Hey, I’m 74, and I still remember “Magalena Hagalena” and “Piccolomini”.
This just got me thinking of Fifty Nifty, a song that had all the states names in alphabetical order. And you ended the song by proclaiming your state was the best.
Fifty, nifty United States, from 13 original colonies…
Roman Catholic grade school: We learned Christmas Carols in Latin for Midnight Mass. Songs celebrating Mary for May crowning
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to be one
And I can tell you anyhow
I’d rather see to be one
We also sang the Steelers Polka (seriously):
Da-Da-Da-Da-Ta-Da - Charge!
We’re from the town with that great football team,
We cheer the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Chuck Noll and all his friends are all on the team.
Go out and get them Steelers.
Bradshaw, and Rocky, and Franco and Lynn,
We love you Pittsburgh Steelers.
It’s been many years in coming,
just keep that Steelers machinery humming
Defense, Defense, make them scramble, intercept that ball.
Defense, Defense, keeps the Steelers always best of all!
Mean Joe, Mean Joe, do your thing against the other team,
You start from year to year, we’re so glad you play here,
Now join with me, and sing the Steelers cheer-er-ER!
We’re from the town with that great football team,
We cheer the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Winning’s a habit, not only a dream,
Go out and get them Steelers!
Gerela’s Gorrilas are here for the show,
and so is Franco’s Army,
It’s been many years in coming,
just keep that Steelers machinery humming.
Offense, Offense, take that football whole way up the field!
Offense, Offense, let’s score and score and never ever yield!
Franco, Franco, can you believe we have a running game?
The Steelers are so great, and so hard to overrate,
Good things, will come, to those who work and wait.
Charge!*
1970s, Maryland suburbs:
Kumbaya
50 Nifty United States
a lot of the patriotic songs already mentioned (This Land is Your Land, etc.)
Yellow Submarine
I went to her funeral, I went to her grave
Some people threw flowers; I threw a grenade.
We sang Don Gato, and Sarasponda, and another one about the E-ri-E Canal. Oh, the E-ri-E was a-risin’/And our spirits were getting low… Ends with And I’m the only one 'round here/That’s left to tell the tale.
And another one: Sir Egglamore!
*Sir Egglamore, that valiant knight
Fa la lanky down dilly
He took up his sword and he went for to fight
Fa la lanky down dilly
He traveled over hill and dale, all armored in a coat of mail
Fa lanky down, la lanky down, fa la lanky down dilly *
I was reminded of it when Bud Light started doing those “Dilly dilly!” commercials, but no one I know IRL is familiar with old Sir Egglamore.
My older siblings did that version. My callow classmates and I did not for some reason. Clearly our loss.
Was it this one? It’s the only Halloween song I ever learned:
Halloween the wind is blowing,
spooks and goblins all about.
Halloween, and now we’re going,
time to play the game Shell Out.
Knock, knock, knock,
and then we’ll shout.
Knock, knock, knock,
shell out, shell out!
Halloween, the wind is blowing,
blows my pumpkin lantern out.
“Drunken Sailor” was a staple of elementary school music class.
We used to sing “Bingo” and “Cindy”.
Also, “That Highland Goat”
“Sweetly Sings The Donkey”
“Way Down Yonder In The Cornfield”
“A Boy And A Girl In A Little Canoe”
“The Ants Go Marching” (my fav!)
“The Wheels On the Bus”
“A Sailor Went To Sea-Sea-Sea”
“Every Morning At Half-Past Eight”
“Boil That Cabbage Down, Boys”
“Mama, Don’t Whup Little Buford”
“Low Bridge, Everybody Down”
“Sing Your Way Home”
and the song about Li’l Bunny Foo Foo.
PLUS the first verse of the West Virginia state anthem!
“Scout 'em, shout 'em, tell all about 'em!”
It rolled off the table
And on to the floor
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out the back door
We added a verse: “She had 2, boobies, on her chest. One pointed east and the other pointed west”.
At Scout camp there was to the tune “God Bless America”:
“God bless my underwear, my only pair,
From the washer, to the dryer, to the clothesline, to my rear”.
Another song I dont know all the words but it goes:
“I’ve got 2 pence, 2 pence, 2 pence for my wife”.
“POOR WIFE”!
Here are the lyrics, which basically jibe with how I learned the song in first grade music class. The teacher was of Irish descent, so we also learned “McNamara’s Band” and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”.
My sons choir in middle school did “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”
Thing is that song, like “50 Nifty”, names a bunch of towns and cities along old Route 66 and later on you can trace that route.
Here are some of the lyrics to Route 66:
If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way
Take the highway that’s the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
It winds from Chicago to LA
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Now you go through St. Louis
Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty
You see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don’t forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino
Won’t you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
HOLY SHIT! Did you go to Catholic school too? “Don Gato” was always a request because of the “meow, meow, meow” in each verse. Was this the same song where at some point we think Don Gato is dead, but “such a smell of fish was in the air.” Then a couple lines later, “He came back to life / Don Gatoooooo.”
Much of what I remember has already been mentioned.
In German class, it was
Mein Hut er hast drei Ecken
Drei Ecken hast mein Hut
Und hast er nicht drei Ecken
So ist er nicht mein Hut
We also sang what I think was a German drinking song Du, Du, …
I can’t remember the song enough to type it. I haven’t used German since then.
And you’ll always know your neighbor
You’ll always know your pal
If you’ve ever navigated
On the Erie Canal
Did anyone NOT sing Erie Canal? (Maryland, Indiana, Washington)
Then there were the naughtier songs:
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to school we go
The water tastes like turpentine
The teacher looks like Frankenstein
Hi ho, Hi ho, hi ho
Suffocation
Mental Re…
Suffocation a game we like to play…
Terrible list of ways to kill yourself. I doubt any of us realized how awful it was.
In high school, Q107 radio played this in late August:
Here comes a three day weekend
When we honor the people with jobs
We lie on beaches, suck beer like leeches
And throw up and all act like slobs
We get hungover, have breath like Rover
And call in and take a sick day
So have a great three day weekend
It’s the last one until we hit Columbus Day!
We sang the bucket song, too, and it was never sufficiently explained how one fixes a bucket with a straw. We also sang about mussels and (something) alive alive-o.
I remember Waltzing Matilda from kindergarten but that’s about it.
We also sang a lot in French class, like Au clair de la luna, Din-din c’est la cloche du matin, and of course the Marseillaise.
Cockles and Mussels, an Irish folk song.