Why do so many nursery rhymes have tunes that come from marching songs?

Factual Questions
21

I’m not surprised at all. There are quite a few children’s songs that rely on double entendre, generally sung by kids just about old enough to understand that some parts of their body are considered unmentionable in some contexts and/or with some words. (Which is a pretty weird idea, when you come to think about it.) It isn’t really about sex, which may not be understood at the time, even though it’s sex that underlies some of the taboos; it’s about the whole idea of taboo words, which is something that children learn very young.

Here’s an example (note that not all the words are even body words):

https://allnurseryrhymes.com/miss-susie-had-a-steamboat/

22

I’m not suprised about kids singing them (my single encounter with She Waded in the Water was from another kid in middle school talking about singing the song on a Boy Scout trip). I’m suprised by adults recording and publishing it as a children’s song.

23

I’m surprised that She Waded in the Water was used on a children’s CD , too

“Miss Susie” is a different sort of children’s song - it’s the sort of song that children sing and learn from older children , not the sort that ends up on a CD marketed as being for children and purchased by adults. Miss Lucy Had a Baby , which has the same tune , might end up on the CD. Similarly, On Top of Spaghetti might end up on the CD or the version of On Top of Old Smokey that starts out

On top of old Smokey,
All covered with snow,
I lost my true lover
From courtin’ too slow.

But this version would never make the CD

On top of Old Smokey
All covered with blood
I shot my poor teacher
with a .44 slug

I knew that version when was a kid in the 70s ,my kids knew it in the 2000s and kids probably still know it today. But they wouldn’t learn it from a CD when they were three - kids learn that type of song from older kids, usually when they’re school-aged.

24

Interesting. What we sang in the 50’s, at least where I was, was:

On top of Old Smokey
All covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody sneezed.

– I don’t remember the rest of it, except that it involved the meatball rolling downhill through various difficulties.

25

I heard your version too . As “on top of spaghetti”

26

One version of the lyrics for On Top Spaghetti. Seems to be the one I heard as a kid.

27

I don’t think I heard the same one – the later verses aren’t familiar at all. But I expect there were/are a lot of different versions.

28

I can easily imagine a classroom full of second graders singing “Pussy!” on the hand claps. :thinking: Yeah.

29

My dad sang this one - -

Sweet Violets
Sweeter than the roses
Covered all over from head to toe
Covered all over with sweet violets

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a . . . lecture
On horses and chickens and eggs.
Told her she had the most beautiful . . . Sweet Violets - -

It sounded like an old kids song. Googling for it revealed that it was once sung by Dinah Shore.