Row, Row, Row Your Boat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1852 |
| Songwriter(s) | Eliphalet Oram Lyte |
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is an English language nursery rhyme and a popular children's song. It can also be an "action" nursery rhyme, whose singers sit opposite one another and "row" forwards and backwards with joined hands. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19236.
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961). Crosby also used the song as part of a round with his family during his concert at the London Palladium in 1976. The performance was captured on the album Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is often sung as a round for four voice parts. A possible arrangement for SATB is as follows:
-
The text above is often sung multiple times in succession to allow for the different voices to interweave with each other, forming four-part harmony.Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat, Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat, Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream. Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream.
Origins
It has been suggested that the song may have originally arisen out of American minstrelsy. The earliest printing of the song is from 1852, when the lyrics were published with similar lyrics to those used today, but with a very different tune. It was reprinted again two years later with the same lyrics and another tune. The modern tune was first recorded with the lyrics in 1881, mentioning Eliphalet Oram Lyte in The Franklin Square Song Collection but not making it clear whether he was the composer or adapter.
Additional or alternative verses
People often add additional verses, a form of children's street culture, with the intent of either extending the song or (especially in the case of more irreverent versions) to make it funny, parody it, or substitute another sensibility for the perceived innocent one of the original. In Bean, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and Peter MacNicol (David Langley) also used this parody singing in the film. Don Music, a muppet character in Sesame Street, changed the lyrics to feature a car instead of a boat.
Versions include:
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
If you see a crocodile,
Don't forget to scream.
or:
Row, row, row your boat,
Underneath the stream.
Ha Ha! I fooled you,
I'm a submarine!
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Throw your teacher overboard
And listen to her scream.
and:
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Try to make it back to shore
Before your boat sinks.
