(Someone should give the obligatory Zombie Thread alert, yes?)
I’m afraid this is one that I can never quite remember the words of either version, so they sort of mash up in my head…
*
What child is this who laid to rest
on Mary’s lap is sleeeeeeeeeping…
Ummm mumble mumble mumble
don’t know the words how can I not know the words?
GREENSLEEVES was all my joy…*
So, perhaps because I never quite get to the Christ bits, I don’t think of this song as a Christmas song.
FWIW, the melodies of “Wabash Cannonball,” “British Grenadiers,” and the US “Marines’ Hymn” are all mutually interchangeable.
Greensleeves. From a historical romance I read when I was 13. It had lyrics and everything, so when I hear the tune, I hear Greensleeves was my only love. My lovely lady Greensleeves.
Flanders and Swann.
Here’s a YouTube (audio only) recording.
Here is the text of the monologue, with scholarly footnotes to explain the many (highly erudite!) jokes.
You can sing “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle” to the tune of “Amazing Grace”. Go ahead. Try it. I dare ya. I double-dog dare ya. 
What Child is this, Who done me wrong
On Greensleeves lap is sleeping?
For I have wooed her well and long
But his head from my frolic is keeping
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight…
Haste! Haste! Now move him off,
That Kid, the son of Greensleeves.
Why lies He on such rustic throne,
Where cock and ass ain’t feeding?
So must I meditate alone
My silent eyes are pleading.
[chorus]
Oh, I’d do anything for her,
If her Kid would but let me prove it
We’d fill the air with such sweet myrrh
If that Brat would but let me choose it!
Greensleeves, that’s all she wrote
Greensleeves, I’ll say good night
Greensleeves, yer Kid won’t budge,
And I’m out of double-entendres!
I just tried, but found I had to write the words out first. How does one stumble onto something like this, anyway??? 
When I worked on the radio, we would sometimes play this song:
I wonder how many tunes "The Cool Green Hills of Earth" has been sung to besides the theme from ***Gilligan's Island ***and "Puff the Magic Dragon"? :dubious:The melody of Chuck Berry’s “The Promised Land” is a rock and roll version of “Wabash Cannonball”.
One more YouTube plug: a recorder quintet playing "Greensleeves to a Ground," a set of variations upon the theme. Remarkable! I’m impressed by the physicality of the bass (?) recorder!
Huh. I always think of it as “What Child Is This,” and was unaware that “Greensleeves” even had words. As a kid, I though “Greensleeves” was just the real name, while “What Child is This” was that thing you often see with hymns when the name of the song is not the beginning of the first verse or chorus.
I since learned they were different pieces. For a while I thought “What Child Is This” had a lower sixth scale on the word who in the opening line, but I’ve since heard too many people sing that F# in A minor instead of an F. And I’ve heard too many jazz versions of Greensleeves to think there’s a specific chord pattern.
And I definitely have mostly heard the minor version, even on stuff specifically marked as “Greensleeves.” (I assume the Dorian version uses a minor five chord throughout.) I think I heard the Dorian version once in some History Channel special.
Greensleeves for me, unless I hear it in December.
It was my ringtone for a while until I missed some calls in December when I was at the store, someone was trying to call me, and I thought it was the store music.
I heard it first as a child as What Child is This, but I probably was 12 or so when I found out it was really Greensleeves, and since then that’s how I think of it.
I’m going to say No they’re not.
“You will find their gates are guarded by…
The Wabash Cannonball”??
Do you mean the metre?
I mean the melodies, not the lyrics. That would be the metre, yes. I can sing any one of the three to any one of the melodies of the others.
The melodies are not the same even though you can sing them interchangeably with each others because they have the same metre and number of lines etc.
I didn’t say they were the same. I said they were interchangeable. There’s a, duh, difference.
I’ve always known its title as Greensleeves and only the lyrics “what child is this . . .”. So, in other words, I always thought they were one and the same. At some point it was explained to me that Henry VIII wrote it, but I think I assumed he wrote the music and someone else(American?) wrote the Christmasy lyrics (but that it is still called Greensleeves).
Born & raised Catholic, and the song is “Greensleeves” to me, and “What Child Is This?” is “that Christmas song sung to the tune of Greensleeves.”
Never heard of the christmas song. I only associate Greensleeves with the Tudors
A lot of songs are interchangeable. I thought you were pointing out something notable.
That’s really neat. Needs a chorus though.
Nimrodel was my Lady fair
Nimrodel was my delight
Who but my Lady Nimrodel