What are some real American folk songs that everyday people actually know?
Posted by Likepersik@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 763 comments
I'm from slavik country. I’m not looking for pop hits or national anthems. I want to hear the songs that ordinary Americans might sing around a campfire, or on a road trip, or that your grandparents knew.
What would you recommend?
AtlanticToastConf@reddit
This Land Is Your Land
She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Home on the Range
Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore
prole6@reddit
Just about anything written by Stephan Foster. He was like Dylan, Taupin, Lennon/McCartney/et al. Rolled into one! Unfortunately for him he had to earn money by selling sheet music.
LeeskaKat@reddit
Yep! Came here to say this. Stephen Foster's music dominates the list of still-sung American folk songs.
prole6@reddit
I bet most people know 5 of his songs without knowing who wrote them.
Impressive_Sun_1132@reddit
The last one is religous not folk
RhodeReddit@reddit
I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing
If I Had a Hammer
One Tin Soldier
(Take Me Home,) Country Roads
Individual-Fox5795@reddit
Where are you from? I know none of these but country roads.
otbnmalta@reddit
I am from NJ. It's more the age we are. It was released in 1969. I started playing piano in 1973, so I learned it around 1975.
MyDogSam-15@reddit
One Tin Soldier makes me cry.
javiergoddam@reddit
I haven't heard of these ones other than Country Roads and I only know it bc I actually like the record hahaha I didn't learn it through folkways
otbnmalta@reddit
One Tin Soldier was the first real song I learned to play on the piano
FlobyToberson85@reddit
I haven't thought of this song in decades and kind of forgot it existed. Memory unlocked!
AnInfiniteArc@reddit
Did you throw the last one in as a joke or am I meant to have heard of that
I’m 41 don’t do this to me
GOTaSMALL1@reddit
On top of spaghetti… all covered in cheese.
I lost my poor meatball… when somebody sneezed.
Global_Friend5300@reddit
These lyrics fit perfectly to the tune of Chariots of Fire.
neverneededsaving@reddit
My mom did this at karaoke once and it was just about the best thing I’ve ever seen
justattodayyesterday@reddit
It rolled off the tables and onto the floor
I lost my poor meatball when it rolled out the door
AGirlNamedRoni@reddit
It rolled through the garden and into a bush
Then my poor meatball was nothing but mush
TheOtterDecider@reddit
Early next summer, it grew into a tree. A tree full of meatballs for you and for me.
jazzminarino@reddit
I definitely had a very different meatball song growing up. Wish I would've had the meatball tree!!
A_Fartist@reddit
Sounds Italian to me…
Tweezot@reddit
Damn the one I knew was way worse:
“On top of a schoolhouse, all covered with blood,
I shot my poor teacher, with an M16 gun.
We went to her funeral, we went to her grave,
Some people threw flowers, but I threw a grenade.”
AtlanticToastConf@reddit
A classic.
CheesE4Every1@reddit
Does Rocky top still count for as bastardized as it's become?
kbivs@reddit
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
jamesbest7@reddit
Yankee Doodle?
AtlanticToastConf@reddit
Oooh, good one I haven't seen so far
boulevardofdef@reddit
I wouldn't call it a folk song, the version sung at baseball games is the chorus of a commercial hit from 1908
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
Most of our "folk songs" are commercial hits from the 19th century. "Oh, Susanna" (Stephen Foster) "Sweet Betsy from Pike," "Clementine." All would be considered folk songs now, and some even have extra verses not written by the original authors
highspeed_steel@reddit
You and the commentor above debating the definition of folksong does raise a funny point. 1800s popular songs are usually known as folk songs, whereas early to mid 1900s popular songs are known as popular songs, standards, Great American Song Book, Tin Pan alley etc.
MyWorserJudgement@reddit
"1800s folk songs find their way into nursery rhyms and kids songs more than swing standards due to their simplicity."
...or copyright!
alexthe5th@reddit
That one's interesting to think about. Nowadays few people remember its Tin Pan Alley popular song origins or the songwriters and it's now passed down mostly by oral tradition across generations, so you could argue it's evolved into a modern folk song.
joey-rigatoni1@reddit
Great shout
therealdrewder@reddit
A boy named sue
The devil went down to Georgia
maggy_boi_x@reddit
Home On The Range is my State Song
WafflePeak@reddit
I’ve venerated heard of Micheal row the boat ashore but all the others are a good list
Bitter_Ad8768@reddit
It's commonly taught as "my first funeral dirge" in a lot of Christian communities. The song is steeped in religious symbolism.
Grouchy-Stand-4570@reddit
I had no idea it was a funeral song! We sang it at church summer camp
WafflePeak@reddit
I’m not from a religious background and don’t really know people who are so makes sense I don’t know it then.
Bitter_Ad8768@reddit
That is such a wild statement to me. Religion, of many flavors, is such a domineering presence in the Midwest that even people who have been irreligious their entire life come into contact with it regularly. Either through community services provided by religious organizations or conflict stemming from sectarian differences. Even secular institutions out here are regularly staffed by religious adherents.
wfbhp@reddit
I'm also originally from Ohio and lived in Indiana for about 6 years, and I've never heard anyone sing any part of that song in real life. The only reason I know it is from hearing it in movies and TV shows, like Friday the 13th, Family Guy, Wings, and The X-Files. There are lots of spirituals and hymns I've only encountered through media, and often for the first time well into my 20s or 30s.
WafflePeak@reddit
I’m from a city in California and live in New York now. Growing up my family was culturally Christian (we celebrated Christmas and all) but if you were to ask me what denomination I wouldn’t even know. Catholic? Protestant? No idea but I had a lot of fun as a kid collecting hidden eggs on Easter.
HottestestestMess@reddit
Yeah, they say “hallelujah” in almost every line!
FolsgaardSE@reddit
Thats the only line I know from that song because it was sang at the beginning of the original Friday the 13th.
HottestestestMess@reddit
That’s because it’s a Sunday school song. I wouldn’t classify it as a folk song.
Initial_Fill_2655@reddit
Also try gospel himself or songs sung by slaves
AtlanticToastConf@reddit
I dunno, I'm not an expert or anything, but I'd consider traditional African-American spirituals (like Michael, Row the Boat Ashore or Swing Low, Sweet Chariot) to be folk music. I might be wrong!
ehs06702@reddit
You're not. We're also folk, and we also made music. A lot of it, actually.
HottestestestMess@reddit
This is a very good point, I stand corrected. And a lot of folk songs people think of as white (like all the Stephen Foster ones) are lifted wholesale from Black music, which is a practice that continues today.
HottestestestMess@reddit
That’s fair. I think there’s a broad and a narrow definition of folk. The broad definition would include pretty much every song mentioned in these replies. And I haven’t considered that some of the Christian songs were specifically Black spirituals/hymns, which certainly warrant different consideration from ones that kids learned in Sunday school/Bible camp.
CommandAlternative10@reddit
You have to listen to the Pete Seeger version, it’s amazing!
HottestestestMess@reddit
I don’t doubt it, he was amazing! I’ll seek it out :)
CK1277@reddit
A lot of folk music is also religious music.
SoCalDama@reddit
I love this song and will sing it. Look it up from the Kingston Trio. I also enjoy the Smothers Brothers’ version.
ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit
Camp or Xtian youth retreat song
nowhereman136@reddit
It's more of a Christian song kids learn than an American folk song. I've never heard out outside of religion context before.
No_Hat2875@reddit
Hallelujah!
JerseyGirl4ever@reddit
Hardly anybody knows all the verses to This Land Is Your Land, and we all should pay attention to them.
7GrenciaMars@reddit
Railroad was the first thing I thought of. 😁
ThatThingInTheWoods@reddit
I got to hear an entire stuck train of people sing This Land is Your Land while we waited for a spot at the station during the huge Intl Women's Day 😽 marches back in what? 2017? It was amazing. Brought tears to my eyes.
XelaNiba@reddit
You Are My Sunshine
S0rry7h15N4m374k3n@reddit
Yankee Doodle...?
DahjNotSoji@reddit
Squirrel179@reddit
You Are My Sunshine
This Little Light of Mine
Ring Around the Rosie
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Camptown Races
NewsteadMtnMama@reddit
The Old Gray Mare
MattieShoes@reddit
Oh Susanna!
_BMS@reddit
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
LtKavaleriya@reddit
O’ Susanna
Frenchitwist@reddit
Oh My Darling, Clementine
silviazbitch@reddit
Love This Land is Your Land! It’s a socialist anthem that Woody Guthrie wrote as a rebuttal to God Bless America, but MAGA dimwits didn’t get the memo. They stop paying attention after the first four verses.
These are the full original lyrics:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding;
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back.
This land was made for you and me.
Terradactyl87@reddit
99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall
crinnaursa@reddit
Jimmy Crack Corn
Colonelmann@reddit
Best list for this post! Let's go camping.
NoRoutine3220@reddit
Good list
Technical-Suit9095@reddit
Miss Mary Mac
Miss Lucy had a baby
dafoh@reddit
And Miss Lucy/Susie had a Steamboat.
stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit
A lot of the soundtrack for Oh Brother Where Art Though is a mix of bluegrass and American folk music. I highly recommend it.
MolemanusRex@reddit
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Wade in the Water are probably the best known slave songs/spirituals.
HottestestestMess@reddit
What about Lift Every Voice and Sing (aka the Black National anthem)? It’s not a slave song because it was written later, but it’s definitely a hymn
Impressive_Sun_1132@reddit
Hymn is not folk in my opinion
stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit
Just noting semantics that OP asked about folk music. I truly don’t know if the anthem would be considered folk music. I m not schooled in what distinguishes a hymn vs. folk music.
And honestly a lot of what we call hymns and bluegrass stem from folks music. And then there’s music called Americana.
DancingWithAWhiteHat@reddit
Was looking for this
shoresy99@reddit
Swing low is very well known in England where it is always sung at England’s national rugby games.
trowawaid@reddit
Smithsonian Folkways / Alan Lomack traveled the US (and other parts of the world too) recording regional music, folk songs, etc.
You can’t go wrong with one of those albums!
wmass@reddit
Follow the drinking gourd comes to mind. It is a song that tells you how to navigate toward the nothern, non-slave states by recognizing the Ursa Major constellation.
stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit
That is cool. TIL.
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
You Are My Sunshine & Darling Clementine come to mind.
Impressive_Sun_1132@reddit
I think the clementine one is actually called oh my darling and also is HORRIFIC
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
You might be right & boy is it ever a downer.
MiseEnSelle@reddit
I have to pronounce Clementine as "Clementeen" to keep me from singing! And why does Sunshine sound so happy despite the sad message in the words?
Impressive_Sun_1132@reddit
Oh my darling is also horrifying. The guy ends up kissing her little sistet and going who cares about clementine anymore she ded
Oenonaut@reddit
You Are My Sunshine has pretty sad lyrics too.
The other night, dear/ As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you In my arms
When I awoke, dear / I was mistaken
So I hung my head and cried
RedStateKitty@reddit
Anne Murray in her kids album had a segue in "you are my sunshine," to " let the sun shine in:" "So let the sunshine in, face it with a grin, smilers never lose, and frowners never win, so let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, open up your heart and let the sun shine in."
thirteenbodies@reddit
OT, but I had a cat who would come from anywhere while doing anything if I sang this song. He’d give me a grumpy look as though it were MY fault he was irresistibly drawn to it and stomp away, flicking his tail.
Competitive_Trust174@reddit
I like to imagine the song being sung for a sick baby. The tune is for the child but the words are for the parent.
CashMoneyWinston@reddit
That’s pretty much the exact context. The only times I heard my mom sing it was when I was sick/injured/etc as a kid.
cephalophile32@reddit
My aunt sung this to me all the time was a kid. Then I grew up and actually listened to the lyrics. And now I cry whenever I hear it because every day I wake she is not here. I miss her.
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
Down in the Valley and Red River Valley are really sad, too.
toomanyracistshere@reddit
Fun fact: the guy who wrote and sang "You Are My Sunshine" eventually became governor of Louisiana. He was known as "The Singing Governor" and lived to be 101, dying in 2000. He was governor twice, once in the 40s and once in the 60s. Less fun fact: He was strongly in favor of racial segregation.
ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit
There's more than one origin story for this song, my favorite was that it was the governor of Louisiana singing it about his horse whose name was sunshine
DrScarecrow@reddit
It's the state song of Louisiana
MilkstacheMustache@reddit
TIL that my dad has been trolling me for almost 50 years by singing the third line as "When I awake dear/ it was a pillow."
MilkstacheMustache@reddit
ETA I'm glad this is bringing joy to people on a Monday morning. My dad is great and he absolutely loves to troll us. My older brother has a story about when he stood up at school and insisted they were getting the George Washington cherry tree story wrong because they omitted the part where GW tried to blame it on the Indians. Papa was trying to teach us some deeper lessons with that one.
SuzieSnowflake212@reddit
How freaking sweet! 🥹
tehreal@reddit
Ha that's amazing
FlyByPC@reddit
There's an answer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcHhc3GKNZk
secretsuperhero@reddit
Oh My Darling Clementine is about a woman drowning.
Ruby lips above the water Blowing bubbles, soft and fine But, alas, I was no swimmer So I lost my Clementine
But at the end of the song he hooks up with Clementines sister.
SomebodysGotToSayIt@reddit
How I missed her, how I missed her, how I missed my Clementine, til I kissed her little sister and forgot my Clementine
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
That's nineteenth century humor. It runs darker than what we usually prefer today.
