La La LA!

[rabidsamfan]

There's been a music meme going around. But as I'm too shy to tell you when I turned eighteen (at least today anyway, try me back in a week), I've come up with a variation, using www.popculturemadness.com's list of hits from the nineteenth century.


Now, which of these do YOU know? Bold the ones you can sing an entire verse to (add a * if you know a parody or variant of the original words), italicize the ones you can sing (or hum) at least one line of, if not the whole thing, and strike out the ones you wish you never had to listen to again. The ones you don't know (at least not from the title) will stay plain.



1. Good Morning to All (Happy Birthday To You) - 1893*
2. Amazing Grace - 1800
3. Jingle Bells - 1857 (by James Pierpont)*
4. Old MacDonald Had A Farm - 1859
5. Camptown Races - 1850 (Stephen Foster)
6. Mary Had a Little Lamb - 1889*
7. Rock-a-bye Baby - 1884 (by Effie I. Canning)
8. Alphabet Song - 1834 (copyrighted by C. Bradlee, it's probably older) *
9. Wedding March - 1844 (by Felix Mendelssohn, from A Midsummer Night's Dream)
10. William Tell Overture – 1829*
11. Semper Fidelis - 1886 (by John Philip Sousa)
12. (Oh Dem) Golden Slippers - 1879
13. Stars and Stripes Forever - 1897 (by Sousa)*
14. When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again - 1863 (by Louis Lambert & Patrick Gilmore) *
15. Chopsticks - 1877
16. The Battle Hymn of the Republic - 1862 (by Julia Ward Howe)*
17. While Strolling Through The Park One Day - 1884 (by Ed Haley)
18. Can Can - 1858 (by Offenbach)
19. When The Saints Go Marching In - 1896 (by Katherine E. Purvis & James M. Black)
20. Row Row Row Your Boat - 1881 *
21. Funeral March (Pray For The Dead and the Dead Will Pray For You...) – 1840*
22. Fur Elise - 1810 (by Beethoven)
23. I've Been Working on the Railroad - 1894
24. She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain - 1899
25. Oh! Susanna - 1848 (by Stephen Foster)
26. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! - 1861
27. America (God Shed His Grace On Thee) words - 1832*
28. I've Been Working On The Railroad - 1894 (copyright, is probably older)
29. Dixie's Land (aka Dixie) - 1860
30. Home, Sweet Home - 1823 (by John Howard Payne)
31. Joy to the World - 1839 (by Handel)
32. A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight - 1896 *
33. Alouette -1879
34. O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone - 1864 (by James Bland)
35. Turkey In De Straw - 1834
36. Funiculi Funicula - 1880
37. Polly Wolly Doodle (All The Day) - 1883 (copyright, is probably older)
38. Reveille – 1890
39. Gloria - 1890 (by Mozart)
40. (Oh My Darling) Clementine - 1863 (by Percy Montrose & H S. Thompson)*
41. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot - 1872
42. Onward, Christian Soldiers - 1871 (by Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould & Sir Arthur Sullivan)
43. The Yellow Rose of Texas - 1858
44. O Little Town of Bethlehem - 1868
45. Buffalo Gals - 1844 (heard in film, It's a Wonderful Life. Malcom McClaren did it in the 1980s too))
46. My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean - 1881*
47. Blue Danube Waltz - 1867 (by J.S. Strauss)
48. Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me - 1869
49. Rock of Ages - 1832 (by Hastings)
50. Au Clair de la Lune – 1811
51. Morning - 1890 (by Luse)
52. Home on the Range - 1873 (by Daniel Kelly & Brewster M. Higley)
53. King Cotton March - 1895
54. (I Dream Of) Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair - 1854 (by Stephen Foster)
55. (Gimme That) Old Time Religion - 1865
56. Song Of India - 1897 (by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov)
57. The Man on the Flying Trapeze - 1868
58. Hail to the Chief - 1820 (by Sir Walter Scott & James Sanderson)
59. Barber of Seville - 1813
60. Old Folks at Home (Way Down Upon the Swanee River) - 1851 (by Stephen Foster)
61. The Thunderer - 1889 (by John Philip Sousa)
62. Skip To My Lou - 1844
63. The Merry, Merry Month of May - 1862 (by Stephen Foster)
64. Frankie and Johnny - 1869
65. Grandfather's Clock - 1876 (by Henry Clay Work)*
66. Beautiful Dreamer - 1864 (by Stephen Foster )
67. Away In a Manger – 1887
68. Flying Dutchman Overture - 1844 (by Wagner)
69. The Washington Post - 1889 (by John Philip Sousa)
70. A Night on Bald Mountain - 1887 (by Mussorgsky)
71. Hello! Ma Baby - 1899
72. Git Along Little Dogies - 1893
73. Pictures at an Exhibition - 1887 (by Mussorgsky)
74. I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen - 1876
75. Hark the Herald Angels Sing - 1855
76. Sleeping Beauty Waltz - 1890
77. Peer Gynt Suite - 1888
78. Mazel Tov - 1894
79. Baa Baa Black Sheep – 1865
80. Liberty Bell March - 1893 (by John Philip Sousa)
81. Red River Valley - 1896
82. Maple Leaf Rag - 1899 (by Scott Joplin)
83. Goodnight Ladies - 1853
84. King Cotton March - 1895 (by John Philip Sousa)
85. Home on the Range - 1873
86. Coronation March - 1849 (by Meyerbeer)
87. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny - 1878
88. At A Georgia Camp Meeting - 1897 (by Kerry Mills)
89. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - 1838
90. Good Night - 1899 (by Mendelssohn)
91. Dance of the Hours - 1876 (by Ponchielle)
92. Gypsy Love Song - 1898 (by Harry B. Smith & Victor Herbert (From the musical The Fortune Teller)
93. Prelude in C# Minor - 1893 (by Rachmaninoff)
94. Hush-a-bye Baby – 1884
95. El Capitan - 1896 (by John Philip Sousa)
96. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - 1850
97. Romeo and Juliet - 1871 (by Tchaikovsky)
98. Three Little Kittens - 1885
99. Good King Wenceslas - 1860ish (words)
100. I Gave My Love a Cherry - 1850 (heard in 1979 film, Animal House)

