It’s a brother’s lifelong duty to torment his sisters, and this post will most assuredly do that. The picture above was scanned from a very old record from our childhood — Children’s Sing-A-Long, by Frank Luther and the Children’s Chorus.
The audio players below have the record, with each side played through as a single track. The total time is well under 30 minutes. The song titles are given as they appear on the record jacket. Luther is noteworthy in the history of American popular music, and some background information on him is provided at the bottom of this post.
Side One
- I’ve Been Workin’ On The Railroad
- Shortnin’ Bread
- My Darling Clementine
- Home On The Range
- Goodbye, Old Paint
- Old MacDonald Had A Farm
- Oh Susanna
- America The Beautiful
Side Two
- Skip To My Lou
- Swing Low Sweet Chariot
- A Tree In The Wood
- Billy Boy
- She’s Be Comin’ Round The Mountain
- The Bear Went Over The Mountain
- Froggy Went A-Courtin’
- My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean
- Sidewalks Of New York
- Daisy Bell
- Little Liza Jane
- Buffalo Gals
One of the first urban cowboys, Frank Luther (August 4, 1905 – November 16, 1980) made a career out of supplying urban listeners with their fix of traditional country music. A Kansas native, Luther was a professionally trained pianist who played in several vocal groups in his home state before moving to New York in 1928 and meeting fellow Kansas transplant Carson Robinson. The duo wrote and recorded several songs targeted at urbanites [including “Barnacle Bill The Sailor” – DogRat] and regularly guested on a country radio program hosted by Ethel Park Richardson. When Luther met and married a fiddler who had once played with Robinson named Zora Lyman, he began to move away from country music, preferring to write and perform children’s music. ~ Steve Kurutz, All Music Guide
Oh, I concur. The tonsils on the little girl in blue look practically ready to pop! I feel much better knowing that the original “Barnacle Bill” was indeed a clean song. However, once in the hands of a few drunk sailors and Irish pub crawlers, the lyrics got worse and worse over time. Google it, and there are dozes of hits claiming to have “the real lyrics!”
Being the good mother that I am, I made Molly listen to “A Tree in the Wood” all the way through. In fact, I had “sung” this song for her years ago from memory, with Luther’s weird accent and all, when she was small. She found it endlessly entertaining. Now, she’s urbane enough at 11 to find it grating and bizarre, as she should.
The cover of this record looks like a bunch of kids at the dentist office!
The song appeared in at least one Popeye cartoon that I can recall. Why don’t you do a search and see if you can find the original lyrics?
What I want to know is, did that girl on left of the record cover ever get her tonsils taken out?
Wait a minute! Wasn’t “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” a very ribald song? Before Molly came along, Tom used to sing it with pretty racy lyrics!
Douglas Edward Pratt, how could you? It took me nearly 40+ years to get rid of these insidious ear worms, and now, well, now, being a good Christian woman, I just can’t say it! The two worst for me were: “Shortnin’ Bread” and the interminable “Froggy Went a Courtin’,” oh, and “A Tree in the Wood.” OK, that makes three. Never could stand those cumulative songs. As you can guess, “The Twelve Days of Christmas is my least favorite Christmas carol. I hated “Buffalo Gals” until I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and now, of course, I associate the cheesy, sentimental version played there with the song and don’t mind it any more.”
“Say, Mary, what did you wish for?” Donna Reed gives him Jimmy Stewart a coy glance and walks on ahead, swinging her robe belt, “As I was lumberin’ down the street, down the street, down the street.” Sigh …
Say, did you get that Youtube I sent you of our beloved old anti-smoking ad from the 60s? (“Like Father, Like Son?”)