Au clair de la Lune
Mon ami Pierrot
Prête-moi ta plume
Pour écrire un mot

Ma chandelle est morte
Je n'ai plus de feu
Ouvre-moi ta porte
Pour l'amour de Dieu

" Do you remember any songs from childhood you or your parents used to sing? . "

Those with children and grandchildren don't need to think back too far.

Raffi was a wonderful performer who mesmerized children when he was actively performing and his recordings still do. Look up the track lists of his albums for many good ideas.

Baby Beluga, The More We Get Together, Apples and Bananas, Down By The Bay, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and more.

Another that I think has become a classic is Puff The Magic Dragon.

These songs date from 40+ years ago and some, longer ago

Ring around the rosie

Itsy bitsy spider

Twinkle twinkle little star

Sing a Song of Sixpence

OMG these are great! I should be able to use each of them. Thank you so much

I'm a Little Teapot

Bobby Shafto

Oh Where Have You Been, Billy Boy Billy Boy

Man on the Flying Trapeze

The Old Grey Mare

There’s a Hole in the Bucket

Our dad used to keep us out of Mom’s way while she made dinner, by playing the piano and singing, We had a Golden Book of Song, a book of Danish songs (Vent på far, Waiting for Dad, was one), and Sing Along with Mitch. And a book of college fight songs! All I remember is the Notre Dame song and we changed the words for some reason. We loved it.

Old MacDonald Had A Farm, On Top Of Spagetti, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Miss Polly had a Dolly that was Sick,Sick,Sick, Ten Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed and Pat -A-Cake

Bicycle Built for Two.

Elmer’s list of Raffi sings is great. My granddaughter and I listen to the Raffi station on Pandora twice a week when I pick her up from daycare. Apples and Bananas is our favorite!

Yankee Doodle

Rueben Rueben

Rusty

carabubble, you mean Ooples and Boonoonoos?

We attended a Raffi concert when he was actively touring. I don't remember the year or at what point it happened within the range of their ages and who was aged what, when. The guy was dripping with personality and love for kids. Even how much seems apparent from his recordings greatly understates what we experienced in his live performance.

Do you remember how the teenage girls in the audiences would scream during Beatles performances and TV appearances? The kids were screaming like that at the Raffi concert, out of excitement. They managed the sound level well so that the songs could be heard and he periodically asked the audience to quiet down a bit.

We always played his music when our kids were the right ages and we've done the same with our grandkids. I still listen to his music, I have a bunch of his albums. Other than the quiet ones, like Thanks A Lot, the songs are almost all very upbeat and addictive.

Never stop to smile at a crocodile
No, you can't get friendly with a crocodile
Don't be taken in by his welcome grin
He's imagining how well you'd fit within his skin
Never smile at a crocodile
Never tip your hat and stop to talk awhile
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mister Crocodile

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

I'm Just a Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Zum Gali Gali

Seventy Six Trombones

All the above plus:

Wind the bobbin up

Ring a ring o roses

Oranges and lemons

In and out the dusty bluebells

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle

Lavender's blue

Mary, Mary quite contrary

Polly put the kettle on

Baa baa black sheep

Bye baby bunting

Here we go round the mulberry bush

One two three four five, once I caught a fish alive

Five little speckled frogs

Ten green bottles

One man went to mow

Etc. etc. etc.

Ps we sang The farmer's in his den.

Waltzing Matilda

I've been workin' on the railroad

This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie's birthday was last week)

So many of these I've been singing with my grand daughter who is 14 months. She hears them at day care--so they aren't so long gone!!! Many have board books made from the lyrics.

Hmmm .... in the car we sang 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

A lot had to do with what was silly popular music at the time or in my parents' day such as Rock Around the Clock and See Ya Later Alligator. Mom always used to dance with me to "Dancing with the Dolly with the Hole in her Stocking". And I still remember singing, "Take Me to your Ladder, I'll See Your Leader Later".

My Mama Done Tol' Me -- probably after hearing it on Bugs Bunny.

Oh Susannah because of the funny lyrics

In kindergarten we sang a song about a washing machine and another about a rocking chair but I've never heard them since.

Then there were the gross ones...the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. Or a version of the jingle for Comet which was called Vomit... Or a take off on the theme for the game Fascination which was called Suffocation. Another was a take off on On Top of Old Smoky that included shooting the principal with a rubber band.

But none of those are probably what you had in mind.

Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts

and Worms 😄

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me...

another vote for 99 Bottles of Beer. Sang it on the camp bus when I was 10, back in 1957. (Political Correctness had not been invented)

Oh little playmate

come out and play with me….

six little ducks that I once knew,

fat ducks, skinny ducks there were few…

Up in the air, junior birdman…

She'll be coming around the mountain

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed

You are my sunshine 😎

Bingo and Row, Row, Row Your Boat sung in rounds.

Frère Jacques

Farmer in the Dell

tj

The Ants go Marching

@Olychick - Mairzy Doats? Wow I don’t hear that one often, my father used to sing that! He’d also break out into “How much is that doggie in the window?” whenever I’d ask how much something was. Twofer memory!

