You will find the beautiful and poetic “Shaving Cream” and many other camp songs on this page.
One time we were taking a day trip into a town near the campsite and the driver got lost. So while he was driving around trying to figure out where we were, everybody on the bus amused themselves by singing *The Song That Doesn’t End * incessantly for a hour and five minutes straight.
I recall a lot of songs about farting and other bodily functions. Kids are very easily amused.
I went to a scout camp and ended up working there for 3 summers. Camp songs are a bit of a curse - I’ll be trying to come up with something on an exam and the only thing I can remember is 2 verses of The Hippopotomus Song.
What. Can Make. A hippopotomus smile.
What. Can Make. Him walk for more than a mile.
It’s not a party with paper hats.
Or candy candy candy that’ll make him fat.
That’s not what hippos do.
Theeeeeeeeeey - ooze through the gooze without any shoes
They wade through the water til their lips turn blue.
That’s what makes a hippopotomus smile.
<there’s more.>
Another one that I kind of like - Tony Chestnut. I knew this song for years before I ‘got it’. I just thought it as a sort of Head Shoulders Knees and Toes on crack.
Tony Chestnut
Just got back from the front
He shouldered arms to face defeat
Hip hip horray!
Google HOBY ohio and you will go to their hompage. On their is a list of songs and chants that I learned last May. I guess those could be considered camp songs. I would write them here but there are quite a few.
My last scout camp stint was the summer of 1999 and it was still being sung then (south central PA Girl Scouts).
Iron Man
Million Dollar Babies
Crazy Train
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
I’ve got 11 years of girl scouts and 7 years of church camp [+1 year on staff]… so I know lots of camp songs; they live in parts of my brain that are supposed to be remembering other things.
JerH, I know there are lots of verses to announcements; i think our version [which doesn’t involve a horrible death to die] usually went:
Announcements, announcements, announcements!
When you’re up you’re up,
and when you’re down you’re down,
and when you’re only half way up
you’re neither up nor down!
Announcements, announcements, announcements
Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Whose fleece was white as snow
Announcements, announcements, announcements
God bless America, land that I love…
Announcements, announcements, announcements
Here we sit like birds in the wilderness,
birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness
Here we sit like birds in the wilderness,
Waiting for ___ to talk!
Well… it certainly at least involved those. The beauty of the Announcements song is that you can sing anything as part of the it, so it can grow as the week goes on… ;^)
Same as with Erika I have lots of songs hiding in my mind due to 11 years Guides 2 years as a leader +3 years church camp…
some we sang:
Barges
Fill Up My Cup
Land of the Silver Birch
I Wish I Was…
The Porkchop Song
Jesus Loves Me
Barges I know the real version and the banned version, I also know the banned verse to I Wish I Was. I really loved singing Fill Up My Cup it was a bouncier version of Amazing Grace.
What the heck…
Banned version of Barges (aka Leaders):
Out of my window looking in the night
I can see the leaders cigarette light
Silently flows the whiskey from the flask
As I see the leaders are having a blast
Leaders I would like to go with you
I would like to share your whiskey too
Leaders have you scouters in your beds
Are you planning for 9 months ahead?
Banned verse of I Wish I Was:
I wish I was a little cigarette (cigarette)
Oh I wish I was a little cigarette (cigarette)
Oh I’d go out every night
And the boys would hold me tight
Oh I wish I was a little cigarette (cigarette)
Fill Up My Cup:
(Boys) Fill up my cup
(Girls) Fill up my cup like an overflow
(Boys) Fill up my cup
(Girls) Fill up my cup like an overflow
(Boys) Fill up my cup
(Girls) Fill up my cup like an overflow
(Together) Let it overflow with love
(Boys) Amazing Grace
(Girls) Amazing Grace how sweet the sound
(Boys) That saved a wretch
(Girls) That saved a wretch like me
(Boys) I once was lost
(Girls) I once was lost but now am found
(Together) Was blind but now I see
and you continue like that through Amazing Grace then sing the first verse again. I always liked that version.
The one we sang on the playground at school was similar but much bawdier:
There once was a farmer who lived near a crick,
And every night he would play with his…
Banjo in the moonlight for the lady next door,
You could tell just by looking that she was a…
Decent young lady who rolled in the grass,
And when she rolled over you could see her big…
Legs in the moonlight – she walked like a duck,
She promised to teach him a new way to…
Raise up the children – the girls could all knit,
The boys were all outside shoveling…
Corn and potaters – they did it quite well,
If you don’t like my story you can go straight to…bed.
One of my colleagues calls kids’ camp/schoolyard songs the last vestige of oral tradition in Western culture… 
Last year, the kids at my camp sang “Georgia on my mind” while I was gone. I was so choked up when my wife told me about it that I couldn’t thank them properly!
I was involved with and ran our camp for several years, so I’ve got quite a few songs rattling around in my head. I have a complete camp songbook around here somewhere. I’ll see if I can find it and post the songs.
