Music, educational lyric videos and merchandise for kids
Sunday, May 02, 2021
It is commonly believed that the tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was one of Mozart’s earliest compositions, written when he was a child for his older sister, but the story isn’t true.
What is true is that Mozart composed a set of variations on the tune for the piano. Those variations were probably written in the early 1780s, when Mozart was a young man, and they may have been intended as piano exercises for the music students he taught. The complete work was published in 1785 and was described as variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman,” a French folk song that was popular at the time.
So who composed the tune itself? No one knows. The melody of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” was first published (without words) in Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy (1761), a collection of music to be played at garden parties. The collection is attributed to a man named Boüin, but there is no evidence that he personally wrote the music. Although some scholars have suggested that the tune might be as old as 1740, the identity of its composer is still a mystery.
As for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” it originated as a poem written by the English author Jane Taylor and was published in 1806 as “The Star.” Sometime later the poem was set to the melody of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman.” (The earliest known appearance of the words and the music together dates to 1838.) As you may have already realized, it’s not the only set of alternative lyrics for the tune. Among the other songs that have made use of the melody are “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” the alphabet song (“A-B-C-D-E-F-G”), and a German sing-along (“Ist das nicht ein Schnitzelbank?”).
The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838The lyrics from "The Star" were first published with the tune in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the trav’ller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often thro’ my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.
‘Tis your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the trav’ller in the dark,
Tho’ I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" titled "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
An adaptation of the song, named "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Earth", was written by Charles Randolph Grean, Fred Hertz and Leonard Nimoy. It is included on Nimoy's first 1967 album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space, with him reciting the text as Spock explaining how the star-people wish upon an earth and so forth.
The tune of the "Alphabet song" is identical to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
"London Bridge Is Falling Down" (also known as "My Fair Lady" or "London Bridge") is a traditional English nursery rhyme and singing game, which is found in different versions all over the world. It deals with the depredations of London Bridge and attempts, realistic or fanciful, to repair it. It may date back to bridge rhymes and games of the Late Middle Ages, but the earliest records of the rhyme in English are from the 17th century. The lyrics were first printed in close to their modern form in the mid-18th century and became popular, particularly in Britain and the United States, during the 19th century.
The modern melody was first recorded in the late 19th century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 502. Several explanations have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme and the identity of the "fair lady" of the refrain. The rhyme is well known and has been referenced in a variety of works of literature and popular culture.
There is considerable variation in the lyrics of the rhyme. The most frequently used first verse is:
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
In the version quoted by Iona and Peter Opie in 1951 the first verse is:
London Bridge is broken down,
Broken down, broken down.
London Bridge is broken down,
My fair lady.
The rhyme is constructed of quatrains in trochaic tetrameter catalectic, (each line made up of four metrical feet of two syllables, with the stress falling on the first syllable in a pair; the last foot in the line missing the unstressed syllable), which is common in nursery rhymes. In its most common form it relies on a double repetition, rather than a rhyming scheme, which is a frequently employed device in children's rhymes and stories. The Roud Folk Song Index, which catalogues folk songs and their variations by number, classifies the song as 502.
Detail of the Great Fire of London 1666 by an unknown painter. The Tower of London is on the right and London Bridge on the left.
A prospect of Old London Bridge in 1710.
New London Bridge in the late 19th century.
The reconstructed New London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
The modern concrete London Bridge.
A melody is recorded for "London Bridge" in an edition of John Playford's The Dancing Master published in 1718, but it differs from the modern tune and no lyrics were given. An issue of Blackwood's Magazine in 1821 noted the rhyme as a being sung to the tune of "Nancy Dawson", now better known as "Nuts in May" and the same tune was given in Richard Thomson's Chronicles of London Bridge (1827).
Another tune was recorded in Samuel Arnold's Juvenile Amusements in 1797. E.F. Rimbault's Nursery Rhymes (1836) has the same first line, but then a different tune. The tune now associated with the rhyme was first recorded in 1879 in the United States in A.H. Rosewig's Illustrated National Songs and Games.
The game
Girls playing "London Bridge" in 1898.
The rhyme is often used in a children's singing game, which exists in a wide variety of forms, with additional verses. Most versions are similar to the actions used in the rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". The most common is that two players hold hands and make an arch with their arms while the others pass through in single file. The "arch" is then lowered at the song's end to "catch" a player. In the United States, it is common for two teams ofhave been accompanied by a circle dance, but arch games are known to have been common across late medieval Europe.
