Wow, was I the only one who first ran into this tune from King’s Quest II (it played during the title screen IIRC) back in the 80’s? Maybe it just took me a long time to finish that one, so when I here that tune, I remember the video game, then the folk song, and then the christmas carol if it happens to be December.
I grew up Catholic and heard WCIT? all the time.
Yet it’s always Greensleeves to me. I even heard it called that in church.
I’m guessing that Flutterby is referring to the fact that most people sing “el-em-en-oh-pee cue-are-ess tee-you-vee doubleyou-eks-wye-and-zee” instead of “el-em-en oh-pee-cue are-ess-tee you-vee-doubleyou-eks-wye-zee”, the latter being closest to the original meter.
IIRC, the complaint was related to the LMNOP. Something about people rushing that part. Been awhile since I read it though, so my memory might be faulty.
Aha! A bit of searching and I turned up this, which is probably what I was thinking of.
I still sing it the way I learned though.
Had I been cleverer, I would have responded to the OP by saying "oh, I always think of that tune as ‘Doxies Without Smoxies’ "
When you sing it around Christmas time there’s supposed to be no L.
In my experience, it’s that they end it with “Zee” instead of “Zed”. 
Oh, and “Greensleeves” for me. “What Child Is This?” is the Christmas carol to the tune of “Greensleeves”.
Greensleeves, although if I don’t hear it in a jazz context I might not recognize it at all. I only know the first four words of What Child is This.
My girl really likes Doubleyew. So much so that her alphabet also has a Doublepee. And sometimes a Doublequeue. It also has about 20 E’s.
“Aye Bee Eee Eee Douplepee…Eee Eee Eee Eee Douplepee…Doublequeue Are Ess…Ess Why Zee…Eee Eee Eee Eee Sing with me!”
Of course, she’s two. 
Yeah, I’m late in replying, but definitely ‘What Child is This’. I’ve never heard Greensleeves in my life and always wondered how it was so popular. It might just be I live in a little pocket of Greensleeves-ignorance, but every reference I’ve seen to it has been from an American. By the time I started spending a lot of time on the net I realized it was a popular song. It really, really bugs me because in one book I read the main character needs to sing a song, but blanks out, so she just hums Greensleeves, but I never knew the tune (the author used it probably because it was so common) so it was awkward to me.
And yes, I do know all the other common childhood songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
This is pretty much my answer as well.
To answer the other question: I think of it as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and I think of the Alphabet Song and Bah Bah Black Sheep as “those other songs sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
In olden times, a prostitute was recognizable by her green sleeves. Greensleeves the ballad is about a love affair involving a nobleman who fell in love with a prostitute who refused to leave her chosen profession to become his alone. The tune, or parts of the tune of Greensleeves the ballad has been borrowed in part or in full by numerous songwriters over the centuries, and can be found in part even in The Star Spangled Banner. What Child Is This is the most famous song to borrow the exact musical score.
Learned it as “WCIT?” in grade school, learned it was “Greensleeves” watching The Six Wives of Henry VIII on PBS when I was 21. Tend to associate the melody with the latter now.
Interesting. I once designed a coat of arms for myself that featured a maunche vert (green sleeve)* in homage to a romance I had had with a woman in green. Only now do I realize just how appropriate that was! :eek:
*Similar to this, but the colors were reversed: http://cunnan.lochac.sca.org/upload/5/50/Fulk_shield_done.jpg
It also had flaunches,
http://scribes.westkingdom.org/Handbook/Heraldry_Flaunch.jpg ,
so it was a flaunched maunche. 
I’ve heard it at a wedding and thought the same thing.
Growing up, I learned it as “What Child Is This?”
I heard it played on a local radio station with the Greensleeves lyrics a couple of weeks ago. “Alas, my love, you do me wrong/To cast me off discourteously…”
And speaking of songs with the same melody, I just realized recently that “The Farmer in the Dell” has the same tune as “A-Hunting We Will Go”. :smack:
O my true love, you have done me dirt;
You have sewn green sleeves on my yellow shirt.
O my true love, you have done me wrong;
You have sewn the sleeves where the neck belongs!
Greensleeves. I was in my 20s before I heard it as “What Child Is This?”
I know it is often sang during Christmas, but I relate it more with courts, royalty, and coronations.
You can do it with Emily Dickinson poems, too.