At Girl Scout camp we sang a cute chant that I still remember:
(repeat each line after you sing it)
“Flea!”
“Flea, fly!”
“Flea, fly, mosquito!”
“Mosquito!”
“Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion!”
“Oh, no, no, no, not the lotion!”
“Itchy itchy, scratchy scratchy, think I got one on my backie!”
“Quick, get the bug spray, think he went that-a-way!”
“Ssssh, ugh, I got that bug!”
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Plant an ole’ watermelon on my grave
And let the juice slurp slurp seep through
Oh plant an ole’ watermelon on my grave that’s all I ask of you
Well hambone and chicken are mighty fine
But all I crave is that watermelon riiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnd
So plant an ole’ watermelon on my grave
And let the juice slurp slurp seep through
(Yelled to the opposite sex)
There ain’t no flies on us!
There ain’t no flies on us!
There might be flies on some of you guys
But there ain’t no flies on us!
I remember bits and pieces to more but not the whole things.
I just wanna say that the song “Lean on Me” can rot in hell. I had to sing that song at every. single. Christian and/or camp gathering during my adolescence. Whoever wrote this song can lean on somebody else!
This song was a regular at the National Park fireside programs when I was growing up…
Little Tommy Tucker sat on a yucca,
He began to cry:
MA–AH!
PA–AH!
Poor little stuck up guy.
Like Lobsang says, no summer camps over here, or at least i never got to one but this sounds like it could fit in here:
On top of a mountain
All covered with Snow
I shot my dear teacher
With a bow and arrow
I shot her with pleasure
I shot her with pride
I couldn’t have missed her:
She was forty foot wide
I went to her funeral
I went to her grave
Some people threw flowers
I threw a grenade
I went to her coffin
She wasn’t quite dead
So i got my machine gun
And pumped her with lead
I was getting quite lary
She still wasn’t dead
So I got my bazooka
And pumped her with lead [Repeat in style of Barber Shop ending]
This thread is great, what memories! I did YMCA camp and Girl Scout camp and church camp when I was a kid. A lot of the songs mentioned are familiar. I still know all the words to Barges, the Billboard song, the Calamine lotion song.
We also did the famous Lord Said to Noah:
The Lord said to Noah there’s going to be a floody floody
The Lord said to Noah there’s going to be a floody floody
Get those animals, out of the muddy muddy
Children of the lord
So Noah he built him, he built him an arky arky
So Noah he built him, he built him an arky arky
Built it out of gopher barky barky
Children of the lord
The animals they came on, they came on by twosies twosies
The animals they came on, they came on by twosies twosies
Elephants and bumblebeesies beesies
Children of the lord
And the Johnny Appleseed song:
Oh the lord is good to me, and so I thank the lord
For giving me, the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseed
And the many many versed “You Can’t Get to Heaven” Song
Oh you can’t get to heaven, on a pair of skis
Because you’ll slide right by, St. Peter’s knees!
Oh you can’t get to heaven in a red canoe,
Because the Lord’s favorite color is Carolina blue! (yes, we were in NC)
And this bizarre non-PC gem we sang:
I live-y in-y teeny tiny housie
I live-y on-y thirty first floor
I take-y in-y very biggy washie,
ruffles on the petticoats, 10 cents more (when singing 10 cents more, we opened and closed our fingers for some reason)
I like a bow wow better than a chow chow
I like a little man, he like-a me
Way back in Hong Kong a BIGGER WOMAN come along (sung with a growly rasp)
Take away my little man
Poor poor me
And this song, I can’t remember the name, but the chorus was Oom Plucka Plucka
She sat on a hillside and played her guitar, played her guitar, played her guitar.
She sat on a hillside and played her guitar. Played her guitar.
Oom plucka, plucka, oom plucka, plucka, oom pluck, pluck pluck (after every verse)
He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar, smoked his cigar, smoked his cigar
He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar, smoked his cigar
She said that she loved him and she didn’t lie, she didn’t lie, she didn’t lie
She said that she love him and she didn’t like, she didn’t lie
He said that he loved her but oh how he lied, oh how he lied, oh how he lied
He said that he loved her but oh how he lied Oh how he lied
They were to be married but somehow she died, somehow she died, somehow she died
They were to be married but somehow she died Somehow she died
He went to her funeral but just for the ride, just for the ride, just for ride
He went to her funeral but just for the ride, Just for the ride
He sat on her tombstone and laughed till he cried, laughed till he cried, laughed till he cried.
He sat on her tombstone and laughed till he cried, laughed till he cried.
The tombstone fell over and squish-squash he died, squish-squash he died, squish-squash he died.
The tombstone fell over and squish-squash he died Squish-squash he died.
She flew up above him and flittered and flied, flittered and flied, flittered and flied
She flew up above him and flittered and flied. Flittered and flied.