Five of nine versions published by Alice Gomme in 1894 included references to a prisoner who has stolen a watch and chain. This may be a late 19th-century addition from another game called "Hark the Robbers" or "Watch and Chain". This rhyme is sung to the same tune and may be an offshoot of "London Bridge" or the remnant of a distinct game. In one version the first two verses have the lyrics:
Who has stole my watch and chain,
Watch and chain, watch and chain;
Who has stole my watch and chain,
My fair lady?
Off to prison you must go,
You must go, you must go;
Off to prison you must go,
My fair lady.
This 1904 column from the Tacoma Times describes various alternate verses and their accompanying gestures
Origins
Detail from Philippe Pigouchet's Heures a lusaige de Paris (1497), showing an arch game similar to that known to be associated with the rhyme from the late nineteenth century.
Similar rhymes can be found across Europe, pre-dating the records in England. These include "Knippelsbro Går Op og Ned" from Denmark, "Die Magdeburger Brück" from Germany, "pont chus" from sixteenth-century France; and "Le porte", from fourteenth-century Italy. It is possible that the rhyme was acquired from one of these sources and then adapted to fit the most famous bridge in England.
One of the earliest references to the rhyme in English is in the comedy The London Chaunticleres, printed in 1657, but probably written about 1636, in which the dairy woman Curds states that she had "danced the building of London-Bridge" at the Whitsun Ales in her youth, although no words or actions are mentioned. Widespread familiarity with the rhyme is suggested by its use by Henry Carey in his satire Namby Pamby (1725), as:
Namby Pamby is no Clown,
London Bridge is broken down:
Now he courts the Ladee
Dancing o'er The Lady-Lee.
The oldest extant version could be that recalled by a correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine in 1823, which he claimed to have heard from a woman who was a child in the reign of Charles II (r. 1660–85) and had the lyrics:
London Bridge is broken down,
Dance over the Lady Lea;
London Bridge is broken down,
With a fair lady (la-dee).
The earliest printed English version is in the oldest extant collection of nursery rhymes, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, printed by John Newbery in London (c. 1744), beginning with the following text:
The first page of the rhyme from an 1815 edition of Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744).
London Bridge
Is Broken down,
Dance over my Lady Lee.
London Bridge
Is Broken down
With a fair Lady.
A version from James Ritson's Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784) is similar but replaces the last verse with:
Build it up with stone so strong,
Dance o'er my Lady lee,
Huzza! 'twill last for ages long,
With a fair lady.
Meaning
Cnut the Great's men on the London bridge, under attack by Olaf II of Norway from a Victorian children's book published in 1894.
The meaning of the rhyme is not certain. It may simply relate to the many difficulties experienced in bridging the River Thames, but a number of alternative explanations have been put forward.
Viking attack explanation
One hypothesis of origin is that the rhyme relates to the supposed destruction of London Bridge by Olaf II of Norway in 1014 (or 1009). The nineteenth-century translation of the Norse saga the Heimskringla, published by Samuel Laing in 1844, included a verse by Óttarr svarti, that looks very similar to the nursery rhyme:
London Bridge is broken down. —
Gold is won, and bright renown.
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding,
Hild is shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing —
Odin makes our Olaf win!
However, modern translations make it clear that Laing was using the nursery rhyme as a model for his very free translation, and the reference to London Bridge does not appear at the start of the verse and it is unlikely that this is an earlier version of the nursery rhyme. Some historians have raised the possibility that the attack never took place. However, the original document detailing the attack was written only about 100 years after what would be a famous event in a highly populated area, leading the majority of historians to conclude that the account is at least relatively accurate.
Age and damage explanation
Until the mid-eighteenth century the Old London Bridge was the only crossing on the Thames in London. It was damaged in a major fire in 1633, but in the fire of 1666 this damage acted as a fire break and prevented the flames from further damaging the bridge and crossing to the south side of the Thames. With its 19 narrow arches, it impeded river traffic and flow. Central piers were removed to create a wider navigational span. Widening and the removal of its houses was completed in 1763, but it remained relatively narrow and needed continual and expensive repairs. In the early nineteenth century it was decided to replace the bridge with a new construction. New London Bridge was opened in 1831 and survived until it was replaced in 1972. It was then transported and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
"Fair lady" identity
The seal of Matilda of Scotland, one of the candidates for the "fair lady" of the refrain.
Several attempts have been made to identify the 'fair lady', or lady 'lee/lea' of the rhyme. They include:
Virgin Mary Mother of God: the nursery rhyme alludes to the Mother Mary as the 'fair lady.' The Vikings attacked on 8 September, the traditional birthday of the Mother Mary; they burned the bridge but could not take the city, it was protected by the 'fair lady.'
