Remember elementary school? Song time, eh? All the kids would sing Old Joe Clark or The Deaf Woman’s Courtship or Hava Nagila, or perhaps Time Of Year around Halloween. Well, there’s a song that’s been lodged in my head for the eons that have elapsed since then.
The only part I can remember is a refrain like ‘Whoopsie-diddle-dee-danzsio!’ (or ‘dandio’). The first word was veritably shouted out but us kids; like ‘WHOOPSIE diddle-dee-DAN-zio’.
Leatherwing Bat comes to mind when I think of that refrain, but the nonsense words and the melody for Leatherwing Bat’s refrain is different.
There was a frog lived in a well,
Whipsee diddledee dandy dee,
There was a mouse lived in a mill,
Whipsee diddledee dandy dee.
This frog he would a-wooing ride,
With sword and buckler by his side.
With a harum scarum diddle dum darum,
Whipsee diddledee dandy dee.
Interesting. My mom sang a similar song to me, but it went like this:
Oh Mr. Frog, a courtin’ he did go.
Oh Mr. Frog, a courtin’ he did go.
Oh Mr. Frog, oh he did ride
With his sword and his pistol at his side.
Oh Mr. Frog a courtin’ he did go.
There were more verses, but that’s the only one I remember.
That song, to my knowledge, is the only children’s song that both Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have recorded (as Froggie Went A Courtin’). You could find more verses on either version, and almost certainly many more by various folksingers.
Wife has a theory (she has a theory for everything) that the nonsense syllables come from Norman French by people who didn’t speak Norman French. I think she has an idea of the original French phrase for this version, but I don’t want to get her started.