# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/41 "2011-07-20T16:35:01Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > 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) . . . which generations of Clevelanders know as Captain Penny’s “Pooch Parade” theme. ---
**Author:** ![Sarge6thCav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Sarge6thCav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarge6thCav)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/42 "2011-07-20T16:44:41Z")
ours is “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”. It hurries everyone up because if you listen to it too long you will blow your brains out, ha. I am convinced the driver is deaf. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/43 "2011-07-20T16:56:44Z")
Have you ever noticed that _Turkey in the Straw_ is nearly identical to _Do Your Ears Hang Low?_, at least in the first few bars? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/44 "2011-07-20T19:30:56Z")
> [@K364](#): > > Here they play “Music Box Dancer”. Ha! Thank you! Never knew the name of the tune, but it’s the one that the trucks here in Cape Town used. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/45 "2011-07-20T20:25:52Z")
Usually one of the above-mentioned tunes around here (suburb of Denver). But in my head I hear my 10 year old singing: (tune of Iron Man) _I am Ice Cream Man Running People over in my ice cream van Kids all run in fear Running children o-over in 4th gear…_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/46 "2011-07-20T21:05:18Z")
**Inigo** , go ahead and tell your son that he wins. At whatever that was. ---
**Author:** ![Floppy\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@Floppy\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floppy_Joe)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/47 "2011-07-21T01:56:50Z")
> [@Hallucinex](#): > > That’s my guess too. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elsr375TxCA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elsr375TxCA)) Will have to dig out Jekyll again at some point soon, but I think that might have been what was used (it’s certainly creepy enough for it - and I think it’s also one of, if not the, usual ice cream van tune in the UK too) OMFG! Yeah, that is the tune sought after in the linked thread above. Now if I can only find the NAME for it. ---
**Author:** ![Floppy\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@Floppy\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floppy_Joe)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/48 "2011-07-21T02:29:32Z")
> [@DHMO](#): > > I know it’s not original with them, but Firesign Theater used that tune on their album, _[I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-uMzALKgHI)_ > > Listen to the first 15 seconds. Whoop! THIS is the song. Still need a name for it, though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/49 "2011-07-21T04:25:45Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > 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? 🙂 Sorry, no. The tune I described isn’t \*The Whistler and His Dog. \*But it’s about that tempo, maybe a little faster. Seems to be in 6/8. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/50 "2011-07-21T04:27:23Z")
> [@Vihaga](#): > > [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. YES!!! That’s the one I was trying to describe. Now, what’s the name of it? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/51 "2011-07-21T04:31:44Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > . . . which generations of Clevelanders know as Captain Penny’s “Pooch Parade” theme. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a HUGE crush on Captain Penny. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615/52 "2011-07-21T16:23:29Z")
As an aside, this thread is a good illustration of why we have location fields. The OP already knew from his Googling that there were many different ice cream truck tunes used throughout the world, and yet he still expected us to know automatically what he meant by the One True Ice-cream Truck Tune. If he had specified that he was in England, then we’d know he meant “the ice cream truck tune used in England”, and might have been able to find the answer much quicker. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-traditional-ice-cream-van-tune/589615.md?page=2)