Matilda of Scotland (c. 1080–1118) who between 1110 and 1118 was responsible for the building of the series of bridges that carried the London-Colchester road across the River Lea and its side streams between Bow and Stratford.
Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223–91), had custody of the bridge revenues from 1269 to about 1281.Eleanor of Provence was also attacked with eggs and stones at London bridge by the discontented citizens as her barge tried passing beneath the bridge. This was in response to the political discontent that had been created not only by King Henry III's vast unpopularity at the time but was also sparked by his son King Edward I's raiding of the Temple.
The River Lea, which is a tributary of the Thames.
Legacy
Since the late 19th century, the rhyme has been seen as one of the most popular and well known in the English-speaking world.It h as also been referenced in both literature and popular culture - appearing, for example, at the climax of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922). The final line may have been the inspiration for the title of the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, while the chorus of Brenda Lee's song My Whole World is Falling Down (1963) is loosely based on "London Bridge is Falling Down", and the traditional tune is often used by English football supporters as the basis for chants.
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old stone-built medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first of which was built by the Roman founders of London.
The current bridge stands at the western end of the Pool of London and is positioned 30 metres (98 ft) upstream from previous alignments. The approaches to the medieval bridge were marked by the church of St Magnus-the-Martyr on the northern bank and by Southwark Cathedral on the southern shore. Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, London Bridge was the only road-crossing of the Thames downstream of Kingston upon Thames. London Bridge has been depicted in its several forms, in art, literature, and songs, including the nursery rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down", and the epic poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot.
The modern bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, an independent charity of medieval origin overseen by the City of London Corporation. It carries the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority. The crossing also delineates an area along the southern bank of the River Thames, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, that has been designated as a business improvement district.
Discover the Story Behind the Beloved Children's Song and Its Evolution Over Time
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a classic nursery rhyme that has been enjoyed by children for generations. While it may seem like a simple and lighthearted tune, the history of this song is actually quite fascinating. Let's take a closer look at the origins of the Itsy Bitsy Spider and how it has evolved over time.
The Origins of Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Itsy Bitsy Spider, also known as Incy Wincy Spider, is believed to have originated in the United States in the early 20th century. The song was first published in its current form in 1910 by the songwriter and music publisher, Quincy E. Shaw. However, the lyrics and melody have been adapted and modified over time.
The song tells the story of a spider who climbs up a waterspout, only to be washed down by the rain. Despite the setback, the spider persists and climbs up the spout again. The story is a simple one, but it has resonated with children for over a century.
The Evolution of Itsy Bitsy Spider
Over time, the lyrics and melody of the Itsy Bitsy Spider have been adapted and modified by various artists and performers. One of the most notable adaptations is the Australian version of the song, which replaces the Itsy Bitsy Spider with a Wombat.
In addition to these adaptations, the Itsy Bitsy Spider has also been featured in various forms of media. The song has been included in movies, TV shows, and even video games.
Modern-Day Adaptations of Itsy Bitsy Spider
Today, the Itsy Bitsy Spider continues to be a beloved children's song. In fact, it has even found a new life on YouTube and other social media platforms. Many parents and educators have created animated and live-action videos of the song, which have become hugely popular with young children.
Conclusion
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a timeless classic that has stood the test of time. While its origins may be shrouded in mystery, the song's simple message of perseverance and determination has continued to resonate with children for over a century. From its humble beginnings to its modern-day adaptations, the Itsy Bitsy Spider remains a beloved part of childhood for generations to come.
In this blog post, we've explored the fascinating history of the Itsy Bitsy Spider and how it has evolved over time. Whether you're a parent, educator, or simply a fan of the song, we hope you've gained a new appreciation for this beloved children's classic.
The origin of the song is unknown, but it was first published in 1920 as a song for adults. It wasn't until 1947-1948 when Itsy Bitsy Spider made it's first appearance as a nursery rhyme. It's remained bascially unchanged since then, and children and adults of all ages enjoyed this finger-play rhyme.
"Itsy Bitsy Spider" (also known as "Incy Wincy Spider" in Australia and Great Britain, and several other similar-sounding names) is a popular nursery rhyme and fingerplay that describes the adventures of a spider as it climbs the drain.
The song can be found in publications including an alternative version in the book, Camp and Camino in Lower California where it was referred to as [the classic] "Spider Song." It appears to be a different version of this song using “blooming, bloody” instead of "itsy bitsy". It was later published in one of its several modern versions in Western Folklore, by the California Folklore Society (1948) Mike and Peggy Seeger's, American Folk Songs for Children (1948).
