I’m not sure this is even a thing any more but in my childhood and years before that, there were songs–usually original lyrics set to the tune of a popular song or a commercial jingle–that kids sang gleefully and often, unless they were around parents or teachers. For instance, long after WWII was over, this was one popular song among kids:
(Sung to “Whistle While You Work”):
Whistle while you work.
Hitler is a jerk.
Mussolini bit his weenie.
Now it doesn’t work.
My mother was no fan of either Hitler or Mussolini, but she forbad that one.
I’m wondering how many such not-in-front-of the grown-ups songs we could collectively recall. I’m also wondering if they varied by region.
As jeez, my hippie parents had honest to god full on hootenannies at my house when I was very young. There is plenty of song I wish they didn’t sing in front of ME.
I have to ask…what part of this sounded Catholic to her? Were you singing it in French? Maybe she thought French=Catholic?
IIRC, the English version went "Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John? Brother John? Morning bells are ringing. Morning bells are ringing. Ding, dong, ding.
That’s one I’ve never heard. It occurs to me there were a number of songs that used the same first-syllable-of-the-bad-word trick.
Like this one, though I can’t recall all the words. Maybe someone else recalls the rest.
I wanna neck! I wanna neck! I wanna
necklace made of pearls! ------(Missing part)------
And when the dam-dam-dam-dam-damage is done,
I wanna have my child
my childish fun
in the good, in the good, in the good ol’ summertime!
There were other verses, too, that I can’t recall.
By the time I began going to school and learning these songs from other children, my mother had me too well trained to ever sing them within her hearing.
While on a two-hour bus ride, our bus full of 6th graders took “99 Bottles…” all the way to zero. The chaperones were probably ready to tear their hair out.
There’s also a “Dennis the Menace” cartoon where they’re in church, and it’s captioned, “Because I knew ‘Yankee Doodle’ better, that’s why.”
For me, it was that “Shaving Cream” song. I was about 10 years old when it was a hit, and yeah, it was a remake. :o
I knew a bunch of silly lyrics and inappropriate children’s songs, but most of them were taught to me by my mother. She loved that stuff, and still makes up wacky or inappropriate lyrics when she’s singing along to songs.
One that I know she taught me:
Oh I won’t go to Macy’s any more more more
There’s a big fat policeman at the door door door
He’ll take you by the collar
And he’ll make you pay a dollar
Oh I won’t go to Macy’s any more more more
I’m pretty sure I remember her singing Jingle Bells, Batman Smells and On Top of Spaghetti.
This is the camp song “I Want A Man”:
I want a man, I want a man
I want a mansion in the sky
I wanna neck, I wanna neck
I wanna necklace from my guy
And when the dam, dam, dam, dam
Damage is done
We’ll have a child, child, child, child
Childish fun
And there was Granny
Swingin’ on the outhouse door
Without her nightie
Swingin’ on the outhouse door
One more time
Swingin’ on the outhouse door
The outhouse door
Oh, yeah
The version I learned had the second line “I want a boy, I want a boy, I want a boysenberry pie”.
THAAAT’S the one. I learned the version without boysenberry pie, but I like the addition.
I had a book that had the lyrics and an illustration of a sleeping boy. Makes sense now that they wouldn’t have wanted to depict a Catholic monk. I was curious about the song as a taunt, so I thought to look it up in a source I’m sure we all agree is far superior to Wikipedia: the SD archives. Sure enough, there’s a whole thread on it. I thought this was particularly interesting:
I had a book that had the lyrics and an illustration of a sleeping boy. Makes sense now that they wouldn’t have wanted to depict a Catholic monk.
I was curious about the song as a taunt, so I thought to look it up in a source I’m sure we all agree is far superior to Wikipedia: the SD archives. Sure enough, there’s a whole thread on it. I learned that the French version translates to “Brother James”; that in the French, it’s a command to ring the bells, not that the bells are ringing; and that it may have been used by Protestants to taunt Catholics. All this in one short song.
In terms of songs we were actually forbidden to sing, I recall only Jingle Bells. The normal version. My mother hated it. Others we presumably didn’t even try to sing around adults.
Oddly, though, I recall an occasion when our class sang Ding Dong in front of our teacher. If you don’t recall it, it went like this:
And so on like that for as many verses as the gathered crowd knew. Our teacher added her own verses with a message about the environment:
Back in my day, there was still some currency to this tune that dated back who knows how long:
If there were more verses, I never found them out. Likewise with this snippet:
I shot her at the door with a loaded .44
And she ain’t my teacher anymore
I do believe that is where I learned what a “.44” was, although that may have been from the “On Top of Old Smokey” song, too. Our version ended I went to her funeral, I spit on her grave/When everyone threw flowers, I threw a grenade.
My parents didn’t police our song lyrics (and they probably didn’t really fully understand them, being Polish immigrants), so anything was fair game to sing.
That continues “there’s a hole in the wall, where the men can see it all,” although in my neighborhood, the opening was “There’s a place in France, where the naked ladies dance.” And I seem to recall there being an “underwear” line, as well.
In the land of Oz
Where the women wear no bras
And the men don’t care
'Cause they wear no underwear
And there’s a big fat genie
With an artificial weenie
So now you know
Why you shouldn’t go…
The version we sang was much milder, but still forbidden by mom:
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler.
I bopped her on the bean
with a rotten tangerine,
and her teeth came marching out.
And this one…
Ta-rah-rah boom-de-ay,
We have no school today.
The teacher passed away.
We threw her in the bay.
The sharks had lunch today.
One that Mom didn’t forbid but didn’t like was a jump rope song. Now that I think about it, the lyrics are pretty dark:
Fudge, fudge, call the judge!
Mama’s gonna have a new baby.
Wrap it up in tissue paper.
Send it down the the elevator.
First floor: kicks!
Second floor kicks!
Etc.
The chaperones were probably ready to tear their hair out.