[Rudolph] You'll go down in history (like ???)

Cafe Society
21

Pinocchio for the first history reference

George Washington for the second.

Crazy how many different variations there are

22

Well, Pinocchio is wrong, too. It should be “like Dumbo”.

23

Pinocchio has a nice rhythm.

24

I always thought the song stops after the lyrics “You’ll go down in his-to-ry” . End

Whose version are y’all listening to - Gene Autry’s? 'Cause I sure can’t hear any of the backgound singers singing anything. Matter of fact, there aren’t any background singers!

Thanks :slight_smile:

Q

25

Pinocchio and Columbus (mid-70s, central PA)

26

Lincoln!

I’ve grown to dislike this song because of its “lesson”: If you’re an outcast, the other kids will come to like you only if you can do something for THEM. :mad:

27

Heh, no…these are lyrics that WE sing during the song. It’s just something that little kids add to the song when they sing it.

28

I’d never heard of this either, Quasimodem. Now that I have, I’m glad I never came across this before.

29

What a COUNTRY! :smiley: I LOVE it!

I never knew that, jayjay! How very unique, and how very cute!:slight_smile:

Guess I got to the US too late to know all of this…

(Please don’t take offense at the word “cute”, okay?

Thanks

Q

30

No offense taken, Quasi! I still do it, especially when my partner is in the car with me, because he looks at me like “This again?”

31

like Attilla the Hun

32

I was just about to post that, as a kid, I always parsed the line in question as “his story” (Santa’s story?), which isn’t technically a Mondegreen, but, anyway, it never made sense to me to discuss a folk tale as being a part of actual history (yes I was very precocious, and deduced that Santa couldn’t exist when I was 6 years old and noticed that there was no land at the North Pole).

33

No, it goes like this:

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a lightbulb)

All of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio)
They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games (like football)

Then one stormy Christmas eve
Santa came to say,
“Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight”

Then all of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Laughed and shouted out with glee (yippee)
“Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!” (like Columbus)

I’m surprised you all don’t know that. Sheesh. :wink:

P.S. Thanks** IvoryTowerDenizen** for typing all that out for me. :slight_smile:

34

I was reading yours, impressed that we used the same punctuation and everything!

Then I saw your PS. :slight_smile:

And I typed it on my iPad.

And you’re wrong, btw. :smiley:

35

In the pilot episode of The Simpsons, Bart says “like Atilla the Hun” (or attempts to, before Homer gets annoyed with him). I’ll take Bart Simpson as a trusty authority on the matter.

36

I feel like I’ve lost out on a huge piece of “Young Americana”.

Quasi

37

i always heard the george washington version, and was i the only one to hear the “shouted out with glee(like toothpaste!)” version?

38

Except for the repeated words in these lines:

*Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (reindeer)

And if you ever saw it (saw it)

All of the other reindeer (reindeer)

Then all of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Laughed and shouted out with glee (with glee)*

I’ve never heard the other ad-libs, and I’ve lived in the US all my 41 years. Maybe because I went to parochial school, where it was a struggle to get any non-church songs into the Christmas concert?

39

I’ve never heard “with toothpaste.”

The response was always “yipee!”

40

i always figured glee was some 70s toothpaste cause i mostly heard the toothpaste ad lib growing up in the 80s, but a quick google doesn’t show any toothpaste with that brand name. later on i heard the yipee version.