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Miss Lucy had a baby
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"Miss Lucy had a baby...", also known by various other names,[9] is an American schoolyard rhyme. Originally used as a jump-rope chant, it is now more often sung alone or as part of a clapping game. It has many variations, possibly originating from it, or from its predecessors.[10][11]
The song is often combined or confused with the similar but cruder "Miss Susie had a steamboat", which uses the same tune and was also used as a jump-rope game.
Contents
[hide]
1 Structure
2 History
3 Lyrics
4 See also
5 External links
6 References
Structure[edit]
As in "Miss Susie", the rhyme is organized by its meter, an accentual verse, in trimeter.[10] Accentual verse allows for set number of accents regardless of the number of syllables in the verse. It is a common form in English folk verse, especially in nursery rhymes and jump-rope rhymes. The song shares much of the same melody as the 1937 "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" used by Warner Bros. as the theme to their Looney Tunes cartoons.[12][need quotation to verify]
History[edit]
A history of the Miss Suzie had a steamboat similar rhyme has been studied, tracing it back to the 1950s.[13] but several other books and articles show similar versions used as far back as the end of the 19th century.[14]
"Miss Lucy" probably developed from verses of much older (and cruder) songs, although the opposite may also be true,[15] most commonly known as "Bang Bang Rosie" in Britain, "Bang Away Lulu" in Appalachia,[14] and "My Lula Gal" in the West.[4][16] These songs were sometimes political, usually openly crude, and occasionally infanticidal.
In those songs, the baby, that was dropped in the chamber pot bathtub, was referencing an enormously popular mascot of Force cereal named Sunny Jim, introduced in the United States in 1902 and in Britain a few years later. Following his declining popularity, the baby is now usually encountered as Tiny Tim, once famous as a Depression-era comic strip and still well known as a character in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.[8] The verse was first recorded as a joke in the 1920s and as the modern children's song in New York in 1938.[4] Although the song derives from lyrics about an unwed whore, few children consider that Miss Lucy might be unmarried; instead, the concern of the song has shifted to the appearance of new siblings. The opening lines now often change to "My mother had a baby..." or "I had a little brother..."[8]
The variants including a woman with an alligator purse urging the baby's mother to vote have been seen as a reference to Susan B. Anthony, an American suffragette,[7] It was later attributed to a social worker[17] which was their typical dress code in the 1950s[18]
A version of the song appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's 1964 film Marnie, about a woman overcoming a childhood trauma. Although the ending seems closed, some argue the song serves to ironically establish that nothing ever was wrong with the title character.[19] It also appears in country singer Chely Wright's song "Alligator Purse" from her 1996 album Right in the Middle of It.
In the 1990s the singer Lucy Peach popularized a version of the song with the words "I had a little turtle, its name was Tiny Tim". Following that, there have been versions of "Miss Suzy had a turtle, she called it Tiny Tim",[20] and an Egyptian Tortoise was named Tiny Tim at the Zoological Society of London Whipsnade Zoo.[21]
Possible references to the song's characters, or sources for their names, are:[citation needed]
Tiny Tim is the nickname of a fictional character Timothy Cratchit in 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens from 1843.
Miss Lucy is the main character in the song "Miss Lucy Long", introduced in 1843, which has the same meter and rhythmic structure of a repeated couplet, and a very similar tune. The song was popular at blackface minstrel shows.[22][23]
A famous steamboat disaster tied to the name Lucy, which occurred in 1844, when the Lucy Walker steamboat, a ship owned by a Cherokee native American and run by a team of his African American slaves, blew up.
The name "Miss Lucy" is also the nickname of a fish Chrysoblephus gibbiceps.
Herbert Khauri, the American singer and ukulele player began using the stage name Tiny Tim in 1962.
Lyrics[edit]
Several versions exist, varying across time and regionally:[8]
America
(early version)[8]
Miss Susie had a baby
His name was Tiny Tim
She put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water.
He ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub
But it wouldn't go down his throat.
Miss Susie called the doctor.
The doctor called the nurse.
The nurse called the lady
With the alligator purse.