NeverRarelySometimes@reddit
My then 4-year-old changed the words, because they were too sad.
"You are lost but I will find you..."
NoFanksYou@reddit
I always thought it was a bit tongue in cheek.
Regular_Boot_3540@reddit
I believe it is!
PabloPicasshooole@reddit
Those were the bubbles
wolfysworld@reddit
When my grandma was mad at someone she would say, “I’d like to hold them until they bubble” Dark but clever!
Colonelmann@reddit
Haha most people don't listen that far! Awesome story (ballad).
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
My grandma used to only sing the chorus & skip the sad parts 😆
jub-jub-bird@reddit
As did mine and I'm a grandpa now myself and continue that tradition, at least when singing it to grandkids. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know, dear, how much I love you" is just such a perfect expression of how you feel about your kids and grandkids as a parent/grandparent. The tune is easy to sing and makes for a perfect lullaby... So you stick to the chorus and/or bowdlerize a few of the lyrics to make the song more appropriate to the occasion.
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
That's precious! I'm looking forward to becoming an auntie & singing it to my little niece ❤️
ScarletDarkstar@reddit
Me, too, and my parents.
jessipowers@reddit
My mom, too
SeaworthinessIcy6419@reddit
Look up the artist Mama Nous on Instagram and Spotify. She has beautiful renditions of those songs that she rewrote because after a miscarriage she couldn't listen to the originals. Clementine is on an album on Spotify with other rewritten nursery rhymes, but she couldn't afford the copyright for You Are My Sunshine so that one is only on her Instagram.
worstnameIeverheard@reddit
My daughter used to ask me to sing her Clementine at bedtime because there are so many lyrics. It would extend bedtime by 20 minutes.
javiergoddam@reddit
This is so cute clever kid. Same reason I would pick the biggest books for bedtime!
keladelph@reddit
For the past 32 years, I cannot sing darling clementine without picturing huckleberry hound.
YourGuyK@reddit
I'm your Huckleberry (Hound).
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
Lol he comes first to my mind, too. I hear it in his voice in my head 😂
teacuperate@reddit
I had to rewrite the lyrics for both of these songs because I wanted to use them as lullabies, and the lyrics are just soooo dang depressing! But the tunes are golden.
D-Rich-88@reddit
Hmm I’ve never heard Darling Clementine
Colonelmann@reddit
"In a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mine..."
D-Rich-88@reddit
Nope. Not familiar at all
Colonelmann@reddit
Here, let me help https://open.spotify.com/track/5z5ercwaoJWrJkMXbvaRGP?si=JQpkTvgGQTiw4-yW1vcq9A
D-Rich-88@reddit
Ohhhh that song!
Colonelmann@reddit
The lyrics are hysterical. I sang it to my kindergarten students. Come around spring they started figuring out the gruesome story!
Colonelmann@reddit
Let me help https://open.spotify.com/track/5Wfd8dSuBPox8upgGl7y51?si=5GAvX__tS4We_Q7cQp795g
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
Wow, that's a surprise to me. We're not much of a singing family so I assumed if I've heard it, it must be ubiquitous.
D-Rich-88@reddit
Okay I’ve been enlightened, I do know that one
Regular_Boot_3540@reddit
I love both of those! I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to my parrot. I used to sing it to my kids :D
k8username@reddit
You are my sunshine sounds like folk music but it’s a pop song written in 1939 by Jimmie Davis, future governor of Louisiana
Guerlaingal@reddit
https://www.amazon.com/Greasy-Grimy-Gopher-Guts-Storytelling/dp/0874834449 This was a great collection!
polenta23@reddit
How Much Is That Doggy In The Window
Legitimate-March9792@reddit
Kumbaya
Neat-Science-1404@reddit
If I had a hammer by Woody Guthrie
LeeskaKat@reddit
The Ants Go Marching
This Little Light of Mine
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
You are My Sunshine
If I had a Hammer
Battle Hymn of the Republic
I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
Little Bunny Foo Foo
On top of Spaghetti
The Garden Song (Inch by Inch)
O my Darling Clementine
100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall
This Land is Your Land
JumpyAlbatross8135@reddit
mostly in the Appalachia region of Virginia and West Virginia, but country roads is a pretty good one
octoamti@reddit
The ants go marching
octoamti@reddit
99 bottles of beer on the wall
Sufficient-Dream4579@reddit
Take me home, country roads by John Denver American Pie by Don McLean
Not necessarily "folk" songs but a staple.
Responsible-Care-388@reddit
Camptown Races
Oh Susanna
Oh My Darling Clementine
redmambo_no6@reddit
Which is actually racist AF
Cautious_General_177@reddit
https://youtu.be/0H2W1lK7P-I?si=Jw3jIiUTPwu1FFIF
Be warned, this is from Blazing Saddles.
TheMapleKind19@reddit
"🧐'De Camp Town Ladies'?"
BAMspek@reddit
“Iiiiiii get no kick, from champagne (ooooo ooooo ooooo)” gets stuck in my head way too much. Those harmonies are tight though.
BZBitiko@reddit
I get no kick from cocaine…! Original lyrics
BAMspek@reddit
I think they say that in the second verse? Watched that scene later that day.
RexCelestis@reddit
This movie is so funny, almost more poignant now than when released. It's way to "woke" to e made today.
vanpunke666@reddit
They could never make Blazing Saddles today, mainly because it was already made.
Outside_Complaint755@reddit
It was loosely remade recently (2022) as Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Lefaid@reddit
Can't make Blazing Saddles when the Western has already been lampooned to death by Blazing Saddles.
Sea2Chi@reddit
It was considered the same back then too. It was wildly offensive for the time, but funny enough that people understood that the joke was how stupid the racist characters were, and not that racism itself was funny.
FolsgaardSE@reddit
I can't wait and still can't believe Spaceballs 2 is coming out.
Ok_Two_2604@reddit
Didn’t the dumb guy in Tombstone also ask for the song bc he didn’t like Fredrick Fucking Chopin?
Certain-Monitor5304@reddit
😆❤️
Nude-genealogist@reddit
Came here for that.
BAMspek@reddit
So is Oh Suzanna
dhrisc@reddit
Steven Foster is the writer of all these songs, he was from KY, see also: My Old Kentucky Home
They are nostalgic for the old south and would have been a part of minstrel shows.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
I mean, he wrote them pre-Civil War, so I don’t know that they were nostalgic.
He also isn’t from the South. He was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area. And lived his entire life in the north, mostly PA some NYC. It seems he only visited the South once when he went to Baltimore (so never the Deep South). So maybe his songs could be called caricatures?
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
He was hired to write songs for minstrel shows. They were supposed to mock the black characters.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
It seems that his views changes substantially through his life.
Either way, anything he knew about enslaved people or Black life/culture would’ve likely been second hand or made up entirely. Hence why I said a caricature.
New_Part91@reddit
Baltimore is hardly the south
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
Our modern perception of Maryland/Baltimore definitely affects whether we’d call it the South or not. I would guess that the fact that Maryland didn’t secede had a big impact on how we view Maryland now.
But in the pre-Civil War US, Maryland was south of the Mason-Dixon line and a slave state. It would definitely be considered the south when that songwriter was alive.
UpbeatEquipment8832@reddit
My Old Kentucky Home, at least, was an anti-slavery song (Uncle Tom's Cabin filk). It was used in minstrel shows, but its origins are more complicated than it seems.
HottestestestMess@reddit
If you haven’t read the book Love and Theft by Eric Lott, it’s all about the complicated history of minstrelsy. Talks about foster a lot.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
Interesting! I’ll have to check it out.
OpposumMyPossum@reddit
Yeah, he really didn't know how vile what was happening in the South was -- and he was selling a product.
There were Northern people that toured the South that abandoned their trip because it was too upsetting and disturbing. Abolitionists were made out to be just hysterical exaggerators that didn't like the South.
Courwes@reddit
My elementary school was named after him. Stephen Foster Academy. Wasn’t until I was in High school I learned the reality behind all those songs.
LiquidCryptic@reddit
My darling clementine is actually about a little fat girl who drowns in a river.
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
She's not fat in the original. In fact, "light she was and like a feather, and her shoes were number nine."
SaltMarshGoblin@reddit
I learned "light she was and like a fairy"
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
Yeah, you're right. I remembered it wrong.
juan_humano@reddit
Wait. She was fat? I mean I know her shoes were #9, but thats not like, huge. Or maybe it is? I always imagined her as like, a teenager or young woman.
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
Size nine shoes were big, by the standards of the day.
juan_humano@reddit
Fair enough. Them and me both. Well, for what its worth, Clementine is still MY darling.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
I think it’s just one specific version that makes her fat, and it’s not the original.
Sure-Ad8873@reddit
Wait til you hear about jimmy crack corn
PirateQM@reddit
So I shouldn't mention Ten Little Injuns?
Courwes@reddit
Which in itself is problematic but the original far worse.
teddytherooz@reddit
Wait. What about it?
chalkdrinker@reddit
well, he cracked corn, but I don't care.
crinnaursa@reddit
It's not racist. I think it's getting some back. It's a song about being indifferent to the master's death.
zoopest@reddit
Lots of minstrel songs (and worse) in the American songbook
Traditional-Cook-677@reddit
My family raised horses. I didn’t know about the racism until much later
ShelbyDriver@reddit
I just googled the lyrics and it's about people betting on horses. Is there another racist verse?
redmambo_no6@reddit
The verses by themselves doesn’t make the song racist, it’s racist because it was performed at minstrel shows in blackface.
No_Owl_7380@reddit
My Country Tis of Thee (America) America, the Beautiful Take Me Home, Country Roads Amazing Grace Puff the Magic Dragon
ScrimshawPie@reddit
He's got the whole world in his hands, 15 Miles on the Erie Canal
MolemanusRex@reddit
Do people outside upstate NY learn the Erie Canal song?
Prinessbeca@reddit
The tune is a classic in basically every beginning instrument method book. I learned it when I joined band. I never learned the words.
katerwise@reddit
I’m from the south and I learned it
shoresy99@reddit
Springsteen does. And apparently he is from New Jersey.
Royal_Success3131@reddit
Downstate Illinois, I've heard it here and there but it wasn't a foundational song. But it's known
DrScarecrow@reddit
Grandpa sang it on Rugrats- otherwise I'd have no idea what y'all are talking about!
ImagineFreedom@reddit
I was never taught it, being from South Texas, but I love it.
theproestdwarf@reddit
I grew up in Alaska and I definitely did as a kid!
Ok-commuter-4400@reddit
I’d never heard of it.
Playful_Marzipan8398@reddit
Hell ya! Southern VA here
BraveLittleToaster8@reddit
We sang Erie Canal in my elementary school in music class, it was one of my favorites! (Massachusetts)
cheyannepavan@reddit
We.sang it near Philadelphia.
Onyx_Lat@reddit
I've heard it. Don't know all the words though.
stunted_avenger@reddit
We did in the Chicagoland area!
BZBitiko@reddit
This is the song that never ends…
lolimjustsaying@reddit
This Land is Your Land
Aggravating_Fishy_98@reddit
That song is actually a protest song. You should look up the full lyrics. They’re definitely relevant today.
SumOfChemicals@reddit
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "no trespassing"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me
https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm
BZBitiko@reddit
Woody had a guitar that said,”This machine kills fascists” on the side.
We need more Woody.
NW_Forester@reddit
I always felt spiritual successor to this song is Signs by Five Man Electrical Band and later covered by Tesla.
Safe_Site_7704@reddit
P
heridfel37@reddit
Most of Woody Guthrie's music was protest songs. Including "Old Man Trump"
jane7seven@reddit
This sent me down such a rabbit hole. TIL!
Agamenticus72@reddit
Yes - Woody Guthrie is such an American Treasure
ParmaHamRadio@reddit
Is it not a satirical take on manifest destiny?
HottestestestMess@reddit
I don’t think it’s satirical. It’s meant to subvert the notion that any one person can own all the land. It’s basically the midcentury socialist version of “all are welcome here”
heridfel37@reddit
Isn't satire just subversion with a little humor sprinkled in?
HottestestestMess@reddit
I think this land is too earnest to be satire tbh. If you haven’t seen the full original lyrics, I think you’ll find them quite mournful and poetic. Not particularly humorous!
https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm
ParmaHamRadio@reddit
Thank you, appreciate hearing your perspective!
tibercreek@reddit
Written in response to America the Beautiful
real_agent_99@reddit
Yup, beautiful song and relevant.
AggressiveAd5592@reddit
Woody Guthrie popped in my head immediately.
tcrhs@reddit
Mine, too. Folk music would not exist without Woody Guthrie.
freeski919@reddit
"This machine k-lls fascists"
Likepersik@reddit (OP)
It's funny, I found out about the original of this song after a parody of this song with Bush and Senator John Kerry
AggressiveAd5592@reddit
We used to sing versions of this and the Battle Hymn of the Republic (based on the earlier John Brown's Body) on the school bus. The lyrics all revolved around shooting teachers and people. This was before Columbine shooting.
real_agent_99@reddit
We had one to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic, too! Probably the same one?
Yeah, this was in the 70's, when school shootings weren't a thing. We just thought it was funny.
Did it go something like "We have [] all teachers, we have broken all the rules. We have suffered in the office til we [] the principal"??