Comments

[elasg.livejournal.com]

*is too lazy to do the meme but had comparable results*

Um, yeah, 18 was a LONG time ago for me... *eep*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Although I did have fun looking at the list for 19mumble.

I'll bet I'd recognize more of these tunes than I do the titles too.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

My results would be almost identical to yours. :)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Now I want a CD set of all of 'em. I'm guessing I know some of the tunes where I don't know the titles.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I know the Sousa ones; I just don't know which title goes with which tune.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of them to match the tune to the title, but you're right, I probably know the others to listen to. He was a prolific man, wasn't he?

[elycia.livejournal.com]

Great meme, RSF! I thought both of y'all might want to know that "The Liberty Bell March" is the theme for the Monty Python show. I can never sing it to myself without inserting that "SPLLUTTTTTT" sound of the giant foot...

[notabluemaia.livejournal.com]

My goodness - my results were also quite like yours! (pleasant reminders of lots of old melodies, too) And no, I do not personally remember the 1800s...

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I've been singing ever since I ran through the list.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I recognize/can sing/actually like more of these songs than the ones from the year I was 18? I think that's a pretty telling comment on the music that's considered popular in the past few decades.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Nope. Some of these are much better songs than anything more recent. And if you ask me, there's a lot more variation of topic too!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

This is a great variant on this meme!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I knew a lot more of these than I did for the year I was eighteen anyway.

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Heh. I know more of those than from the year I turned 18.

Funny about that Yellow Rose of Texas, too... seems there might have been an actual person the song was based on. Version I heard was that seh was a mulatto prostitute (aka 'high yellow') who was - ah - entertaining General Santa Anna in his tent while the Texans kicked Mexican butt at San Jacinto.

It is known for certain that when Santa Anna was captured, he was wearing nothing but a dressing gown, and the Txas Army wasn't sure who they'd captured until they brought him in front of Sam Houston.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

LoL! The things you find out on the internet!

Yes, there might be an actual person, or at least a very good urban legend about it. Some of those songwriters weren't averse to making up the background to the song too.

[elycia.livejournal.com]

New question: To which of these that you've heard parodied, which is the rudest? :D (And surely you've heard at least ONE of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic?" Glory, glory, hallelujah; teacher hit me with a ruler...)

My personal sick favorite (to the tune of "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean"):
My bonny has tuberculosis
She has but only one lung;
She spits up a bloody solution
And dries it and chews it for gum!

Also, did you know that many popular songs can be refitted to the melody of "Amazing Grace"? Try "The House of the Rising Sun." It will stick in your head until you die. :D

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I learned it:

My bonnie lies over the ocean
My bonnie lies over the sea
She coughs up a bloody solution
And then she has it for tea.
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my supper to me to me
Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my supper to me...

(switch tunes)
I'm coming... I'm coming, for my head is hanging low.
I'm coming... I'm coming... Lookout! *blorp!*