Out ran the doctor.
Out ran the nurse.
Out ran the lady
With the alligator purse.
And now Tiny Tim
Is home sick in bed,
With soap in his throat
And bubbles in his head.
Britain
(1970s)[5]
The Johnsons had a baby
They called him Tiny Tim, Tim, Tim
They put him in a bathtub
To see if he could swim, swim, swim
He drank up all the water
He ate a bar of soap, soap, soap
"Mommy, mommy, I feel ill
"Send for the doctor down the hill"
In came the doctor
In came the nurse
In came the lady
With the alligator purse
"Doctor, doctor, will I die?"
"Yes, my son, but do not cry.
"Close your eyes and
"Count to ten."
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
Out went the doctor
Out went the nurse
Out went the lady
With the alligator purse
Miss Lucy had a baby,
she called him[24] Tiny Tim!
She put him in the bathtub
to see if he could[25] swim.
He drank up all the water,
he ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub[26]
but it wouldn't go down[27] his throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor,
Miss Lucy[28] called the nurse.
Miss Lucy[29] called the lady
with the alligator purse.
In came[30] the doctor,
in came[30] the nurse.
In came[30] the lady
with the alligator purse.
'Mumps'[31] - said the doctor.
'Measles'[32]- said the nurse.
'Nothing' - said the lady
with the alligator purse.
Miss Lucy hit the doctor
Miss Lucy[28] slapped the nurse
Miss Lucy paid the lady
with the alligator purse
Out went the water.
Out went the soap,
Out went the bathtub,[33]
that wouldn't go down his throat.
Out went[30] the doctor,
Out went[30] the nurse.
Out went[30] the lady
with the alligator purse.
See also[edit]
"Miss Susie had a steamboat..."
"Bang Bang Lulu..."
"Miss Lucy Long"
See Tiny Tim (disambiguation) for several real and fictional people, institutions and projects called Tiny Tim after this song.
External links[edit]
a mother singing and showing a book and her daughter attempting to sing as well
clapping game seen - first part shows the clean Miss Lucy, and then moves to the profanity versions.
teaching guitar chords with Miss Lucy (first "nice" then "naughty" versions)
a band playing Miss Lucy for deaf children
I had a little turtle - readout version (no tune), with movements.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Hall, Kristin. "Miss Lucy". 2009. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c Huhn, Betsy. "Miss Susie Had a Baby" at "Jack Horntip Collection Field Recordings". 2013. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Col, Jeananda. "The Lady with the Alligator Purse" at Enchanted Learning. 2000. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c Opie, Iona & al. The Singing Game. Oxford Univ. Press (Oxford), 1985.
^ Jump up to: a b Opie, Iona. Recording C898/22. British Library, 1974. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Opie, Iona. Recording C898/02. British Library, 1975. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b Hollihan, Kerrie. Rightfully Ours: How Women Won the Vote, p. 78. Chicago Review Press (Chicago), 2012. Accessed 13 Jan 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bronner, Simon. Explaining Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture, pp. 217 ff. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 2011. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Including "Miss Lucy",[1] "Ms. Lucy",[2] "Ask Me No Questions",[2] "The Lady with the Alligator Purse",[3] "The Johnsons had a baby...",[4][5] and variations where the mother is named "Susie",[6] "Suzie",[2] "Lulu",[7] and "Virginia".[8]
^ Jump up to: a b Henninger, Jessie. "Miss Susie Had a Steamboat: I. Structure" at The Raveled Sleeve. 29 Nov 2008. Accessed 16 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Henninger, Jessie. "Miss Susie Had a Steamboat: V. Versions of the Rhyme Used in This Essay" at The Raveled Sleeve. 29 Nov 2008. Accessed 12 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Smith, Ronald. Comedy on Record: the Complete Critical Discography, p. 634. Garland Publishing, 1988.
Jump up ^ On Children's rhymes and changing sexuality perception throughout time in Josepha Sherman's article on a publication of the American Folklore Society
^ Jump up to: a b Cray, Ed. The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs 2nd ed., p. 173 ff. UIP (Champaign), 1999. Accessed 13 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ The Erotic Muse, p. 174. Cray explicitly postulates his hypothesis of the sources for this theme, and states that in the case of many other crude songs, they were a parody on even earlier 'clean' songs.
