I’m sure everyone here knows “the” alphabet song - the standard one sung in primary schools and on kids educational programs all over the world.
A few years ago, I was taught another version, which splits the letters up like this:
*A B C
D E F G
H I J K L M (clap clap)
N O P Q
R S T U
V W X Y Z*
The tune is something like a speeded-up and flattened-out “Polly Wolly Doodle”. Its main virtue, outside of North America, is that it makes “Zed” rhyme with “Em”, rather than trying to make it rhyme with “Vee”
Of course it’s impossible to Google, since it has no other lyrics than the letters themselves.
Anyone else know this? Does it have an author, or is it lost in the mists of time?
I received my primary education in both the US and the UK, and I have always known the version you cite (which I recognise just from the description) as “the British version”. The other one is “the American one”. To me, anyway.
In what I know as the British version, we also have “zed” on the end, not “zee”. No idea as to the origin.
The presence of clapping makes me wonder if the tune isn’t Deep in the Heart of Texas (although the clapping in DITHOT comes after the second line, not the third).
The tune I know is in 6/8. I’ve written it below in C major. Notes listed in brackets indicate the first note is two slurred quavers and the second note a single quaver - jaunty, with a very brief pause before the second note of each pair:
[E E] [C C]
[E E] [C C]
[E E] [F E]
D (clap clap)
[D D] [lower B B]
[D D] [B B]
GGF [E D]
C
ETA: “GGF” corresponds to the syllables of “W”: “dou-ble-u”
My students are always dumbfounded when I point out to them that the tune of the American alphabet song is basically the same as the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Then I blow their minds with the Barney song = This Old Man revelation.
My in-laws also taught me a kind of singing game with it, where you alternate “Alphabet Song” verses with singing various nursery rhymes to the same tune (eg, Jack and Jill, Little Miss Muffet, Mary Mary Quite Contrary) until nobody can think of a nursery rhyme to get shoehorned into the tune.
If I am interpreting your post correctly, yes, I know this alphabet song, along with the much more prevalent “elemeno pee” song.
We used to sing it at Girl Scout camp. Units would compete with each other to sing nursery rhymes to the tune of that alphabet song. In between units’ singing nursery rhymes we’d all sing the alphabet song together.
like:
[everyone] abcdefg hIjklm nopq rstu vwxyz
[Tamarack Unit sings Mary Mary Quite Contrary]
[everyone] abcdefg hIjklm nopq rstu vwxyz
[Windjammer Unit sings Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater]
[everyone] abcdefg hIjklm nopq rstu vwxyz
[Robin Hood Unit fails miserably to sing Jack Sprat within the meter/tune of the song and gets eliminated!]
[everyone] abcdefg hIjklm nopq rstu vwxyz