KerseyGrrl@reddit
My local version was: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school. We have tortured every teacher we have broken every rule. We have stormed the principal's office and have run him out of town The brats keep marching on
real_agent_99@reddit
First two lines were exactly the same! Mid-to-late 70's.
AggressiveAd5592@reddit
The Battle Hymn of the Republic one began with:
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler
Hid behind the door with a loaded .44
And my teacher don't teach no more.
I graduated high school in 2001, so we were singing this when teachers weren't (for the most part) hitting kids anymore and students weren't (for the most part) shooting up schools yet.
Full_Environment_272@reddit
We sang "hit em on the bum with a stick of bubble gum" Graduated '95
My mom remembers "hit him on the bean with a rotten tangerine" Graduated '61
No_Plankton2501@reddit
I remember “hid in the attic with a semiautomatic”…
KaleidoscopeLow9505@reddit
We sang “shot her in the butt with a rotten coconut and she ain’t my teacher no more”
Sadly the coconut event occurred before grammar lessons were completed.
Maxwyfe@reddit
I graduated HS in 1986 and we were singing this version way back then!
real_agent_99@reddit
We sang this in my (Catholic) elementary/junior high, which I graduated in 1978.
zanthine@reddit
About the same age. We sang “Glory, Glory Allelujah, teacher hit me with a ruler. I hit him back with a baseball bat And he ain’t me teacher no more”
NegotiationLow2783@reddit
That's the version we used in the 70's
Regular_Boot_3540@reddit
Yikes!
Onyx_Lat@reddit
The one my mom taught me went something like
"We have beaten all the teachers and broke the golden rule We have killed the principal and flushed him down the stool We'll do more Saturday
Glory glory no more school (etc)"
real_agent_99@reddit
Ours was similar but not exactly the same!
KiaraNarayan1997@reddit
Do you like my version?
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the return of the king For the future of the Pride Lands he will do anything Simba is alive and it’s his name we will sing The truth is marching on Glory glory hallelujah Glory glory hallelujah Glory glory hallelujah Our Simba is marching on
TheMapleKind19@reddit
My mom sang one like that from the 60s and 70s. I don't think it went as far as killing everyone, but I might be misremembering.
FineWashables@reddit
I bopped him on the bean With a rotten tangerine And the juice came running out!
aznsk8s87@reddit
Lol the one we sang as kids was the paratrooper one.
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
Did y'allhave God Bless My Underwear?
fliesonwalls@reddit
We used to sing this song too, but it was taught to us by our MUSIC TEACHER who was later arrested for molesting students. So....
Feather757@reddit
You are not wrong! Here's the version I remember from being a kid in the 70's
🎵 This land is my land, and only my land
I've got a shotgun, and you don't have one
I'll blow your head off, if you don't get off ...
this land was made for only me!
stacistacis@reddit
My dad used to sing:
This land is my land
This land's not your land
If you don't get off
I'll blow your head off
I've got a shotgun
And you ain't got one
This land was made for only me.
I'm not sure where he got that, but he wrote and listened to a lot of parodies. He made one called "Nosferatu", sung to the tune of Desperado.
susandeyvyjones@reddit
We sang that as kids
big_bob_c@reddit
Do you have the lyrics to Nosferatu?
stacistacis@reddit
Not all of it, just bits and pieces. He used to be in a classic rock cover band he was always making parodies.
"Nosferatu I know you're sad but you mask it Come out of the casket And into the light. Oh you're a dead one And I know that it's worse than asthma To be sucking that plasma And spreading that blight
Oh your body's cold in the summertime It's been 500 years since you've seen sunshine. Without a reflection, it's hard to comb your hair. You're losing touch with family They get so grossed out when they have to see you stare"
not_a_ham@reddit
That's the version we sang when we were kids. I don't know where it came from either.
stacistacis@reddit
Probably some stand up or variety show. I'd ask my dad but his memory isn't great lol
HottestestestMess@reddit
lol, he basically made it have the exact opposite sentiment of the original 😭
Jwkaoc@reddit
This was the only version I knew as a kid.
Khajiit_Has_Upvotes@reddit
"This land was my land..."
"And now it's our land!!"
dachjaw@reddit
To the New York skyline…hey, what did I do?
lolimjustsaying@reddit
I remember that!
“I have three Purple Hearts!”
TheMapleKind19@reddit
Jib Jab!
Proof-Letterhead-541@reddit
This machine kills fascists.
South_Bumblebee7892@reddit
I used to sing this to my kids when they were little. Every once in a while I would get it crossed up musically with You Are My Sunshine and that was hard to recover from!
cavalier78@reddit
This hand is your hand,
This hand is my hand,
No wait that’s your hand.
No wait that’s my hand…”
randousername8675309@reddit
"I will cut my hand off and give it to you!"
real_agent_99@reddit
This is the one.
D-ouble-D-utch@reddit
I doubt most people know more than the first verse.
AdnorAdnor@reddit
^this^ childhood memories unlocked
HecticTurtIe@reddit
Yankee Doodle Dandy is the first thing that came to my mind
tryptanfelle@reddit
Yankee Doodle Dandy or Yankee Doodle? The first one is a song by George M. Cohan and was a broadway show.
cheyannepavan@reddit
Both, in my opinion.
ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit
Very different style of songs - I think only the original qualifies
If you can find the original movie version of the song, Jimmy Cagney is almost rapping the lyrics. The chorus is a sing-along however I've never once been anywhere when the George Cohen version was sung over the original
gettinbymyguy@reddit
We sang both in elementary school. I actually was shocked when it was in a movie we got from the library and my music teacher had me bring it in and show the class.
ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit
I definitely would have gone to more classes if they'd shown classic movies
Intelligent-Pay-9417@reddit
Any thing from Schoolhouse Rock. My favs: -Conjunction Junction -Unpack Your Adjectives -Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here -Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla -Them Not-So-Dry Bones -Electricity, ElectricityElectricity, Electricity
tcrhs@reddit
This Land is Your Land
KDneverleft@reddit
A lot of folk songs that were popular in the Southeastern US are featured in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. I grew up listening to my grandmother sing or hum I'll Fly Away. Older people loved to sing hymns and would have "singings" where the town would gather for a meal, some preaching and hymnal singing.
From_Deep_Space@reddit
One evening, as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning, down the track came a hobo hiking, and he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
stjudastheblue@reddit
I’m a goin to a land that’s far away, beyond the crystal fount
Intelligent-Invite79@reddit
So come with me we’ll go and see, the big rock candy mountains. In the big rock candy mountains, there’s a land that’s fair and bright!
ComprehensiveEar6001@reddit
That was my first thought. Love hobo music.
johnsonjohnson83@reddit
You're definitely bona fide.
makestuff24-7@reddit
He's a suitor!
Independent_Wish_862@reddit
We're in a tight spot!
Asaneth@reddit
Well ain't you just a geographical oddity, two weeks from everywhere!
Asaneth@reddit
Well I told that undertaker,
Said undertaker please drive slow
For that body that you're hauling
Lord I hate to see her go
HidingInTrees2245@reddit
I LOVE the soundtrack to that movie. It's great!
losthiker68@reddit
I drive long distances to hike/backpack and that soundtrack will always get played at some point on the drive. If I utter a noise while my wife is on the car and "Didn't Leave Nothin' But the Baby" ins on that's not singing along, I get a spank on the hand and the song gets reset.
HidingInTrees2245@reddit
That’s one of the best ones. I play the whole album on road trips too and sing along with it all. Even the yodeling in the Jailhouse song. I got it down! 😅
HottestestestMess@reddit
That soundtrack was my introduction to Americana and I’ve been a huge fan ever since.
thezizybalooba@reddit
Just an interesting note for those not aware:
Leadbelly did not write in the pines, but did several of the most famous/well known recordings of it. Nirvana covered it on their MTV unplugged live show/album, but under the title "where did you sleep last night" which I would be willing to bet is the main reason a lot of younger generations still know of it
KDneverleft@reddit
That is interesting. I remember watching MTV Unplugged and thought it was really cool they covered it. My grandparents had a Stanley brothers album and I remember hearing it there first.
foetusized@reddit
Alan Lomax collected “In the Pines” in Appalachia, and Leadbelly learned it from Lomax.
KDneverleft@reddit
I'm loving this thread and collecting so many great artists to listen to on a folk/Americana deep dive.
Thank you all!
HottestestestMess@reddit
There’s also a beautiful, haunting rendition by the Kossoy Sisters, a folk revival band in the 50s/60s Greenwich Village scene.
KDneverleft@reddit
I listened on my lunch break and that is beautiful. Now I feel like going on a deep dive of Greenwich Village music from the Beatnik era.
HottestestestMess@reddit
That’s going to be a fun journey! You can round it out with a viewing of Inside Llewelyn Davis!
worstnameIeverheard@reddit
I grew up in the rural, Appalachian parts of Pennsylvania. My grandma was the church pianist, and I learned how to play the piano by working my way through the church hymnal.
I'm not religious now, but man, I could get down with a good ol' fashioned hymn sing.
AineDez@reddit
There are a lot of non-religious (not part of worship, they lyrics are religious ofc) shape note singing groups singing from The Sacred Harp, Columbian Harmony and similar. 4 part harmony Acapella, participatory singing (no audience).
KDneverleft@reddit
You should put it on in a reflective moment. I'm also no longer religious, but I made Easter brunch for my son and I while listening to Loretta Lynn sing hymns. It was "salve to my soul" as my grandfather used to say.
worstnameIeverheard@reddit
I still have that hymnal on my piano!
grey_canvas_@reddit
I mean religion aside, Will The Circle Be Unbroken was also covered by Johnny Cash... so that could have contributed to its popularity.
KDneverleft@reddit
Definitely. Most of the country stars from back in my grandparents' day were putting out gospel albums. Elvis and Loretta Lynn are my two favorites.
grey_canvas_@reddit
I agree!!
Elvis's An American Trilogy (Glory Glory Hallelujah) 🤌🤌🤌🤌
But Patsy Cline doing Peace in The Valley.... Dang.
Intelligent-Invite79@reddit
Yuuup, grew up southern Baptist in Texas and Lordy, that movie is very musically close to home. Angel band was sung at funerals for those who passed, some good, down home tunes.
FEMA_Camp_Survivor@reddit
Add Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Amazing Grace to I’ll Fly Away. They’re songs that tended to cross the color line down South.
Church was segregated but everybody seems to have known those songs.
ShinyJangles@reddit
DO NOT
WolverineResident947@reddit
Around a campfire? Do summer camps still sing Kumbaya? We also sang What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor. I'm pretty sure that one is still popular, as well as The Bear Went Over the Mountain.
FauxmingAtTheMouth@reddit
Take Me Home, Country Roads
lw_red@reddit
"When the Saints Go Marching In" at least in my area of the country.
Finzinnati@reddit
Our MLS supporters group sing a version of this, “The referee is full of sh!!”
lw_red@reddit
its actually pretty dark lyric wise, so that's fun.
cutezombiedoll@reddit
These aren’t all folk songs but this video contains some American classics that everyone recognizes but might not be able to name https://youtu.be/6ZZpmv4VKfs
Also remember the U.S. is a broad and varied place, what’s common folk music in one region might be largely unknown in another I.e bluegrass Appalachian in origin and your average Cali kid probably won’t be all that familiar with it but a kid from West Virginia might be. Different regions have their own musical history based on the musical traditions of those who settled there.
lunammoon@reddit
I don't know if a 45 year old song qualifies as being old enough to be a folk song, but that being said, Take Me Home, Country Roads.
If you start playing it, at least a few Americans will stop to at least sing the chorus
maimou1@reddit
Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster. I loved it as a kid and knew the entire song
AndyinAK49@reddit
Baby shark was a camp song long ago
Ishpeming_Native@reddit
Shenandoah.
She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain.
Sixteen Tons.
If I Had a Hammer.
Way Down Upon the Old Swanee River.
The Camptown Racers.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again.
Yankee Doodle Dandy.
This Land Is Your Land.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Come on, now, you ALL know that one. Look it up!
Ms-Metal@reddit
I didn't see anybody mention these, but If I Had a Hammer, Puff the Magic dragon and many other Peter Paul and Mary songs, lots of the more covers though nd City of New Orleans. Not sure if it counts but I would also consider Alice's Restaurant Massacree in which the titular character only recently passed away and Where Have all the Flowers Gone.
I've seen a lot of people mention One Tin Soldier, which I guess I've never considered a folk song but it is an amazing song! Just about is important today as it was back in the 70s.
dhoshima@reddit
Will the Circle be Unbroken
dontrestonyour@reddit
look into pete seeger, barbara dane, and utah phillips.. there are certainly others i could name, but much of the music made by these three were either covers of traditional american folk songs, or originals which went on to become popular folks songs on their own.
hiketheworld2@reddit
Not necessarily folk songs, but at US summer camps “repeaters” are popular. One person starts a song and the group repeats and then everyone sings a chorus.
For example-
Lead - The Other Day Everyone- the other day Lead - I met a bear Everyone - I met a bear Lead - and so I ran Everyone - and so I ran Lead - away from there Everyone - away from there
Chorus - not an actual chorus - it repeats the verse all together
Then there are a bunch more verse.
