Miss Lucy was a dancer . . .
Susie was the one with the sailboat.
I’m curious about the tune this is sung to. The Wikipedia article doesn’t seem to say much about it.
Is the tune as old as the rhyme?
Isn’t it “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”? That’s what Wiki says.
Based on the title, I was thinking:
Strut Miss Lucy, strut Miss Lucy,
Strut Miss Lucy all the way home.
Which is actually the second verse of "This Way Valerie".
Like others said, I knew the song in the OP as “Miss Susie”.
Definitely “Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”
There’s a song we used to hear (and sing) at Ren Faires which was the same basic concept.
“There was a young sailor who looked through the glass
Spied a fair mermaid with scales on her
Island…”
My sister’s version, back in the early '60s, was almost the same:
Two Irishmen, two Irishmen were digging in a ditch,
One called the other one a dirty son of a
Beaver, beaver, sitting on a rock,
Along came a bumble bee and stung him on his
Cocktail, ginger ale, five cents a glass,
If you don’t believe me, you can kiss my royal
Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies,
If you came here [never did catch this bit] then you can close your eyes.
It’s also similar to “Chinese Breakdown.”
If anyone’s an expert, it should be Elmer J. Fudd. 
My father used to sing this one (which turns out to be a Dinah Shore song, of all things):
There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a lecture
On horses and chickens and eggs
And told her that she had such beautiful
Manners that suited a girl of her charms
A girl that he wanted to take in his
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They could get married and raise lots of
Sweet violets
Sweeter than the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets
The girl told the farmer that he’d better stop
And she call her father and he called a
Taxi and got there before very long
‘Cause some one was doin’ his little girl
Right for a change and so that’s why he said
If you marry her son, you’re better off single
'Cause it’s always been my belief
Marriage will bring a man nothing but
Sweet Violets
Sweeter than the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets
The farmer decided he wed anyway
And started in planning for his wedding
Suit which he purchased for only one buck
But then he found out he was just out of
Money and so he got left in the lurch
A standin’ and waitin’ in front of the
End of the story which just goes to show
All a girl wants from a man is his
Sweet Violets
Sweeter than the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets
Sweet Violets
Then we’d get “There Were Three Jolly Fishermen” (“Amster, Amster, dam dam dam!”).
No tune, BTW – she just recited it as if it were a poem.
I thought “cut across Shorty” was what Miss Lucy said.
That’s just sad.
These are all better than the one that I know:
Hello everybody, this is Harry Cemetery
If you’re good you’ll go to heaven,
if you’re bad you’ll go to
repeat ad nauseam
My dad sang this one too! – I only dimly remember the second verse, though, and I don’t think I ever heard the third verse. I had no idea of the Dinah Shore connection and always kind of wondered where he got it.
My wife had a…slightly racier version, sung to the same tune, that began
“It’s springtime, it’s springtime, it’s springtime of yore
I met a young lady who looked like a
Beautiful lady asleep in the grass
And when she rolled over she showed us her
Ruffles and tuffles and even her tuck
And said that she’d show us a new way to…”
And so on.
Great minds run in the same gutter I guess.
Nice!
I didn’t know this Miss Lucy song growing up, but I did learn it from my wife later in life. She definitely sang it as Miss Lucy. I knew a different Miss Lucy song, from a period in the protagonist’s life when she had a baby which she named Tiny Tim (and put him in water to see if he could swim, bad parenting). An interesting life, all things considered.
My kids learned all or some of your Miss Lucy song when they were fairly young, along with the handclapping (which they didn’t do very well but had fun anyway). I got a real kick out of listening to them sing the ending, which invariably came out
“The boys and girls are kissing in the D-R-A-K, D-R-A-K, D-R-A-K dark!”
Oh wlel. Waht you gonna do?
No Lucy nor Suzie for me. The Boy Scouts in Putnam County, NY, had Bang Bang Rosie.
Mine definitely had a tune, from the mid-50s.
I always heard it as
“Ask me a question, I’ll give you some advice
If someone throws a bucket of sh*t, be sure and close your eyes”
And then there is this SFW but in line with this thread gem
The Assumption Song