Jump up ^ Logsdon, Guy. The Whorehouse Bells Are Ringing and Other Songs Cowboys Sing, pp. 154 ff. 1995 reprint of UIP (Champaign), 1989. Accessed 13 Jan 2014. (NB: Logsdon's versions are set to the separate tune of the bluegrass traditional "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms".)
Jump up ^ About the Miss Lucy rhyme on a lecture at the Australian College of Social Work: "How not to appear as a social worker".
Jump up ^ Take me to Connie Island, Miriam Packer, Guernica Editions, 1993, Page 35
Jump up ^ Street, Sarah. "Hitchcockian Haberdashery" in Framing Hitchcock: Selected Essays from the Hitchcock Annual, p. 153. Wayne State University Press (Detroit), 2002. Accessed 14 Jan 2014.
Jump up ^ Nursery rhymes (PDF, Early Childhood Development Center website)
Jump up ^ Tiny Tim the tortoise has grape expectations (at zooborns.com website)
Jump up ^ Miss Lucy Long introduction and song at the Midwest Banjo Camp's Faculty Concert (2011, YouTube)
Jump up ^ Mahar, William J. (1999). Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Listed in Appendix C as the second most popular blackface song throughout the end of the 19th century.
Jump up ^ or: his name was or: she named him
Jump up ^ or: to teach him how to
Jump up ^ or: and then when he was finished
Jump up ^ or: he had bubbles in
^ Jump up to: a b or: the doctor
Jump up ^ or: The nurse
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f or: walked
Jump up ^ or: Measles
Jump up ^ or: Mumps if the doctor said Measles
Jump up ^ or: bubbles
[hide]
v
t
e
Nursery rhymes (list)
"A-Tisket, A-Tasket"
"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"
"Did You Ever See a Lassie?"
"Hey Diddle Diddle"
"Hickory Dickory Dock"
"Hot Cross Buns"
"Humpty Dumpty"
"I'm a Little Teapot"
"It's Raining, It's Pouring"
"Jack and Jill"
"Little Bo Peep"
"Little Boy Blue"
"Little Jack Horner"
"Little Miss Muffet"
"Mary Had a Little Lamb"
"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary"
"Old King Cole"
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
"Old Mother Hubbard"
"Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
"Peter Piper"
"Polly Put the Kettle On"
"Poor Mary"
"Pop Goes the Weasel"
"Pussy Cat Pussy Cat"
"Rain Rain Go Away"
"Roses Are Red"
"Rub-a-dub-dub"
"Simple Simon"
"Sticks and Stones"
"The Grand Old Duke of York"
"The Queen of Hearts"
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
"Two Little Dickie Birds"
Clapping
"A Sailor Went to Sea"
"Down Down Baby"
"Mary Mack"
"Miss Susie"
"Miss Lucy"
"Pat-a-cake"
"Pretty Little Dutch Girl"
"Pease Porridge Hot"
Counting
"Duck, duck, goose"
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe"
"One, Two, Three, Four, Five"
"This Old Man"
"Tinker, Tailor"
Finger-
plays
"Five Little Monkeys"
"Five Little Speckled Frogs"
"Itsy Bitsy Spider"
"Little Robin Redbreast"
"Round and round the garden"
"This Little Piggy"
Games
"London Bridge"
"The Muffin Man"
"Mulberry Bush"
"Oranges and Lemons"
"Ring a Ring o' Roses"
"The Farmer in the Dell"
Riddle
"As I was going to St Ives"
Lullabies
"Hush, Little Baby"
"Rock-a-bye Baby"
Rounds
"Ding Dong Bell"
"Frère Jacques"
"Kookaburra"
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
"Scotland's Burning"
"Three Blind Mice"
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miss_Lucy_had_a_baby&oldid=767002172"
Categories:
Children's street culture
Playground songs
Clapping games
Songs about women
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