Mr_Sarcasum@reddit
Hard Times Come Again No More
westo4@reddit
I grew up in upstate NY, where the Erie Canal is located, so in school we learned songs about it, like:
Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal (I've got an old mule and her name is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal)
E-ri-e Canal (We were 40 miles from Albany, forget it I never shall, what a terrible storm we had one night on the E-ri-e Canal)
oolongvanilla@reddit
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Wayfaring Stranger
Kumbaya
Down to the River to Pray
Simple Gifts
If I Had a Hammer
Man of Constant Sorrow
Iko Iko
Tgande1969@reddit
Woody Guthrie this land is your land
Early_Clerk7900@reddit
Listen to Pete Seeger’s live performance at Carnegie Hall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Overcome_(Pete_Seeger_album)
InsertNovelAnswer@reddit
"She'll be coming around the mountain"
"I've been workin on the railroad"
'Camptown Races"
Special_Fox_6239@reddit
Mmmm at went the little green frog 🐸
Be kind to your fine feathered friend
The liquor was spilled on the bar room floor
Home on the range
None of these are universal Americans tend to tell stories or play music around camp fires. You have to remember we’ve only been a country since the late 1700’s
Darkdragoon324@reddit
Sorry, I don’t know any rags.
Piper-Bob@reddit
We do a lot of singing around the campfire. It’s all rock. People know folk songs from school but they don’t usually sing them.
Limp_Movie_7958@reddit
Blowing in the wind
Sp1d3rb0t@reddit
Sixteen Tons!!
Ishrine@reddit
Rocky Top for TN specifically.
maggy_boi_x@reddit
I feel like most American folk songs are introduced to children, then get lost over time, as the last time I've even heard of most of the following songs were in the choir room.
The Star Spangled Banner
You're A Grand Old Flag
Stars and Stripes Forever
This Land Is Your Land
Take Me Out To The Ballgame
She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
When The Saints Come Marching In
Ring Around The Rosie
It's Raining, It's Pouring
stabbingrabbit@reddit
Steven Foster. Although I dont know what younger generations have been taught
xnatlywouldx@reddit
A lot of the American folk songs you have learned from TV and movies are actually pretty well-known here, children learn them the way they learn nursery rhymes.
BooksBootsBikesBeer@reddit
They used to, anyway. I’ve been surprised in recent years by how many of my college students have never heard “I’ve been working on the railroad” or even “This Land.”
Individual_Corgi_576@reddit
I played in my colleges marching band.
We were sent to a nearby city to play some music when the school opened a remote campus/building.
The governor was coming to be part of the event and ran late. We had “Hail to the Chief” and the school song ready to go when he arrived, IIRC.
The band was asked to play some music and just entertain a while as everyone waited for the gov.
We went through all the music we had and were starting to repeat some things. We hadn’t played one piece, which was the “Looney Tunes” theme. The band director didn’t want any trouble.
But the band enjoyed playing it and we were on repeat. We kept bugging the director to let us play it and he finally gave in.
We got a few bars in and that’s when the governor walked up.
The band thought it was hilarious.
HairRaid@reddit
This made the two of us laugh out loud.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
This is what happens when kids stop watching Looney Tunes! Bugs & co. are vital for musical education.
BooksBootsBikesBeer@reddit
90% of what I know about Wagner came from Looney Toons. "kill the wabbit..."
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
Exactly! Looney Tunes introduced generations of kids to classical music and folk songs as well as jazz and other popular forms from the time the show was made.
specialpb@reddit
Looney Tunes is where I learned all my opera songs, oh and The Bad News Bears original movie.
xnatlywouldx@reddit
American folk songs are just a normal part of early literacy programming for most children and they've been featured on very young children's programming really since television was invented.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
But did that children’s programming also include classical music and “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby”?
Just saying, Looney Tunes is something special.
macoafi@reddit
Wait. "Is you is or is you ain't" … I had no idea that phrase existed outside of that scene in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" where the KKK guy is asking, "is you is or is you ain't my constituency?"
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
It’s a song from the 1940s. I don’t think the line in O, Brother is a direct reference to the song (since the movie is set before the song would’ve been written). I think it’s just representative of a certain type of speech/dialect pattern.
TigerPaw317@reddit
I dare you to find someone under 40 whose first exposure to Rhapsody in Blue wasn't Bugs Bunny.
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
Make that 70.
MattieShoes@reddit
Cartoons also had some famous classical music and opera thrown in there! Largo al Factorum (Figaro), William Tell Overture, Ride of the Valkyries, stuff from Carmen, etc.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
Yes., exactly! They were fun and educational!
katerwise@reddit
Also can’t forget “Hello my baby hello my darlin’ hello my ragtime gaaal!”
MattieShoes@reddit
19th century "Call me maybe" :-D
DonNadie2468@reddit
You must not teach at the University of Texas.
QuietlyLosingMyMind@reddit
I watched a fascinating video on monoculture vs the wealth of content that is currently out there and how cable TV contributed to cultural touchstones. For instance nickelodeon didn't have enough of their own content so they licensed old shows and made nick at night resulting in those current generations getting pop culture references from past generations. Now everyone is in their own little bubble.
xnatlywouldx@reddit
Cable TV wasn't universal, though. I didn't grow up with cable. A lot of that "monoculture" completely passed me and a lot of kids by.
SmellyMcPhearson@reddit
That's shocking. But I guess they didn't grow up with Kidsongs or Barney? Those sing-along shows are where I learned a lot of the songs mentioned in this post
Traditional-Cook-677@reddit
Some of us are oooooold.
Jewish-Mom-123@reddit
To a great extent it’s because people don’t buy “kid’s music” any longer. It went out when both cassettes and cd’s were gone. I never played the radio for my kid before age 5 or so, we had a couple dozen tapes and cd’s of children’s music. They had all those Raffi tunes, lots of folk music (both British and American with a smattering of French ones).
I just made the assumption that popular music was inappropriate for small children and never turned on the radio. Now parents don’t seem to make any distinction between what is okay for kids and what is not.
Shoddy_Bet9619@reddit
"Makes no difference if he is a hound, you better stop kicking my dog around!"
SusanLFlores@reddit
Blowin’ in the wind, Both Sides Now, Creeque Alley, Puff the Magic Dragon, Turn Turn Turn, Monday Monday, Leaving on a Jet Plane, California Dreamin’, City of New Orleans, and I could go on and on and on!
Lilylake_55@reddit
Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
Yankee Doodle
America, and America the Beautiful (though they’re not really folk songs)
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to teach folk songs anymore in school. I’m a Boomer & we learned so many folk songs in grade school. There are a ton of folk songs that most people would know the names of but couldn’t sing the lyrics of if their lives depended on it.
ehhhhhhwatevs@reddit
She'll be coming round the mountain
Yankee Doodle
You are my sunshine
seguefarer@reddit
Tom Dooley
Met her on the mountain
Swore she'd be my wife.
But the girl refused me
So I stabbed her with my knife.
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die
A song from a true story about Tom Dula
Specialist_Stop8572@reddit
Bingo
Dawn-Storm@reddit
Little Rabbit Foo-foo....
that-Sarah-girl@reddit
Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice and bopping em on the head
PupLondon@reddit
Along came a good fairy..and she said...
Dawn-Storm@reddit
Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't wanna see you...
Dawn-Storm@reddit
Camp Grenada (Alan Sherman)
Leoliad@reddit
Bye Bye Miss American Pie
divinerebel@reddit
My dad would sing the "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy" song and I truly thought it was all nonsense words... Mare-zee-dotes and doze-zee-dotes and liddle-ams-zeet-dive-y...
divinerebel@reddit
B I N G O
B I N G O
B I N G O
And Bingo was his name-oh!
Whateversclever7@reddit
Battle Hymn of the Republic
trowawaid@reddit
“The House of the Rising Sun” is actually a very, very old folk song
bluejane@reddit
Low Bridge (15 miles on the Erie Canal)
ArkansasTravelier@reddit
-Dixie -Oh Susanna -Yellow Rose of Texas -Camp town Races -Froggy went a courtin -this land is your land -Yankee Doodle -Blood on the Risers/ John browns baby/ battlehymn of the republic (all 3 the same tune with different lyrics)
Therapizeme2009@reddit
Are you familiar with the “I’m a little petunia in an onion patch” song? My grandma used to sing it to me and planted a petunia outside my window when I was about 5 years old. No one ever seems to know it. Makes me think she made it up 😂
ArkansasTravelier@reddit
No I don’t but it sounds fun! My grandpa used to sing “goober peas” while we gardened though which feels like the same vibe lol
Shallstrom@reddit
It was originally “John’s Brown’s body“ but went through a series of changes over time.
specialpb@reddit
John Jacob Jinglehiemer Schmidt
Working-Office-7215@reddit
Kids' Folk Songs: "On Top of Old Smoky" (which a lot of kids change to "On Top of Spaghetti"), "I've Been Workin on the Railroad," "Yankee Doodle," "Home on the Range," "Skip to my Lou," "The Green Grass Grew All Around All Around," "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain,"
I don't know if "Old MacDonald," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "The Wheels on the Bus," or "Row Row Row Your Boat count," but every child 3 or older knows those. Also "B-I-N-G-O"
Older kid songs you'd sing around a campfire: "Puff the Magic Dragon," "The Circle game," "If I had a hammer," "Barges," "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," etc
SaveMoreBees@reddit
Great list! I’m curious about the Barges song, is it the one that starts like, “Out of my window looking through the night, I can see the barges flickering light…”?
Working-Office-7215@reddit
Yes!
SaveMoreBees@reddit
That’s awesome! I’ve only heard/learned it from a Montessori Elementary teacher and am glad to see someone else mention it. It’s a wonderful song! Fun to sing as a round too ❤️
jenn363@reddit
The Ants Go Marching
katerwise@reddit
It’s weird to see a list like this include a song I’ve never heard of… “The Green Grass” what?!
PrimaryHighlight5617@reddit
I've never heard of on top of old smokey.
On top of spaghetti All covered in cheese I had a poor meatball When somebody sneezed It rolled off the table And on to the floor And then my poor meatball Rolled right out the door And roll through the garden And under a bush! And then my poor meatball Was nothing but mush! The very next summer As sure as can be I found my poor meatball Grew into a tree
BoopleBun@reddit
Ah! I grew up with a slightly different version.
The mush was as tasty, as tasty could be And early next summer, it grew into a tree. The tree was all covered with beautiful moss. It grew giant meatballs, with tomato sauce. So if you eat spaghetti, all covered with cheese Hold onto your meatballs, and don’t ever sneeze! (Sneeze noises generally added here)
BoopleBun@reddit
I’ll add in “Down by the Bay” to the kids’ songs too. Honestly, Raffi’s catalogue isn’t a bad place to look for that kinda stuff.
And also, because “The Green Grass Grew All Around” reminded me, because there’s so many different cultures here, there’s also a fair bit of folk songs Americans know that we don’t necessarily realize aren’t American. I didn’t know Rattlin’ Bog (similar to “The Green Grass Grew All Around”) was an Irish folk song until I was older. Or how most Americans know the tune to “La Cucaracha”, even if they don’t know the words.
Regular_Boot_3540@reddit
Raffi's the best!
BoopleBun@reddit
He really is! I have two kids, so he’s on pretty heavy rotation at our house.
cheyannepavan@reddit
Pop Goes the Weasel probably fits in this category, too.
sunfish99@reddit
Ah, "99 Bottles of Beer." I was looking for that one. Other camp songs I remember are "The Other Day (I Met A Bear)" and "Here We Go Loop-de-loo."
jaxinhiding@reddit
country road, take me home
soccer-fanatic@reddit
Amazing Grace Yellow Rose of Texas
sarahhylandsknee@reddit
When I was a kid, we used to sing a song called The Deacon went down (might also be called ain't gonna grieve my lord, or you can't get to heaven). There was like one official verse, and each person in turn would make up their own verse. It was a call and response song too, which was cool.
katerwise@reddit
did the Deacon go down to Georgia?
sarahhylandsknee@reddit
The Deacon went down to the cellar to pray, he fell asleep and he slept all day.
LadyADHD@reddit
I searched for this comment, we sang this allll the time in the car! I remember the verse about roller skates, we also sang one about a model t car. Can’t remember exactly, something about the wheels won’t go that far.
sarahhylandsknee@reddit
You can’t get to heaven on roller skates cause you’ll roll right past those pearly gates.
-blundertaker-@reddit
More regionally: the stars at night, are big and bright...
-blundertaker-@reddit
I WISH YOU WOULD STEP BACK FROM THAT LEDGE MY FRIEND
Thhe_Shakes@reddit
Home on the range
HottestestestMess@reddit
Hmm, I’ve never heard of tiptoe through the tulips and I’ve lived all of my 50 years in this country
Bonegirl06@reddit
It was used in the very popular horror movie Insidious.
Thhe_Shakes@reddit
Its an older one. My great-grandfather used to sing it to us when I was young.
Foxfire2@reddit
It was a huge hit by Tiny Tim in the late sixties I think or early 70s. He sang in high falsetto with a soprano ukulele, weird shit.
HottestestestMess@reddit
Ohhh that is starting to sound familiar. Tiny Tim sure was…something
Bonegirl06@reddit
These are songs we always sang at summer camp:
Old Lady Leary
The Worm Song
GREASY Grimy Gopher Guts
MakeStupidHurtAgain@reddit
What the U.S. needs is its own version of “Barrett’s Privateers”. Any bar in Canada, someone sings, “Oh the year was seventeen seventy-eight…” at least half the bar will answer, “How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!” Not sure if it qualifies as a folk song, being more like a sea shanty.