He went down below her and sizzled and fried, sizzled and fried, sizzled and fried
He down below her and sizzled and fried. Sizzled and fried.
The moral of this story is never to lie, never to lie, never to lie.
The moral of this is never to lie. Never to lie.
And the Cider Song:
The cutest boy, the cutest boy I ever saw, I ever saw
Was sipping ciiiider through a straw
The cutest boy I ever saw (I ever saw!) was sipping cider (many syllables) through a straw
I asked him if I asked him if
He’d show me how he’d show me how
to sip that ciiiiider through a straw
I asked him if he’d show me how (he’d show me how) to sip that ciiiiider through a straw
And now and then, and now and then
That straw did slip, that straw did slip
And we’d sip ciiiiiider, lip to lip
And now and then that straw did slip (that straw did slip!) and we’d sip ciiiiiider lip to lip
And that’s how I got, that’s how I got
my mother in law, my mother in law
and 49 kids, to call me ma! to call me ma!
That’s how I got my mother in law (my mother in law!) and 49 kids to call me ma
IIRC there was a version with the “biggest bear I ever saw” as well
Well, lemme think now…
Roll on Columbia
Leavin’ on a Jet Plane
I’m a Little Piece of Tin
Announcements, Announcements, Announcements
Kumbaya
some John Denver songs :rolleyes:
some early 70’s folk songs which I can’t even remember now
Some song about doing the "Frankenstein
several other songs that I just can’t recall at the moment
Some song that started out like this, but I can’t remember the name of it.
“Big, bad John was a desparado!”
“From Cripple Creek, way down in Colorado!”
“and he hit the trail like a squashed tomato!” (pronounced to-mah-to)
“and everywhere he went, he gave his war whoop!”
“YAHOOOO!”
…there are more verses, but I can’t remember them
We learned a slightly different version:
One fat hen,
a couple of ducks,
three baby brown bears,
four rabid running hares,
five! fat! flying! felines!
six simple simons selling salt in siam,
Seven slimey sailors sippin’ ???
eight elongated elephants escalating on an elevator [or perhaps it was elevating on an escalator? One of the two]
Nine nasty nosed nibbly "O"s nibbeling on nine nasty nosed nibbly oughts,
Ten two-tone two-ton transcontinental trucks, with trailers, traveling from Talahassie Tennessee to Tyler Texas on two tanks of Texaco two-test
I remember a slightly different version of The Watermelon Song:
Hambone is sweet, yeah!
Chicken is good, yeah!
Possum is so very very fine.
But give me, O give me, I really wish you would
That watermelon hanging on that vine.
Oh, when I went to fetch it, it was on a rainy night
And the moon as yet had not begun to shine.
And when that farmer saw me he shot me through the fence
But I never left that melon on that vine.
(Repeat first verse)
In addition to various John Denver songs and the Coven song where everyone finds out that world peace is all that really matters, we sang a very non-PC song whose name I can’t remember and which may be banned now.
We are from Nairobi
Our tribe is a good one
We fight the Watusi
They’re seven feet tall
The cannibals may eat us
But they’ll never beat us
Cause we’re from Nairobi
The best tribe of all
(Chorus) Singing Oong ga wa, Oong ga wa
Oong ga wa, Oong ga wa
Oong ga wa, Oong ga wa, Oong ga wa wa. (X2)
They sent 16 warriors from Kilamanjaro
But they didn’t have what it takes.
We tied up the losers way down in the jungle
And there they were eaten by snakes.
(Chorus)
We also sang **Juvenile Delinquent ** and Boom Boom, Ain’t it Great to be Crazy, both of which had lyrics just suggestive enough that we were told not to teach them to the Brownies.
Oh boy. Those were the days.
(to the tune of “The old grey mare she ain’t what she used-ta be”
Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Marinated monkey meat
Little bitty hamster feet
All that vomit rolling down a dusty street
And me without a spoon!
Or else (keep the tune from “Bridge on the River Quai” in mind)
Hitler, he only had one ball
Goering had two but very small
Himmler, was somewhat sim’lar
And Goebbels had no balls at all!
Those were the ones we sang when the counselors weren’t around.
I have found my people!!!
I’ve been going to Girl Scout camp for 18 years this summer (and now I’m running one), so I know pretty much every camp song, ever. I’m astounded by the number of these songs I know just scanning down the list.
We totally need a Girl Scout/Summer Camp singalong somewhere, somehow.
My favorite is the “Little Birdie” Song
WAAAAAAAAY up in the sky,
The little birds fly
While down in the nest,
The little birds rest.
WIIIITHHH a wing on the left
And a wing on the right,
The little birds sleep,
All through the night.
(Screaming) SHHHHHHHHH, THEY’RE SLEEPING!
THEEEEEE bright sun comes up,
The dew falls away,
Good MOR-ning, Good MOR-ning,
The little birds say!
PS: Anybody still work at a summer camp? Anyone go to the ACA Tr-state convention in NYC this weekend?