The song is sung by and for children in countless languages and cultures. It is similar of the melodies of the children's songs "Auf der Mauer, auf der Lauer" and "Spannenlanger Hansel" in German-speaking countries.
ascends, descends, and reascends the downspout or "waterspout" of a gutter system (or, alternatively, the spout of a teapot or open-air reservoir). It is usual
Cinema
In the Jordan Peele film Us the young girl, Adelaide Wilson, starts whistling "Itsy Bitsy Spider" when she is down in the funhouse, in front of the hall of mirrors. Her doppelgänger, Red, starts whistling the same song, right before they see each other for the first time. All the doppelgängers have been underground waiting for their opportunity to go above ground, or "up the waterspout", and Red is the one that leads them "up the waterspout".
It is one of the main musical themes in the 2006 horror movie Séance.
It was referred in two Spider-Man movies: in 2002, by Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin in Spider-Man and in 2014 by Jamie Foxx as Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Television
Bart Simpson sang the rhyme in the tenth episode of season four of The Simpsons, "Lisa's First Word". It was featured in the children's program Dora the Explorer and in the South Park episode "Something You Can Do with Your Finger". A child singing the rhyme twice can be heard in the opening of the Criminal Minds episode, "Gatekeeper". In the Netflix adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, during the middle of the episode "Slippery Slope, Part 1", during the scene where the Baudelaires escape the Snow Scouts, Lemony Snicket tells the viewers to refer the scene to the song, knowing they learned it in their childhoods. In the episode ’’Quiet Please’’ (series 8 episode 5A) of Rugrats the Rugrats are read Itsy Bitsy Centipede. A child singing the rhyme twice can be heard in the intensive care scene in Season Three, Episode One, of Wallander, being played for Police Detective Ann-Britt Hoglund after she was attacked with a sledge hammer.ly accompanied by a sequence of gestures that mimic the words of the song. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 11586
"Frère Jacques" in the nursery rhyme and in song more generally known in English as "Brother John", is a nursery rhyme of French origin. The rhyme is traditionally sung in
a round.
The song is about a friar who has overslept and is urged to wake up and sound the bell for the matins, the midnight or very early morning prayers for which a monk would be expected to wake.
Lyrics
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
English translation
Brother Jacques, Brother Jacques,
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Ring the bells for matins!
Ring the bells for matins!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
Traditional English lyrics
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John,
Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
The song concerns a monk's duty to ring the bell for matines. Frère Jacques has apparently overslept, it is time to ring the bells for matins, and someone wakes him up with this song. The traditional English translation preserves the scansion, but alters the meaning such that Brother "John" is being awakened by the bells.
In English, the word friar is derived from the Old French word frere (Modern French frère; "brother" in English), as French was still widely used in official circles in England during the 13th century when the four great orders of Friars started. The French word frère in turn comes from the Latin word frater (which also means "brother").
The French name Jacques, meanwhile, would not ordinarily be translated to "John." "Jean" is the male French equivalent of the English "John." The name Jacques, instead, corresponds to the English names James or Jacob, all of which derive from the Latin Iacobus and the Greek Ἰακώβος (Septuagintal Greek Ἰακώβ), referring to the Biblical Patriarch Jacob and the apostles known in English as James.
Theories of origin
A possible connection between "Frère Jacques" and the 17th century lithotomist Frère Jacques Beaulieu (also known as Frère Jacques Baulot), as claimed by Irvine Loudon and many others, was explored by J. P. Ganem and C. C. Carson without finding any evidence for a connection.
Francesca Draughon and Raymond Knapp argue that "Frère Jacques" was originally a song to taunt Jews or Protestants or Martin Luther (see Frère Jacques in popular culture).
Martine David and A. Marie Delrieu suggest that "Frère Jacques" might have been created to mock the Dominican friars, known in France as the Jacobin order, for their sloth and comfortable lifestyles.
In a review of a book about Kozma Prutkov, Richard Gregg notes it has been claimed that "Frère Jacques" was derived from a Russian seminary song about a "Father Theofil".
Published record
First publication
AllMusic states that the earliest printed version of the melody is on a French manuscript circa 1780 (manuscript 300 in the manuscript collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris). The manuscript is titled "Recueil de Timbres de Vaudevilles", and the Bibliothèque Nationale estimates that it was printed between 1775 and 1785. The "Frère Jacques" melody is labelled "'Frère Blaise'" in this manuscript.