I don’t know that there’s an equivalent in the U.S., is there? I mean, maybe something like “Sweet Caroline”, where the entire bar will bawl “BA BA BAAAAAA”, but that’s not remotely a folk song.
New_Part91@reddit
Do your blank hang low Do they wobble to and fro Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow? Can you sling them over your shoulder like a continental soldier? Do your blank hang low?
99 bottles of beer on the wall…
waynofish@reddit
Country Roads by John Denver
PupLondon@reddit
Teddy Bear's Picnic
LetterheadClassic306@reddit
i feel you on wanting the real stuff not just pop hits. around a campfire you'll hear 'this land is your land', 'country roads', 'the times they are a-changin'', and 'if i had a hammer'. also 'will the circle be unbroken' for older crowds. if you want a solid collection without hunting forever, grab a copy of Rise Up Singing - it's basically the folk singer's bible with chords and lyrics for hundreds of songs. that'll get you through any road trip or campfire.
kit-kat315@reddit
Regionally (upstate NY):
Sixteen Tons- about coal miners
Low Bridge (Erie Canal)- about the waterway from Buffalo to Albany
Otherwise:
This Land is Your Land
Oh Susannah
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
SumOfChemicals@reddit
I was going to say Low Bridge.
padall@reddit
Everybody down...
kit-kat315@reddit
Low bridge
cheyannepavan@reddit
'Cause we're coming to a town
leaderclearsthelunar@reddit
You can always tell your neighbor
Foxfire2@reddit
We’re comin’ to a town
katerwise@reddit
I was gonna say it too
Alternative_Income64@reddit
Sixteen Tons still gives me chills.
Royal_Success3131@reddit
I grew up listening to sixteen tons, in downstate Illinois. I think that one's pretty popular
DontRunReds@reddit
Not my grandparents, because it's a 1988 release, but Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.
prosperosniece@reddit
The Campfire Song Song
weedtrek@reddit
If i could buy the world a coke....
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
Side note: if you sing each line of Frere Jacques only once, you can sing it as a duet with someone singing Row Row Row Your Boat, and if you have a bunch of people who are good at singing, you can sing them both as an 8-voice round. I love rounds, but it seems to be a dying art.
Illustrious-Tart7844@reddit
In the 1971 there was a great melody called True Love and Apple Pie that never got popular. The songwriters then rewrote it and sold it to Coca Cola. It became the famous commecial and jingle Buy the World a Coke that became so popular it was rewritten as song called I'd Like To Teach The World to Sing.
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain (1973) Oh! Susanna (1847) Blowin' in the Wind (1962) If I Had a Hammer (1949) Where Have All the Flowers Gone (1955) My Darling Clementine (1884)
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
Where Have All the Flowers Gone; 500 Miles (If You Miss the Train I'm On); If I had a Hammer; The Banks of the Ohio;There is A Tavern In The Town; Sweet Betsy From Pike; Darling Clementine.
MentalOperation4188@reddit
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
captainecchi@reddit
Apparently there is a Spanish version of the song, to the same tune. The name instead is Juan Paco Pedro de la Mar.
MentalOperation4188@reddit
I can see that working. Now I wonder if there are other versions in other languages.
ian9921@reddit
That name is my name too!
ChemicalCat4181@reddit
Whenever we go out!
Desert_Kat@reddit
People always shout!
Foxfire2@reddit
They say: John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith ba da da da da da da….
brendanepic@reddit
Country roads
hc600@reddit
Camp songs (for church camp kids):
Children’s Songs my family sang to me: - You are my sunshine - She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain - Skip to My Lou - This Old Man - I've Been Working on the Railroad - Buffalo Gals - The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Oh! Susanna - Yankee Doodle - Polly Wolly Doodle
Folk songs that have been spread by popular musicians (that are based on even older British and Irish folk songs)
Rising Sun Blues / House of the Rising Sun - https://youtu.be/pHnu6nDZM9s?si=sWOQQvxM2NF2IQWP
In the Pines / Where Did You Sleep Last Night - https://youtu.be/1u24vprU8-c?si=8cZT9xf0Fnrm24cW
Go dig my grave (covered by Irish band Lankum)
https://youtu.be/0hzXNc4K65E?si=_wbfzYXO9v3BVSxe
https://youtu.be/qhqpQiXnFx0?si=OmQYn5gXwVNNeLjG
Possession-Amazing@reddit
I wake my kid up every morning with rise and shine and give God the glory!
Onyx_Lat@reddit
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch
Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit
Pickin' up paw paws? Or is that a different one?
katerwise@reddit
same one
MillieBirdie@reddit
Another Christian camp song is Bananas for the Lord to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic, and I May Never March in the Infantry.
No_Consideration_339@reddit
Kum Bah Yah.
jadepalmtree@reddit
Most people think "Kum bah yah" is some lost african word or phrase, but is actually from the Gullah Geetchee dialect and means "Come by here" as in they are asking for God's presence and justice in the song. There's a Gullah Geetchee linguist by the name of Sunn M'cheaux who has a video on it if you are interested.
katerwise@reddit
that’s interesting!
Playful_Marzipan8398@reddit
It’s really more like “kum bah(y) hyah”, at least that’s how it sounds to me, which makes it perfectly obvious when sung that it’s just a thick coastal African (American) accent saying “come by here” !!
and it’s WILD to me that I sang that dang song a million times in Bible…class?? whatever part of church is teaching kids, I can’t even remember the name anymore, and no one EVER pointed out what it meant and that it’s ENGLISH.
They absolutely sang it like it was some inscrutable, mystical African phrase.
Still a lovely song though.
jub-jub-bird@reddit
To be fair Gullah Getchee is a creole language with other grammatical and sentance structure differences from standard English beyond also being a very thick accent. If you're familiar with tidewater accents you'd easily hear it and parse it as English with a strong accent but if you're not familiar that that accent it just sounds like a foreign language so that's how most children perceive it even when it's meaning and origins are explained to them. (Probably better that way anyway rather than having a bunch of white kids at summer camp trying to sing the song in a poor attempt at a Gullah accent :)
As a side note Clarance Thomas grew up speaking Gullah as his native langage and didn't start using standard English at all until he started attending school. I'd love for him to bust out his Gullah dialect in one of his opinions just once.
grahamasterflas@reddit
My grandpa used to sing Home on the Range regularly. I have nwvee heard a recording of that song.
Pompi_Palawori@reddit
Davy Crockett
My bonnie lies over the Ocean
Psyko_sissy23@reddit
American Pie by Don Mclean. It's more like a folk rock song, but I think it counts.
Likepersik@reddit (OP)
I like it so much, with all its references... it's truly brilliant
eggelemental@reddit
It’s a pop song, though. Isn’t that what you asked people to avoid?
Psyko_sissy23@reddit
It's considered a folk rock song or maybe even a semi modern Americana song. It has the folk style song writing mixed with rock structure.
Wild_Horse_Rider@reddit
True but I can imagine people singing this around a campfire more than Camptown Races.
Likepersik@reddit (OP)
True. I just knew this song already, and below the post, people were suggesting good versions of the folk
b0jangles@reddit
I wonder if people still sing all the little extras at parties - “drinking beer with my f’d up friends” etc.
Psyko_sissy23@reddit
I hope so. I still do when I hear that song.
ImaginaryCatDreams@reddit
We know the chorus, unlikely anyone other than Don knows all the lyrics
Pitiful_Lion7082@reddit
Eerie Canal/Low Bridge, John Henry, I've been working on the Railroad, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, My Darling Clementine, Down by the Bay (though that's more a children's song). My family also enjoys modern bluegrass, so we've got a few of those.
Emergency-Draft-4333@reddit
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don’t know why she swallowed a fly, I guess she’ll die.,.
And. Mommas gonna buy you a mockingbird.
wasaaabiP@reddit
Hush, Little Baby!
Aardet@reddit
Fifteen Miles on the Eerie Canal
Weird_Squirrel_8382@reddit
Rhiannon Giddens recorded a song my grandma used to sing. information about the history and a link to the song
Temporary-Ocelot3790@reddit
Pop Goes The Weasel.
DrKittyKevorkian@reddit
3rd Bass, iconic one hit wonder.
that-Sarah-girl@reddit
Pop goes the weasel cause the weasel goes pop
TexelDestiny@reddit
I think thats a British one, but still most people in the US know it so prob still counts
Temporary-Ocelot3790@reddit
British musicologist Cecil Sharpe visited the US during the First World War and was astonished at hearing people in the Appalachian regions singing multiple verses of 400 year old Elizabethan ballads that nobody in Britain even remembered in such detail anymore. A historical marker in North Carolina commemorates his visit.
Temporary-Ocelot3790@reddit
Someone at work had a book containing old folk songs, Pop Goes The Weasel has many verses that nobody sings! Here's another one: Froggy Went A's Courting " , a-woo, a-woo!
lexicon951@reddit
Haven’t seen anyone mention 99 bottles of pop on the wall
that-Sarah-girl@reddit
Lol it's definitely beer not pop. Or there's this one...
99 bottles of nail polish on the wall
99 bottles of nail polish
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Get on your bike and go back to the mall
ian9921@reddit
Excuse me, I think you mean 99 bottles of beer on the wall lol
Jk I know it gets changed a lot, but I'd never heard someone seriously call it pop
Shallstrom@reddit
It’s for when kids learn it. I grew up with “pop” for soda, we weren’t allowed to talk about beer.
ian9921@reddit
That's really weird to me. Even when I was a kid, I learned it as beer.
ALauCat@reddit
Maybe the Mormon kids sing it that way but traditionally, it’s 🍺!!!
AhSoulsOnFire@reddit
I played a mini concert for my nephews recently and hit them with the “this next song is about being a good boy and respecting authority”
I proceeded to introduce them to “Long Haired Country Boy” by Charlie Daniels.
Spoiler: it’s not about respecting authority.
Neenknits@reddit
The garden song. Inch by inch row by row, I’m gonna make this garden grow….
Anything on the Weavers or Peter, Paul, and Mary old recordings.
DreamCrusher914@reddit
Little Boxes -Melvina Reynolds
shoresy99@reddit
Atlantic city.
emeryldmist@reddit
In Texas, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" is that universal song that everyone who went to school here knows. It's a irl meme, but you really can go up to a group of Texans and sing the first line, and everyone will do the 4 claps in unison. It is so ingrained that it is almost a reflex.
Temporary-Moments@reddit
In Tn it’s Rocky Top. Everyone out here knows that song and they play it at the football games.
MattieShoes@reddit
Yeah, it's really a shame Texans ruined such a great song.
Same reflex with the stupid Friends theme.
Ok-commuter-4400@reddit
Oh man we used to do that on Friday nights at UT. Go up to randos and sing the first two lines, and if they just stared at us we laughed and asked where they were visiting from, and then bought them a Shiner Bock either way
SummonGreaterLemon@reddit
This is 100% true. I’ve seen it happen in real life. It’s exactly like the bit outside the Alamo in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
Temporary-Moments@reddit
Take me home, country roads - John Denver
Rob_LeMatic@reddit
You Are My Sunshine
https://open.spotify.com/track/5j6nQdG0nzJTpu60BKmqw3
Better-Passenger-200@reddit
Cotton Eye Joe is actually a traditional American folk song, but most people are familiar with the Rednex version which is messed up when you think about it.
Imagine a musical group from Country A makes a techno version of a folk song from Country B and the accompanying music video heavily stereotypes Country B.
That's the Rednex version of Cotton Eye Joe.
yodellingllama_@reddit
I actually love the Nina Simone version, and that's the one I think of first.
geaddaddy@reddit
I love the Nina Simone version of everything
samurai_for_hire@reddit
Same with House of the Rising Sun
Far_Silver@reddit
Inch by Inch, Row by Row, I'm gonna make this garden grow. (Garden Song)
This Little Light of Mine
Battle of New Orleans
Found a Peanut
LynetteC606@reddit
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine….
Foxfire2@reddit
I learned several as a kid on guitar that I haven’t seen listed yet, maybe a little obscure ( thus was the 60 s in the folk revival) Red River Valley So Long it’s Been Good to Know You Dark as a Dungeon Stewball ( was a race horse ) Old Man River Wildwood Flower Where have all the Flowers Gone? Down By the Riverside Mr Bojangles Blowing in the Wind If I had a Hammer Five Hundred Miles
Some of these were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, and others
Far_Silver@reddit
I only know Red River Valley from Magic Treehouse.
TallWalmartCovington@reddit
I'm seeing a rise in people knowing Solidarity Forever along with others people mention
GrowlingAtTheWorld@reddit
Suwanee River aka Old Folks at Home
theegodmother1999@reddit
down by the riverside hanky pank where the bullfrog jumps from bank to bank (idk what the name is but that's the first couple lines and the lyrics differ depending on where you're from)
Emotional-Cat-576@reddit
Wonderwall /s
Emotional-Cat-576@reddit
For real though: Home On The Range is a big one in my state
Few-Might2630@reddit
She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the mountain when she comes
Wild_Horse_Rider@reddit
Oh Shenandoah
Sexy_Anemone@reddit
We actually have a name for these songs! They're literally called "campfire songs".
One that I havent seen people mention is Take Me Home, Country Roads, most people know the chorus, but not usually the whole thing
Tweezot@reddit
Many know the tune for this song but they don’t know the right lyrics. The right version goes:
AWAY DOWN SOUTH IN THE LAND OF TRAITORS, RATTLESNAKES, AND ALLIGATORS!