He’d also sing K-K-K-Katy but either he purposely mixed up the lyrics or else I mistook them. I remember things like ”when the cow sheds, and the horse flies…“

Going a little further off topic, a while back I followed a car with license plate KKKKaty into a parking lot. I saw the woman in the store and said, “Katy?” She looked a little startled and I said I saw her plate and it reminded me of my father who used to sing that song which no one seems to know. She said her dad sang it also, she’s had that plate for a long time but needs to get rid of it as too many think KKK Katy.

High Hopes....about the rubber tree plant.

We sang in the car, songs with a ton of verses like Hole in the Bottom of the Sea and The Green Grass Grew All Around. We also did harmonies but those werent kid songs.

patriciae

My mom sang a lot of these to me, but my favorite was:

I love you

A bushel and a peck

A bushel and a peck

And a hug around the neck

A hug around the neck

And a barrel and a heap

A barrel and a heap

'Cause I'm talkin' in my sleep

About you!

I remember Sarasponda from Girl Scout camp. :)

Three Blind Mice.

Pop Goes the Weasel.

Rusty

The one I haven't seen posted yet is Teddy Bear's Picnic.

I just remembered another.

LOW BRIDGE, EVERYBODY DOWN

I've got an old mule, and her name is Sal, Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal, Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
We've hauled some barges in our day, filled with lumber, coal and hay.
And every inch of the way I know, From Albany to Buffalo (etc).

Love this reminiscing. I do recall so many of these. One that I remember my Dad singing not mentioned yet was Hi Lilly Hi Lilly Hi Lo.

I think you should end with that kid favorite from 1963, Mad Magazine's It's a Gas. We listened to that a lot!

Kumbaya

And then roller skating..."One foot in, One foot out"

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for helping me with this. So many i had forgotten about. Now I have to see how many I can incorporate into my skit.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

So many favorites already mentioned - here's one.

Teddy Bears Picnic

this was my mom's favorite although instead of "tea", she sang "cheese". i used to sing this to my grandson when he was a baby...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uilDW41zLHA

Nina, that’s a funny song!

One that my 20month old granddaughter loves because of the actions is'

If You're happy and You Know It.

(clap your hands, shout hurray and turn around are her favourite actions)

London bridge is falling down, Hokey Pokey,

There were 10 (or any number) in the bed and the little one said, roll over, roll over,

so they all rolled over and 1 fell out, there were 9 in the bed, etc

There was one in the bed and the little one said, Good Night

debra

My mother sang opera, and so she would sing songs from Carmen, Madame Butterfly, and The Barber From Seville that I remember. She had the sheet music for those operas and would accompany herself on the piano when she sang. She majored in music at the University of North Texas, in Denton, which was regarded as the best music department in Texas, and she especially liked the jazz program there, which attracted students from all over the country.

Childhood songs that I remember include Frère Jacques and Au Claire de la Luna.

My dad sang us Mairzy Doats too 🙂

We had a piano, and folk songbooks as well.

Lavender Blue is a very pretty one.

Some more rounds I recall - from scouts; Ram-Sam-Sam (with accompanying hand gestures), and from our classroom music lessons; Kookaburra, My Darling Clementine, and Oh Susannah.

In the camp song category, Do Your Ears Hang Low? and Be Kind To Your Web Footed Friends

This is one that my aunt used to sing to me in the late 1940's:

Three Little Fishies
Kay Kyser (#1 in 1939)

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool
Swam three little fishies and a mama fishie too
"Swim" said the mama fishie, "Swim if you can"
And they swam and they swam all over the dam
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
Boop boop dit-tem dat-tem what-tem Chu!
And they swam and they swam all over the dam

Mairzy Doats! Am I alone in not knowing the actual words until adulthood? ( “mares eat oats, etc). What a revelation. And big happy smiles for Raffi… silly, fun songs.

”Robin in the rain, what a happy fellow

Robin the rain mind your socks os yellow…..”

So what I'm trying to do is change the words to casino games. For example The Wheel on Roulette Goes Round and Round

99 decks of cards..99 Decks of cards

^^^^

Knick Knack Baccarat, give a dog a bone!

Three Blind Dice

Farmer in the Deal

Did anybody mention zippa-dee-doodah yet?

As a kid, us 5 kids sang in the car soooo much, and lots of mine have been mentioned.

The other day I saw a bear was a favorite camp song , repeat after me style, so gets people singing without the pressure of having to know the words

Camp Granada song (didn't love it but it was a staple, and funny!)

Along with Raffi and other amazing music we had for my kids, one of my absolute faves was David Grisman and Jerry Garcia 'Not for Kids Only' cd , a fun one from that is Jenny Jenkins, so funny about an ornery little girl!

And can't not mention Tom Lehrer at least for older kids, how about learning the lyrics to this one: Have fun!

Do you know the Muffin Man?

One, two, three four five, once I caught a fish alive

This Old Man

There’s a hole in the bucket