the
> counting-out rhyme "Une poule sur un mur". His version begins "Une vache
> sur un
> mur/Qui rumine du pain dur" instead of "Une poule sur un mur/Qui picote
> du pain
> dur".
>
> There's a line in Dylan's "Po' Boy", on his latest album, Love & Theft,
> which
> refers to hide 'n' seek:  "Man says, "Freddy!" I say, " Freddy or not
> here I
> come". Other lines remind me of nursery rhymes:  "Poor boy, pickin' up
> sticks/Build ya house out of mortar and bricks" or "Poor boy, laying 'em
> straight/ Pickin' up the cherries fallin' off the plate."
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andy
>
> Ewan McVicar a écrit :
>
> > Around 1940 there was a vogue for children's songs done by American
> jazz
> > groups.
> > Trumpeter Roy Eldridge recorded a fine medley titled Schooldays.
> > From memory - I think it was Count Basie's band who recorded One Two
> Three
> > Aleerie with vocal by Jimy Rushing, but the big hit of the time was
> Mairzy
> > Doats and Dozy Doats - by Nat King Cole? There were others.
> > More recently, in Britain there was a 1970s or 80s hit for a ballad
> based
> > on One Two Three Aleerie, and the Dubliners did well with I'll Tell My
> Ma..
> > The Z Cars theme, the Liverpool version of Johnny Johnston took a
> notion,
> > became  very widely known.
> >
> > Ewan
> >
> > Ewan McVicar
> > 84 High Street
> > Linlithgow
> > EH49 7AQ
> > 01506 847935