Right away, come away, right away, come away
WHERE COTTON’S KING AND MEN ARE CHATTELS, UNION BOYS WILL WIN THE BATTLES!
Right away, come away, right away, come away
Alternative_Income64@reddit
Well, there’re a few I haven’t yet seen in this long list. I reckon some are newer, but we sang them just so:
Reuben and Rachel
Big Bad John
The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot, so plenty newer)
Ate a Peanut
Make New Friends and Keep the Old
Miss Sue (the children’s rhyme)
Old King Cole
Mairzy Dotes (though that’s only from the ‘40s)
Shoe Fly, Don’t Bother Me
Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah
Let There Be Peace on Earth
The Old Grey Mare
Little Green Frog
They’re Hanging Danny Deever
Green, Green Grass of Home
The Smuggler’s Song
Big Rock Candy Mountain
A fair few sea shanties and Irish and Scottish songs, too, which are American enough by now — so many of us have been here so long.
I feel like there was a John Henry song and one about a train crash I’m not presently remembering. Bill Grogan’s goat came up somewhere above, but I wanted to mention it just for the fun of it.
I’ll leave it there. Great memories, Thank you!
Available_Plant_5063@reddit
Haven't seen it mentioned, but I do believe it's on the mentioned "Oh brother where art thou?" Soundtrack - "Oh Death." There's been a few remakes that are quite beautiful.
MrPNutButters@reddit
Can't believe no one's mentioned Rocky Top.
Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top
Dirt's too rocky by far
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top
Get their corn from a jar
SaltMarshGoblin@reddit
I haven't seen anyone mention"There's a Hole in My Bucket" which is a long, involved call-and-response song between Henry, a man who is coming up with excuses for why he can't go fetch a bucket of water and Liza, a woman who's suggesting solutions! "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole" "Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it" and so on
Quick_Sherbet5874@reddit
oh they built a ship Titanic…
Ozzimo@reddit
Hyper local but very much a folk song: The Geoduck song.
https://campsongs.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/geoduck/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JjhZfJ4dto
RhubarbNo1760@reddit
Most Americans don’t continue singing folk songs beyond childhood, I’d say. Not much singing done around campfires or on road trips, aside from non-folk songs.
The first folk song that comes to mind is Yankee Doodle. We sang it in school.
thefuzzybunny1@reddit
It's not exactly "folk" but the pop song "Build me up, buttercup" is pretty popular for singing at summer camp. I went on a student trip to New Zealand and when we visited a marae, tradition called for us to sing a song from our native land, and that's the only one we all knew.
Americans sing along to pop songs at sporting events, too. For instance, the Red Sox baseball team uses "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond as a theme song, and the Yankees sing "New York, New York" after every game.
For true folk songs, others have mentioned good options. I'd add some spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" and "Wade in the Water." "Wayfaring Stranger" has staying power, too.
People also know "My Country Tis of Thee," "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America," "Yankee Doodle," "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and other patriotic songs. "Dixieland," the anthem of the Confederacy during the Civil War, is still known in some areas especially among older folks. Northerners might know its alternative lyrics, "Union Dixie."
Some songs are the official song of a state, like "Maryland, my Maryland", and others are locally/ regionally popular, like "Oh Shanandoah". So depending on whom you ask, they could be popular.
I had Wee Sing America on tape as a child and remember most of the songs from it.
wmass@reddit
My Country ’Tis of Thee is sung to the same tune as God Save the King.
genovianpearfarmer@reddit
Oh my gosh, Wee Sing songbooks!! That was definitely my first exposure to a lot of the songs on this thread!
ALauCat@reddit
My mom’s name was Dixie and I found a notebook that was my Dad’s when he was in college. The original sheet music for “Dixie’s Land” was in it and it was almost dirty. I think they may have cleaned it up for the military dress parades.
jessipowers@reddit
I’ve never met anyone else who had wee sing growing up! Anytime I’ve mentioned it, people look at me like I’m crazy. I loved Wee Sing in Sillyville, lol.
Working-Office-7215@reddit
Aw, I had this one - https://weesing.com/Books-Music/Wee-Sing-Silly-Songs. So many songs I had forgotten about but could still sing- "Down by the Bay," (we'd all make up verses for this one in the car) "Little Bunny Foo Foo," "Do your ears hang low?" "The Ants Go Marching," "Oh You Can't get to Heaven" (we'd all make up verses for his one too), "Nobody Likes Me" (everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms), etc
tabby90@reddit
Is nobody mentioning children songs? Miss Mary Mack? Ring around the Rosie.
SaveMoreBees@reddit
Make New Friends (make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold…)
Simple Gifts ( ‘tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free…) Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss did a beautiful rendition of this song ❤️
RHS1959@reddit
The Erie Canal
floopdyboop@reddit
Freight train by Elizabeth cotton is one of my favorite folk songs, but maybe not super well known
SaveMoreBees@reddit
That’s a fabulous one! Jerry Garcia and David Grisman did a wonderful cover of it on a children’s music album called “Not for Kids Only”
Adorable_Dust3799@reddit
Paul bunyon and babe the blue ox
If i had a hammer
John Henry
Oh susanna
stumpybucket@reddit
I’m fond of The Crawdad Song (“you get a line and I’ll get a pole, honey”). My Pa used to sing it :)
SaveMoreBees@reddit
Yes!! I was just searching for this one and am glad you mentioned it!
LexiD523@reddit
I really recommend any spirituals, the hymns and work music of enslaved Black Americans. They're the basis of so much of what has become "American music", and Dvořak based the second movement of the New World Symphony on the spirituals his Black assistant Harry Burleigh taught him. Some popular ones are Kumbayah, This Little Light of Mine, Go Down Moses, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and Follow the Drinking Gourd.
SumOfChemicals@reddit
Ah, your comment reminded me about "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" which I think fits squarely in the folk/campfire song category.
foetusized@reddit
If I remember right, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” came from India.
shelwood46@reddit
Also Simple Gifts, which I learned the words to as a kid (it was written by the Shakers about 100 years before Copland stole it for his ballet).
-oligodendrocyte-@reddit
To cover songs for people born before the the '90s, I looked through a list and these are all songs I grew up singing in the '80s, learned from my parents (b. \~'50s), who learned them from my grandparents (b. \~'20s). These are all songs that, if you sang them in a classroom in the late '70s to mid-'80s a good portion of the kids would be able to sing along. Maybe not all the songs or know all the lyrics, but I'd safely assume that most Americans would at least recognize the tune.
"Hi, my name is Joe" (the button factory song), "Bingo", "The Name Game", "Little Rabbit Foo-Foo", "One Elephant Went Out To Play", "Hokey Pokey", "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", "Skinnamarink", "Hush Little Baby", "Down in the Valley", "I've Been Working on the Railroad", "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", "It's Raining, It's Pouring", "Here we go 'round the mulberry bush", "Pop Goes the Weasel", "Ring Around the Rosie", "I know an old lady that swallowed a fly", "This Old Man", "The Farmer in the Dell", "Itsy-Bitsy Spider", "London Bridge is Falling Down", "The Muffin Man", "Three Blind Mice", and "The Wheels On the Bus".
Successful-Safety858@reddit
There’s a few different categories of folk music in America- a lot of the most well known (like oh Susannah or I’ve been working on the railroad) come from around the 1900s and were minstrel tunes: songs sung at traveling shows where people dressed up and painted their faces black to mock African Americans for entertainment. Some other types of folk music are children’s songs like Mary had a little lamb or old McDonald, and spirituals like amazing grace or when the saints go marching in. Most people will know the most popular of both of these types as well. There are also some songs that were recorded around the 60s (usually as protest music) that made their way into the well known folk cannon, like this land is your land or we shall overcome. Then there’s another whole category of folk music from the eastern mountain region (Appalachia) that is really well known and developed, this is where you would think fiddle, dulcimer, banjo, etc. these songs won’t be well known outside their community though.
Royal_Success3131@reddit
Big rock candy mountain
SilverStory6503@reddit
States also have their own historical folk songs, but I'll bet most people dont know them.
I learned a few in Illinois grade school, plus I used to attend Art Theil concerts. I may have spelled the name wrong.
Colonelmann@reddit
All you need right here by Pete Seegerhttps://open.spotify.com/track/5z5ercwaoJWrJkMXbvaRGP?si=2_wlXD3_T4W243qwMCX2PA
HorrorAlarming1163@reddit
John Jacob Jingleheimer schmidt
Capable-Pressure1047@reddit
O Shenandoah
fireflypoet@reddit
The Erie Canal Song: " I've got a mule and her name is Sal. Sixteen years on the Erie Canal. From Albany to Buffalo.."
Oh, Suzanna.
Illustrious-Pool-760@reddit
You Are My Sunshine is a classic. Also Country Roads even though it's about West Virginia. Almost everyone knows the chorus. Oh Susanna too. Good list already here.
RedFoxCommissar@reddit
Battle Hymn of the Republic is the only one that comes to mind that's not a kid song, and that one might piss certain people off. I'm kind of jealous of other countries that have popular folk music.
OakandInkGames@reddit
somewhat regional: the wreck of the edmund Fitzgerald
FeralSweater@reddit
What age range?
I’ve had froggie went a-courtin’ stuck in my head for days.
The Smithsonian never disappoints. Here’s a recording of camp songs.
shammy_dammy@reddit
Pretty much everything by Stephen Foster. Camptown Races. Oh susannah. Hard times come again no more.
Haki23@reddit
Campfire songs makes me think of stuff like
Bill Grogan's Goat
The Cat Came Back
* Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts
There;s a ton of other Summer Camp songs
Onyx_Lat@reddit
Diarrhea.
Haki23@reddit
Some people think it's funny,
but it's really gross and runny
TimAA2017@reddit
Country Road
Odd-Accident9715@reddit
I was going to suggest this but wasn’t sure if it counted as a folk song. I hear it everywhere I go. I’ve heard it in France, Germany, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and most recently in Hawai’i with the lyrics changed. It’s pretty neat hire universal it is.
MattieShoes@reddit
Modern (ie. last 100 years)
We've also got Sweet Caroline and Cracklin Rose from Neil Diamond
There's Sundown and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot
Blowin in the Wind, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan
Where Have All the Flowers Gone and If I Had a Hammer by Pete Seeger
This Land is Your Land, Woodie Guthrie
Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary
California Dreamin by the Mamas and the Papas
Probably a ton more.
Momes2018@reddit
I heard so much John Denver in Germany! At every little town festival and bigger ones like Oktoberfest.
ALauCat@reddit
Yes, John Denver’s songs are now around 60 years old and West Virginia uses the lyric “Almost Heaven” to attract tourism.
Ralph--Hinkley@reddit
Down in the Valley
ancientastronaut2@reddit
Home on the range
This old man
Skip to my lou
I've been working on the railroad
Polly wolly doodle
On top of old smokey
Red river valley
Old McDonald
Shoo fly, don't bother me
OwnLime3744@reddit
On Top of Spaghetti.
OwnLime3744@reddit
Gee Mom I Want to Go Home.
xRVAx@reddit
I've got a mule and her name is sal...15 miles on the Erie canal
Kumbaya My Lord kumbaya
Camptown races sing this song doo dah doo dah
Found a peanut found a peanut
Get out the way Old Dan Tucker
Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain
Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are
Are you sleeping are you sleeping brother John brother John
I love the mountains I love the rolling hills I love the flowers I love the daffodils I love the fireside when all the lights are low boomdiata boomdiata boomdiada ehhh
OwnLime3744@reddit
Puff the Magic Dragon
SopranoCrew@reddit
ratlin bog lol
jmstrats@reddit
Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen
EuphoricReplacement1@reddit
Take me home, country roads
Numerous_Delay_6306@reddit
never listened to em sadly
Frenchitwist@reddit
People may not know all the words, or even all the versions, of Glory Glory Hallelujah (Battle Hymn of the Republic but we definitely know the tune from all the playground chants that used it. My fave version has to do with John Brown though:
*John Brown’s body lies a’moulderin’ in the grave
John Brown’s body lies a’moulderin’ in the grave
John Brown’s body lies a’moulderin’ in the grave
His souls goes marching on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His soul goes marching on!
The stars above in heaven are shining kindly down
The stars above in heaven are shining kindly down
The stars above in heaven are shining kindly down
On the grave of old John Brown!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His soul goes marching on!*
FriendWinter9674@reddit
Old Folks at Home
GrannyTurtle@reddit
Bicycle Built for Two
You might find good suggestions by looking up “pizza parlor songs” on YouTube. We used to have a chain of pizza stores called Shakey’s which featured live entertainment with sing-along songs. They projected slides with the song words on the wall.
I even visited a Shakey’s in Tokyo and met a Japanese banjo player who knew all the classics. (1977)
itsdaCowboi@reddit
There's thousands, if you look up summer camp songs, there several databases with songs we'll sing around the campfire or just around camp. I'd be here all day if I started to list all the songs I know or have forgotten.
altarwisebyowllight@reddit
Adding When the Saints Come Marching Home, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home, which turns into the Ants Go Marching One by One for kids.
Battle Hymn of the Republic is also up there. Most American's don't learn the John Brown's Body version anymore, which is a shame. But I learned it as an '80s kid in Maryland. Also turns into Blood on the Risers from WW2 paratroopers, as heard in Band of Brothers ("Glory glory, what a hell of a way to die! ... and he ain't gonna jump no more!")
onlyreason4u@reddit
People singing folk songs together is just not a modern day thing people do. 19th century and early 20th sure. I won't say never but not common.
