The coffee in the Army, they say it’s mighty fine
It’s good for cuts and bruises and it tastes like iodine
Chorus:
Oh I don’t want no more of Army life.. gee Mom I wanna go home
The only two songs I can remember having to sing were The Star Spangled Banner in some elementary grades right after the Pledge of Allegiance, and in Junior High, I had a teacher who made us sing the school fight song. Hail, Blue and White, if you’re wondering.
Christmas songs!
I just watched a random YouTube video on how they are trying to eliminate the elominapee from the alphabet song. This is an outrage.
Mid-late 60’s
Barnacle Bill
Uba Scuba Bubble Gum
Winnie the Pooh song (the original )
“(You’ve Got to Have) Friends”
“Together Wherever We Go” (from Gypsy)
“I Got Rhythm”
Did that one go like this:
Goodbye, Old Paint, I’m a leaving Cheyenne
Goodbye, Old Paint, I’m a leaving Cheyenne
I’m a leavin Cheyenne, I’m for Montan’
Goodbye, Old Paint, I’m a leaving Cheyenne
Oh, Hawkeye and BJ,
They think they’re really smart.
I’d like to take a scalpel
And stab them in the heart. (Gee, this is fun!)
— Frank Burns
60’s elementary school.
I remember B-I-N-G-O, but the one I still know quite a few lyrics to is:
The stars at night are big and bright (clap clap clap clap) deep in the heart of TEXAS !!
Not the version I learned in college, I’m guessing.
In grade school (middle 70s) we all had to get recorders. We’d go out back of the school where they had a little area for such thing and play songs. The ones I remember were:
Black and White
Both Sides Now
One Tin Soldier
Downtown
I liked the songs so I didn’t mind, but we were all pretty terrible on recorder.
So did we! And I still remember it, melody and all, 64 years later.
Towson1 Elementary2, we love you,
Silver and blue3, fly long and true.
Towson Elementary, you are the best.
No school can beat you, east or west.
Watching the children go,
Praising the the school they know.
True friends they’ll always be,
And loyal constantly.
… 4
Carry our banner high,
Our colors satisfy.
Students will say aloud,
“Of you we’re proud!”
Notes:
- Maryland. Suburb of Baltimore.
- The building is now a senior center.
- School colors.
- I think there may have been another verse here that I don’t remember.
When I was a wee child, we had to say The Lord’s Prayer every morning in school. But in Grade 3, we had a cool teacher with long hair like Crystal Gayle; she would play the guitar as we sang the pop rock version of The Lord’s Prayer made famous by Sister Janet Mead.
In addition to the recorder, we had to learn to be terrible on the ukulele which we could accompany with our mediocre singing. Songs I remember:
One Tin Soldier – The Original Caste
Queen of Hearts – Juice Newton
Fly, Little White Dove, Fly – The Bells
Down on the Corner – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Elementary school, late 70s:
“Like a Rhinestone Cowboy”
“Seasons in the Sun”
“Ben”
“Don’t Fence me In”
“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza”
( [spoiler] “With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza?” …with wood, which needs to be cut with an ax, which needs to be sharpened on a whetstone, which needs to be wet down with a bucket of water, which has a hole in it, dear Liza, dear Liza )
This was probably in kindergarten, so not quite elementary school as requested by the OP.
And even at that young age, I knew something was odd. It’s a song about farm life a century ago,and none us understood any of those images.
Where in Salt Lake City, if you don’t mind saying?
I grew up in Salt Lake, near the U (University of Utah) and while outsiders may see Salt Lake as a homogeneous culture, different parts were a little different, although it was much more Mormon then than it is now.
I don’t remember many of the songs. I’m a terrible singer and I didn’t particularly get much out of them.
We had Christmas programs, so things like Little Drummer, Oh Christmas Tree (in both English and German), the Twelve Days of Christmas, Silent Night, etc.
Nope. Like this:
I ride an old paint, I lead an old Dan
I’m going to Montana to throw the hoolihan,
I’ll feed 'em in the coulees, water in the draw
Tails are all matted, their backs are all raw.
And for some reason, I just remembered the song The Deacon Went Down to the Cellar to Pray (it looks like the title is Ain’t Gonna Grieve My Lord No More) and checking the lyrics our very Mormon teacher changed the lyrics from “and found a jug” to “and fell asleep”.
I remember very few in particular. “Camptown Races” is one I remember. “I’se the B’y,” a traditional Newfoundland song, is another. We also learned “O Canada” in French. Other than that, it was the usual Christmas carols in December, among other songs that I cannot remember. Weird, because I know so much traditional/folk music nowadays. I must have learned it somewhere.
Thinking of folk music, one year, we had a teacher who loved the stuff. So we spent a lot of time doing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs, Pete Seeger songs, Kingston Trio songs, and so on. But always by commercial artists. How I learned the traditional/folk songs that I know now, I have no idea. It sure wasn’t at school.
We had a radio program here in the UK called Singing Together.. which was
broadcast by the BBC weekly so that all schools could participate.
I don’t remember much about it - the only songs I remember were :-
- Linstead Market
- The Kookaburra Gum Tree song
- The Happy Wanderer
There were many more.