# That traditional ice cream van tune. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 19, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615 "2011-07-19T19:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/21 "2011-07-19T22:53:21Z")
Ha. The first thing I did after posting was googled “Fur Elise ice cream truck” and found [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxIiDamyCgw). The person who uploaded the video used the exact same word I did. Spooky. I knew I couldn’t be the only one weirded out by that. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/22 "2011-07-19T23:04:45Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > Greensleeves? That’s the standard tune here. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/23 "2011-07-19T23:10:09Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The one I remember goes like this: > > Deedle-dee deedle-dee tum-ta-tum > Ta-dum ta-dum ta-daaaaa-dum _Bohemian Rhapsody_? ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/24 "2011-07-19T23:19:38Z")
> [@I\_Know\_Nothing](#): > > I’ve heard The Entertainer the most. Grew up in Dallas, TX. I know I’ve heard Turkey in the Straw a few times also. > > I once heard one playing Fur Elise. Just plain weird. The tempo was a little slow and slightly out of tune like most ice cream trucks. I don’t think those synthesized bells, of wtf ever those things are, are meant to play in a minor key. Spooky. I remember thinking it was the perfect music for a horror movie scene, right before the psychopath in the bloody clown suit steps out of the truck and hacks to death all the kiddoes. And, what movie was that? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/25 "2011-07-20T01:33:35Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > Greensleeves? Wouldn’t be an ice cream truck if it didn’t play Greensleeves. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/26 "2011-07-20T02:07:56Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The one I remember goes like this: > > Deedle-dee deedle-dee tum-ta-tum > Ta-dum ta-dum ta-daaaaa-dum. > > In the key of C,it would be: > > G A G E D C D C A > C B C D G E C. I got it! I got it! Reading it phonetically I thought “Hey, that’s the tune \*Officer Joe Bolton \*used to whistle at the beginning of the Little Rascals kids TV program in the mid 1950s”. Did a little research and came up with this: [The Whistler and His Dog.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk1n2Df701M) Do I win an ice cream cone? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/27 "2011-07-20T03:14:55Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > The ones around here play “Pop Goes the Weasel” and then they pause, and it says > _ **HELLO???** _ > > In the MOST obnoxious tone ever. I swear, more than anything it’s the ice cream truck that’s going to make me get my shotgun one of these days. AAAAAGH! Yes, this noise is the bane of my existence. I’ve never lived anywhere else with such a high saturation of ice cream trucks, but they are here practically hourly. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/28 "2011-07-20T03:19:31Z")
> [@campp](#): > > The one here plays **Girl With the Strawberry Curl** Might be [The Band Played On,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band_Played_On) a popular 1890’s tune. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/29 "2011-07-20T03:44:41Z")
[This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDXL90KXPHQ) is what ours plays. Some of them play Turkey in the Straw and Pop Goes the Weasel, but the linked one is what I think of as ice cream truck music. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/30 "2011-07-20T07:07:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, we don’t. It’s different in every city, and often multiple songs in the same city. When I was a kid in Cleveland, the most common ones were “The Entertainer” and “Turkey in the Straw”, but those might not have been used where you grew up. In various places around the English midlands and on holiday at various sea-side resorts in far flung parts of the country, I pretty much only heard one tune. Don’t know what it is, though. I was astonished when a youtube search didn’t turn it up and google came up with a lot of different results which weren’t it. **Fourtyfold** , that is the one. “Boys and girls come out to play” would seem to be the title. All other ice cream tunes are heretical. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/31 "2011-07-20T14:03:44Z")
> [@chaoticbear](#): > > AAAAAGH! Yes, this noise is the bane of my existence. I’ve never lived anywhere else with such a high saturation of ice cream trucks, but they are here practically hourly. Consider yourself lucky - I haven’t seen one for years. Ice cream trucks are banned in Des Moines (since 1967). ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/32 "2011-07-20T14:32:55Z")
Our ice cream trucks have disappeared but this year we have homeless people instead. I hope they don’t start playing “Turkey in the Straw,” the quintessential ice cream truck tune. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/33 "2011-07-20T14:50:02Z")
Down here in Oz, back when I were a lad, it were Greensleeves. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/34 "2011-07-20T14:56:23Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > In various places around the English midlands and on holiday at various sea-side resorts in far flung parts of the country, I pretty much only heard one tune. Don’t know what it is, though. I was astonished when a youtube search didn’t turn it up and google came up with a lot of different results which weren’t it. > > **Fourtyfold** , that is the one. “Boys and girls come out to play” would seem to be the title. > > All other ice cream tunes are heretical. I’ve heard that one a lot too, although so out of tune it’s hard to recognise as Boys and Girls Come Out to Play. The other one I hear a lot if Popeye the Sailor Man. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/35 "2011-07-20T14:58:14Z")
_O Sole Mio_ is the most common one around here, a tune also used to advertise a popular brand of ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/36 "2011-07-20T15:02:36Z")
The only ice cream tune I’ve heard enough to think of as “traditional” is the [Mister Softee](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDXL90KXPHQ) jingle. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/37 "2011-07-20T15:14:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > _Bohemian Rhapsody_? Hair on a G String? ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/38 "2011-07-20T15:15:11Z")
It might be a fascinating thing to study the distribution of different tunes in different area. Or, it might not. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/39 "2011-07-20T15:19:50Z")
If 3 of them get together, they might go crazy and play a song about a giant ape … ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/40 "2011-07-20T15:59:49Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > It might be a fascinating thing to study the distribution of different tunes in different area. Or, it might not. then someone might do a mashup of them and have a single song that would annoy the urban dwellers of the world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615.md?page=3)