Singing along to modern music in the car for sure. If you have kids you might sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall or something like that or play I spy.
HobsHere@reddit
House of the Rising Sun
TearRevolutionary686@reddit
Oh, Susanna
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
A lot of people are familiar with John Brown's Body
dhrisc@reddit
That particular tune has been reused tons here too. Almost everyone in the US would recognize it if not those lyrics.
AineDez@reddit
The tune is a banger. It's used for Solidarity Forever as a union song as well
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
There's been a bit of resurgence in the original version of the song in recent years as there's been a resurgence of interest in John Brown.
OtterSnoqualmie@reddit
PNW checking in... This sounds like an episode of SVU.
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
Did you know that John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave? But his soul's marching on?
CarolinCLH@reddit
Yeah, I didn't think of it, but it is a common folk song
Fangsong_37@reddit
On road trips, we usually sang songs like Bingo and The Wheels on the Bus. Much of my camping experience was with the Boy Scouts, and we sang songs like "The Other Day I Met a Bear," and a cleaner version of "The Night that Paddy Murphy Died" that removed all the references to alcohol other than the word "beer." A folk song we sang pretty often was "This Land is Your Land," and I love that song to this day.
AineDez@reddit
Lol at a clean version of The night that Paddy murphy died, that baffles the mind
InstructionHuge3171@reddit
Important question for you RE: "The Other Day I met a Bear"....did you ever add a bonus verse that goes a little something like:
"The moral of, (repeat)
This story is, (repeat)
Don't talk to bears, (repeat)
In Nike Airs!" (repeat, then sing the whole verse back).
I was a long time Girl Scout camper and counselor, and this was one of my favorite "Gotta get 30 girls from point A to point B without losing any and if they're singing they ain't talking, so here we go!" songs.
justdisa@reddit
LOL It was just "In tennis shoes" for us. We didn't use the brand name. That's fabulous. The rhyme is better.
InstructionHuge3171@reddit
It dawns on me that Nike Airs may not have the same social cache in 2026 that they did in the 90s/2000s lol
justdisa@reddit
Hah. I'm old enough that my version of the song predates Nike Airs.
Fangsong_37@reddit
We did not include that verse, but that's funny. We always did a repeat a line version. The assistant scoutmaster would sing one line, and we'd repeat it back. After each verse, we'd sing the entire verse together.
InstructionHuge3171@reddit
That's exactly how we did it too! The "Sing the whole thing back" was a great check on "have we lost any?" usually
sapphireminds@reddit
And everyone at the wake got drunk, the night that Murphy died!
gretagrendel@reddit
Home on the Range
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Chorus: Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the antelope play; Where seldom is heard a discouraging word And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free, The breezes so balmy and light, That I would not exchange my home on the range For all of the cities so bright.
Chorus
The red man was pressed from this part of the West He’s likely no more to return, To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever Their flickering camp-fires burn.
Chorus
How often at night when the heavens are bright With the light from the glittering stars Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Chorus
Oh, I love these wild prairies where I roam The curlew I love to hear scream, And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks That graze on the mountain-tops green.
Chorus
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand Flows leisurely down the stream; Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along Like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Chemical-Actuary683@reddit
Slight pivot, but the Running and Marching cadence sings could be considered Folk Songs for the Army Veterans. Here’s a short list. When you see a name, that is the same as a civilian folk song rest assured that it has been modified somewhat for the military audience.
Mama Mama Can’t You See I Don’t Know But I’ve Been Told They Say That in the Army Hey Hey Captain Jack She Wore a Yellow Ribbon C-130 Rolling Down the Strip (Airborne Ranger cadence) Sound Off (1, 2, 3, 4) Jody Calls / Jody Cadences ( Ain’t No Use in Going Home”) When Johnny Comes Marching Home Blood on the Risers (Gory, Gory What a Hell of a Way to Die) Jump boots just the right size Up in the morning, before day I got the one, two, three, four talk about the G.I. blues A yellow bird, with a yellow bill When My Granny Was 91… Oh I wish that all the ladies… (Aka Say Hey Bobba Reeba) Oh here we go, we’re at it again Patch on my shoulder
weedgoblin69@reddit
my parents used to sing me "home on the range" when i was a kid
samurai_for_hire@reddit
House of the Rising Sun is a traditional song known because of The Animals
darthredford@reddit
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
PrairieFireFun@reddit
I would consider Take Me Home, Country Roads a “modern” folk song a lot of people know.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
These may not be titles, but Old Susanna Polly Wolly Doodle Oh My Darling Clementine
Stardustchaser@reddit
Oh Death
Peacedelic@reddit
Check Alan Lomax and his recordings
NeverRarelySometimes@reddit
The movie soundtrack for Oh Brother Where Art Thou has some old songs that my grandparents used to sing. My grandfather lost most of his hearing in the 1930s, so everything he sang was from before that.
And he sang The Prisoner's Song (If I Had the Wings of an Angel).
WordsThatEndInWord@reddit
If I Had a Hammer
All You Fascists Bound To Lose
Solidarity Forever
This Little Light of Mine
chooseyourpick@reddit
Way Down Yonder In The PawPaw Patch.
chooseyourpick@reddit
15 Miles on the Erie Canal song. With the mule named Sal.
New_Part91@reddit
She’ll be comin round the mountain when she comes…
comingtoamiddle@reddit
John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads
ruusalor@reddit
Might not be quite folk but I'd say it's a relatively "modern folk" song. And it isn't really an everyone all across the country song, but in the Boston area, there's the M.T.A. song.
It's originally from a political campaign that campaigned against exit fees for the T (Boston's subway system).
gubbinnubbin74@reddit
SpongeBob campfire song
PirateQM@reddit
My friend group used to sing "Ten Green Bottles" all the time, nobody else I know knew it, turns out it's from England. No idea where we got it from.
Green_Evening@reddit
Battle Hymn of the Republic. It's a bit more niche than some of the others mentioned, but I think everyone knows the tune and the chorus. It's also a hymn in many churches in the US.
Odd_Mathematician654@reddit
Yellow Rose of Texas, The Eyes of Texas, and Deep in the Heart of Texas are very well known here.
Freypaints@reddit
In honor of today… Puff the magic dragon.
Straight_Depth6701@reddit
Look up Pete Seeger. He wrote or modernized a huge number.
Certain-Monitor5304@reddit
Cotton eye Joe.
inbigtreble30@reddit
Is Roll Out the Barrell popular outside WI? I've only ever heard it in conjunction with the Milwaukee Brewers, but I'd be delighted to learn more people know that song.
BraveLittleToaster8@reddit
There was a version of this song on a Mitch Miller album from 1959 that my grandparents absolutely loved. My dad inherited it and he would play it for us when we were kids because they were fun sing along songs and it was something he loved in his childhood. So I know the song well but I'm not sure how well know it is with younger generations in this area. My grandparents are both from Massachusetts.
Certain-Monitor5304@reddit
Northern Michigan .
StirlingS@reddit
I (West coast and Southern GenX) know it from some time in my childhood.
kinetic_cheese@reddit
I only hear it at Oktoberfest/German-American festivals
knight1096@reddit
There is a much older German version of Roll out the Barrel that is a popular polka song during Oktoberfest. That’s where we in Milwaukee got it. But you’re right, not sure how popular it is outside of Milwaukee but it’s old af.
Phamton1@reddit
Oh Susannah
Fit_Kaleidoscope531@reddit
At this point in time, we can add Four Strong Winds, Puff The Magic Dragon and Me And Bobby McGee to the list.
Mean-Acanthaceae463@reddit
Go listen to PETE SEEGER
Happy_Macaroon2726@reddit
The Bear Went Over The Mountain is one that we sang as kids on trips.
BraveLittleToaster8@reddit
Also, "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain." You just reminded me of that one!
HottestestestMess@reddit
Deleted an earlier comment because some thoughtful people here made me realize the error in my definition of folk music. The reality is that because we are a pluralistic society, it’s not possible to point to any songs that we all know. There a multiple folk traditions here, some of which are intertwined with spiritual beliefs, class, race, and even gender. Sometimes with all of these! A lot of songs here are know by a lot of Americans, but there will be regional/racial/religious differences in the level of familiarity we have, too. Personally I think that’s pretty cool. :)
emteeboyd@reddit
On Top of Old Smokey, or its kid-friendly bastardized version On Top of Spaghetti.
Difficult_Pause_4350@reddit
Oh, Shenandoah and maybe My Old Kentucky Home?
Onyx_Lat@reddit
A couple my family used to sing but didn't know all the words:
Annie Laurie (Maxwelton's braes are bonny/Where early falls the dew)
Aura Lea (which apparently was written during the Civil War and then Elvis stole the melody for Love Me Tender)
It's interesting that since we've had so many people of different cultures settling here, some songs that were originally from other countries ended up in the mix.
joey-rigatoni1@reddit
This Land is Your Land
ImagineFreedom@reddit
Country roads.
juviniledepression@reddit
Though most probably know it from the animals cover in the 60s I’d be very surprised if the House of the Rising Sun wasn’t known by most of us, and given that it’s earliest recording was in like 1880 in rural Appalachia and even then it was considered a song older than time I feel it has a strong argument for being the big one. I feel you could probably make the argument that songs like I’m Shipping Up To Boston and Sweet Caroline also qualify though are probably more regionalized to New England over the whole country and are more recent.
Darnoc74@reddit
Omie wise, little Sadie, shady Grove.
samandtoast@reddit
Anyone remember The Cat Came Back? A song about a man trying to kill his cat.
143019@reddit
You Are My Sunshine
This Land is My Land
Elizabeth Mitchell is an artist who makes "kids music" but it is really just folk music played simply. She has a beautiful voice and is all over iTunes
GoodQueenFluffenChop@reddit
The Yellow Rose of Texas
knifeyspoonysporky@reddit
Oh Susannah (now don’t you cry for me)
Saltpork545@reddit
Some of these become American folk songs. They're often popularized for their era and stick around.
A modern one is Country Roads by John Denver. If you start singing that, most people are going to know the song, even if they don't know who John Denver is.
She'll be comin' round the mountain or You are my sunshine are older versions of the same thing.
You also have to understand that not everyone in the US is from the same American subculture. We don't all have the same frame of reference for these things.
If I go down to El Paso, which is right along the US/Mexico border and start singing The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I don't expect most of the people there to know what the fuck I'm singing about. If, however, I'm in Minneapolis, I expect most people to know what I'm singing about because it was an event that happened in Lake Superior, a Great Lake near Minneapolis.
FBIs_MostUnwanted@reddit
When the saints go marching in
shrlzi@reddit
Little Bunny Frou Frou
hollyannerberry@reddit
On Top of Spaghetti
Dear Liza (there’s a hole in the bucket)
There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (my personal favorite).
Wide_Breadfruit_2217@reddit
Not common but my favorite. "Eat a little watermelon on my grave and let the juice "slurp" go down!"
Onyx_Lat@reddit
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.
trinite0@reddit
Songs that just about everybody knows: This Land is Your Land. Amazing Grace. Baa Baa Black Sheep/ABCs. I've Been Working on the Railroad. She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain/If You're Happy and You Know It. You Are My Sunshine. The Hokey Pokey.
worstnameIeverheard@reddit
Listen to the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack! There are lots of songs on there that I grew up with, and the whole vibe of the music is classic Americana.
LuckyMuckle@reddit
Oh Suzanna!
DeiaMatias@reddit
Every family will be a bit different, but the ones that are generational in my family are:
This land is your land
O what a beautiful morning
Take me home country roads
I don't know what this one is called, but it goes:
I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills I love the flowers, I love the daffodils I love the fireside, when all the lights are low Boom de ya da (repeat)
Momes2018@reddit
We called that one Boom Di Yada?
Massive-Welcome1902@reddit
“The Yellow Rose of Texas “
FrostyVariation9798@reddit
I don't believe that it is common anymore for east coast americans to know any folk songs whatsoever.
The united states advances at paces that other countries can't understand, but it does seem like we lose a lot as we advance.
In most states and towns the sense of community is now absolutely absent.
sapphireminds@reddit
"Old Lady Leary" about the Chicago fire
Late last night, when we were all in bed
Old Lady Leary lit a lantern in the shed
And when the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said
It'll be a hot time in the old town tonight
(then each group around the fire has a line:)
(Fire fire fire)
(water water water)
(Jump lady jump)
(awwww splat!)
"And the Green grass grows all around"
"I know an old lady who swallowed a fly"
"Kumbaya"
Momes2018@reddit
Last late night, when bed we all were in
Old Leary Lady put the shed the lantern in
And when the kick cowed it over, she eyed her wink and said -
It will be time hot in the town old tonight!
Ifer ifer ifer!
That was our second verse.
EmmaGoldmanIceCream@reddit
I think an element to this question is going to need to be if anyone under 25 knows these songs since music is very much a decision at this point and not something you have forced in you.
heathers1@reddit
This Land Is your Land is the best. Here’s the audio
Jelopuddinpop@reddit
Not an old folk song, but an American song by a folk artist that everyone will definitely know is Take me Home, Country Roads.
The12th_secret_spice@reddit
Here’s what I belt out every 4th of July.
There are some instrumental songs (stars and stripes forever) that also get played but no lyrics.