Sheet music collector James Fuld (1916–2008) states that the tune was first published in 1811, and that the words and music were published together in Paris in 1869. An earlier publication in 1825 included the words together with a description of the melody in solfège, but not in musical notation. The words and music appear together in Recreations de l'enfance: Recueil de Rondes avec Jeux et de Petites Chansons pour Faire Jouer, Danser et Chanter les Enfants avec un Accompagnement de Piano Très-Facile by Charles Lebouc, which was first published in 1860 by Rouart, Lerolle & Cie. in Paris. This book was very popular and it was republished several times, so many editions exist.
French musicologist Sylvie Bouissou has found some evidence that composer Jean-Philippe Rameau had written the music. A manuscript at the French National Library contains "Frère Jacques" among 86 canons, with Rameau listed as author.
In 1926, the tune was used in a patriotic anthem written by officers of the Whampoa Military Academy, "Revolution of the Citizens"
Comparison with Fra Jacopino
"Frère Jacques" bears resemblance to the piece Toccate d'intavolatura, No.14, Capriccio Fra Jacopino sopra L'Aria Di Ruggiero composed by Girolamo Frescobaldi, which was first published around 1615 - "Fra Jacopino" is one potential Italian translation for "Frère Jacques". Edward Kilenyi pointed out that "Fra Jacopino" shares the same "Frère Jacques"-like melody as "Chanson de Lambert", a French song dating from 1650, and a Hungarian folk tune.
The "Frère Jacques" tune is one of the most basic repeating canons along with the melody of "Three Blind Mice". It is also simple enough to have spread easily from place to place. For example, Barbara Mittler in a conference abstract points out that the melody of "Frère Jacques" is so thoroughly assimilated into Chinese culture that it might be widely regarded as a Chinese folksong in China called "Two tigers".
Influence
Main article: Frère Jacques in popular culture
The song "Frère Jacques" often appears in popular culture.
In the fields of chemistry and cheminformatics, the circuit rank of a molecular graph (the number of rings in the smallest set of smallest rings) is sometimes referred to as the Frèrejacque number.
The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London in about 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'. The next recorded version in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.
The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme. Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers Hevera, Devera and Dick which are from the language Cumbric.
The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice.
“Hickory Dickory Dock” is a traditional nursery rhyme, dating back to the 18th century London.
According to some sources the song war composed by Oliver Goldsmith from Dublin, for a nursery rhymes collection.
There are two different tunes for this song, one sung in the UK and one in the USA.
At its origin, most probably “Hickory Dickory Dock” was a counting-down song. Starting with couple of sounds that imitates the clock sounds, “Hickory, dickory, dock” is an elementary tool to help teaching children the time.
"A Tisket A Tasket" is a nursery rhyme first recorded in America in the late nineteenth century. It was used as the basis for a very successful and highly regarded 1938 recording by Ella Fitzgerald
The rhyme was first noted in the United States in 1879 as a children's rhyming game. It was sung while children danced in a circle. One of the number ran on the outside of the circle and dropped a handkerchief. The nearest child would then pick it up and chase the dropper. If caught, the dropper either was kissed, joined the circle, or had to tell the name of their sweetheart. An early noted version had the lyrics:
A-tisket a-tasket
A green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my friend
And on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it, I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up
And put it in his pocket.
In some variants, the second line is "I lost my yellow basket." In other variants, the last line is "A little girl she picked it up and put it in her pocket."
In nineteenth century England, the rhyme used in the same game had somewhat different but evidently related words:
I lost my supper, last night,
And the night before,
And if I do this night,
I never will no more.
I sent a letter to my love,
I carried water in my glove,
And by the way I dropped it, I did so, I did so:
I had a little dog that said bow-wow!
I had a little cat that said meow-meow!
Shan't bite you, shan't bite you,
Shall bite you.
I dropt it, I dropt it,
And by the way I lost it.
The song was a major hit of the "pre-chart" era, reaching number one in Billboard's sheet music and Record Buying Guide (jukebox) charts, also number 1 on Your Hit Parade.
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Happy Side (1962).
Lines from the song have been mentioned by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Half Man Half Biscuit, Ganksta N-I-P, Shangri-Las, Scarface, Eminem, Madonna, and Boondox.
Curly Howard recites a paraphrase of the (non-musical) rhyme in The Three Stooges short We Want Our Mummy (1939).
The music for the song was used in the opening scene of John Ford's 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath to help establish the contemporary time frame of the events of the film.
Ella Fitzgerald performed the song in the Abbott and Costello film, Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942).
A rendition of the song was also performed in the Paul Thomas Anderson movie The Master (2012).