More pop songs but these are also pretty American
SpeakerOfMyMind@reddit
I’d be say most people in East Tennessee know some variation of Rocky Top.
SmartyChance@reddit
99 bottles of beer on the wall
ElementalPink12@reddit
Country roads by John Denver is a great one.
ShirtTucker@reddit
Goodnight Irene
foobar_north@reddit
Old Suzanna
I came from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee *
I’m going to Louisiana,
My true love for to see;
It rain’d all night the day I left,
The weather it was dry,
The sun so hot I froze to death,
Susanna, don’t you cry.
Source: https://american-bard.com/oh-susanna.html
SamTheShamIAm@reddit
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
postit58@reddit
Yankee Doodle
Jaygon1963@reddit
Sweet Betsey from Pike.
Spiritual-Quarter417@reddit
Someone's in the kitchen with dina, she'll be coming around the mountain, 99 bottles of beer on the wall (lol).
Ghoulish_kitten@reddit
🎶Mr. Bernard, ohhh Mr. Bernard— who have you silenced todayyyy? 🎶
TehTJ13@reddit
It’s very recent, but anyone born after maybe 1992 will sing “Campfire Song Song” if they’re camping.
exitparadise@reddit
A couple of French ones that I think many American kids have probably heard at the very least.
(sorry if I am spelling these wrong)
Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques...
Alouette, Gentil Alouette
exitparadise@reddit
Do your ears swing low? do they wobble to and fro?
can you tie 'em in a knot? can you tie 'em in a bow?
REDGregor223@reddit
I always liked singing “Oh Shenandoah” in harmony with my sister.
zinniasinorange@reddit
I'd add "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
I once took a few visitors from Austria to a baseball game, and it was such a strange moment when I had to explain, "now all 30.000 people here are going to sing a song about baseball that we all know,"
JBNothingWrong@reddit
People have said the most popular ones, heres two that are slightly more obscure:
Nine Pound Hammer
Stagger Lee (Stack O Lee)
vanbrima@reddit
99 bottles of beer on the wall
wise_owl68@reddit
Being a child of the 70s (especially in the south) we sang a lot of old southern folk songs. I'll list them though I'm sure they're not sung these days due to being pretty non-PC.
Tom Dooley
Do your ears hang low?
Pick a bale of cotton
Dixie
Bingo (two different versions)
We sang a lot of them on the bus to/from school (omg such different times today!) and also they tended to be acted out as well, like Pick a bale of cotton you would do this dance with it.
Great_Chipmunk4357@reddit
I'm an everyday American. I know Oh, Susanna, the Erie Canal, She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, You Are My Sunshine, Darling Clemenine, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Sweet Betsy from Pike, the Yellow Rose of Texas, Home on the Range, Red River Valley.
ExOhioGuy@reddit
This question reminds me of the scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles where Steve Martin is trying to lead the crowd on a cross-country bus in a rendition of Three Coins in the Fountain. Of course no one else knows the song, so John Candy takes over and gets the whole bus singing The Flintstones theme song.
Teri-k@reddit
Yankee Doodle.
HottestestestMess@reddit
There’s some great responses here. I recommend you look them up on Wikipedia, though, because a lot of people are conflating folk songs and church songs. Non-Christians will likely not be familiar with I’ll Fly Away or Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore, for example because those are both Christian songs. There are also a lot of protest songs represented here (Sixteen Tons, for example—one of my faves).
Some that are unequivocally folk songs that most of us know are On top of old smokey, She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain, Twinkle twinkle little star (but this is usually sung as a lullaby), row row row your boat, pop goes the weasel. These are all kids’ songs.
This land is your land wasn’t technically a folk song because we know who wrote it and it’s only about 80 years old. But it’s definitely becoming one over time. I think Woody Guthrie would want people to think of his song as public property!
justdisa@reddit
Nobody's mentioned "Froggy Went a Courting." I learned it in Bluebirds and my daughters learned it in day camp, so that's at least two generations. The song is really old, though. 1549. Older than the US by a couple of centuries. Original title was "The Frog cam to the Myl dur."
Admirable_Rip_1950@reddit
I was surprised to see no one had said Froggy Went a Courtin! I remember sitting around with my brother, dad, and grandma (so millennial, gen Z, boomer, and silent generation) trying to see who could remember the most verses.
I had no idea it was so old. There is something very American about the version we all know though lol
tryptanfelle@reddit
In New York State, the “Erie Canal Song” is a favorite.
Murky-Lunch-6413@reddit
I’ve been working on the Railroad, Yankee Doodle
LizinDC@reddit
We used to sing America the Beautiful.
Affectionate-Use6412@reddit
This Little Light of Mine and Kumbaya (i know that's gotta be spelled wrong)
Affectionate-Use6412@reddit
This Land is Your Land
Sweetpea8677@reddit
Red River Valley
Murky-Lunch-6413@reddit
Blowing in the Wind, Where Have all the Flowers Gone
CK1277@reddit
You Are My Sunshine It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More I’ve been working on the railroad Eerie Canal Home on the Range Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Simple Gifts Oh! Susanna Polly Wolly Doodle Yankee Doodle Michael, Row the Boat Kum bay ya (I don’t know if that one actually originates in the US) Puff the Magic Dragon.
Basically, if you look up summer camp or scout songs, you’ll find a pretty extensive list.
Wak3upHicks@reddit
Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford
SnooSquirrels4991@reddit
Rocky top
Dragosal@reddit
None. Average American doesn't know any American folk songs
mnemosyne64@reddit
I literally had to learn some of these in elementary school like my school required it
the_real_JFK_killer@reddit
Have you considered you might not be the average american?
Dragosal@reddit
The poll I took of the half dozen people around me at the time, no one could name an American folk song let alone know the lyrics
Meowmeowmeow31@reddit
Half the songs little kids sing at preschool and summer camp and Boy/Girl Scouts are folk songs.
IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit
Yep. I’m sure that’s where my kids know them from.
Meekanado@reddit
Oh please
knowlessman@reddit
While I basically agree with this, I think the average American knows just enough of many folk songs to reference them without actually knowing them well enough to sing more than the identifying line.
Consider "Turkey in the Straw"... most Americans don't know the name, but they have heard it. Maybe from Steamboat Willie, or ice cream trucks, or wherever.
But ask them to sing it? Maybe one in a thousand will give you the traditional "Do your balls hang low can you swing them to and fro..." and one in 100 will give you the revised "do your ears hang low...."
jseego@reddit
I agree. This is way more of a thing with boomer and genx people.
IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit
My GenZ high schooler is home sick today. She knows quite a few of the ones listed in one comment. She didn’t know Michael Rows the Boat, or Home on the Range. Yes to This Land is Your Land, Shel’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain (I didn’t believe it so she sang it) and Row Row Row Your Boat which we both agree doesn’t really seem like a folk song.
Of course she knows Cotton Eye Joe, but only the modern version.
TrasseTheTarrasque@reddit
Folk Songs Georg (who holds several PhDs in Music and Anthropology and knows every American folk song ever written) is an outlier adn should not be counted.
gnirpss@reddit
What are you basing this on, other than your own personal experience? Others in this thread are naming plenty of well-known folk songs.
pwwhisperer@reddit
Memories of music class in the 1960s! Mr. Carter on the piano.
mladyhawke@reddit
John henry, when he was a baby sitting on his mama's knee, saw a hammer and a little piece of steel, said, hammer, be the death of me, maw, hammer be the death of me
Chinacat_Sunflower72@reddit
This Land is Your Land.
mnemosyne64@reddit
Buffalo Gals
House of the Rising Sun (The Animals have the most popular version)
Yankee Doodle
America the Beautiful
DepartmentComplete64@reddit
Mrs O' Leary's Cow. Charlie on the MTA. Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be.
Those are all the campfire songs I know.
Personal-Hospital103@reddit
Yankee Doodle
DiligerentJewl@reddit
Do your ears hang low
Possible-Cicada-9662@reddit
The major ones that a majority of Americans know would be
-Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond,
-Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver,
-American Pie by Don McLean,
-Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett,
iacuc@reddit
This
The other songs people listed are traditional folk songs, but many are more like what we would consider children’s songs. We might sing them on a road trip to engage or entertain little kids, but no one sings clementine, wheels on the bus, this little light of mine, or this land is your land for any other reason. My mom is in her 60’s- maybe when she was a kid songs like You are my sunshine, and this land is your land, etc would have been sung in the contexts you’re describing.
Possible-cicadas list here is more like what you’re describing. Anyone above 30 knows at least solid chunks of these songs, and as that’s the current age of most American parents, it’s what would be sung on road trips/around campfires.
MolemanusRex@reddit
Many people sing This Little Light of Mine or This Land Is Your Land. They’re not children’s songs.
Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit
You’re right that these are super well/known, but I wouldn’t call them folk songs.
Possible-Cicada-9662@reddit
I mean i wouldn't either but there well known songs that would be played around a campfire or at a bbq. I would say they fit better than some of the other songs i've seen like this is your land and wheels on the bus
PossibleImplement153@reddit
Big Rock Candy Mountain
This Land is your land
House of the Rising Sun
Which side are you on?
Union Dixie
16 Tons
Oh! Sussana
Silversmith00@reddit
Around Christmas time, we have bunches of traditional Christmas carols and their parodies. "We three kings of Orient are, smoking on a rubber cigar, it was loaded and exploded…"
There are also ones that seem to pass mostly between kids. Miss Suzy had a Steamboat (which is old enough that the verses I learned referenced telephone operators), Boys are Rotten, Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (that one is specifically for jumping rope), etc.
BoldBoimlerIsMyHero@reddit
Adding to the list because I love traditional folk songs:
Bury me not on the lone prairie
Aura Lee
Wildwood Flower
Yellow rose of Texas
This land is your land
Where have all the flowers gone
John brown’s Body.
I can’t list them all. Pete Seeger has recorded them all it seems plus LOTS of protest folk. I recommend looking him up on Spotify.
rainy-brain@reddit
Take me out to the ball game?
mekoRascal@reddit
Black Betty
gordonf23@reddit
Puff the Magic Dragon.
This Land is Your Land.
ohfuckthebeesescaped@reddit
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
ReticentBee806@reddit
99 Bottles of Beer
BernieTheDachshund@reddit
The Hokey Pokey
South_Bumblebee7892@reddit
Not exactly a folk song, but Take Me Out To The Ballgame probably qualifies.
strongly-worded@reddit
If I Had A Hammer
SubstantialPressure3@reddit
This land is your land Woodie Guthrie
websfav@reddit
Down by the Bay
Way down in the valley-o
jessipowers@reddit
If you want to hear recordings, you can look up American roots music, or bluegrass music. That will give you a good idea of historically what American folk music sounded like.
Hyperinactivity@reddit
Country Roads and Leaving on a Jet Plane
Sharpthingy@reddit
Basically any version of the tune to “the battle hymn of the republic” though “john Brown’s Body” is my favorite
9BALL22@reddit
This Land is Your Land.
Thrive_allday@reddit
Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
liceyscalp@reddit
On Top of Old Smokey
sidewalkoyster@reddit
KUM BA YA or however you spell it is the original old campfire song for sure
moonluna@reddit
I'll mention a couple I haven't seen yet. Oh Susanna, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, When the Saints Come Marching in, House of the Rising Sun, Camp Town Ladies, Turkey in the Rye.
AntOnADogLog@reddit
Country Roads. For some reason even people in China out there loving that damn song 😂 imo would be an instant call and response moment if you started belting it out at a campground.
knight1096@reddit
My husband and I drove to Virginia for a music festival and had been driving all night. When we crossed the West Virginia-Virginia border and the sun started to come up, I put on Country Roads and we immediately felt an odd patriotic connection. Could have been the memory with all the drugs I took that weekend but America af as I remember it.
MillieBirdie@reddit
Haven't seen anyone list these yet:
There's a Hole in My Bucket
She Waded in the Water
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Hot_Depth_3367@reddit
The Red River Valley. My Dad you to sing it to me...think his Mom used to sing it to him.
real_agent_99@reddit
If I Had a Hammer City of New Orleans She'll be Comin Round the Mountain Home on the Range Tom Dooley When the Saints Come Marchin In Sixteen Tons Oh Susannah
DivaJanelle@reddit
Had to go look it up because I couldn’t remember all the animals and found out it actually has British roots.
I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.
Perhaps she’ll die.
dehydratedrain@reddit
I wouldn't call Brown Eyed Girl (van morrison) a folk song, but it does seem to come up at campfires
Oodalay@reddit
Dooley is a fun one
InstructionHuge3171@reddit
So, I was a long time girl scout camper and then camp counselor. Here's some of the hits from campfire songs
* This Land is My Land (obvs)
* Kumbaya
* Linger (this is a deep cut mostly for camp kids, but I'm a whole ass middle aged adult and this brought me to tears this summer when I attended the permanent closing of my childhood camp)
* Flicker/Flicker of the Campfire (again, mostly for camp kids, but a banger)
* The Unicorn Song (this is more uptempo, usually used as a walking song in my part of the world, along with full body motions...AND THERE'LL BE GREEN ALLIGATORS, and long neck geese, some humpty back camels and some chimpanzees...)
Moosebouse@reddit
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
wb420420@reddit
Ole susana
Embarrassed-Cause250@reddit
Tom Dooley is the only one that comes to mind, but we learned a ton of them in elementary school music class.
whatevendoidoyall@reddit
Dead Skunk song is a classic road trip song.
Lost-Time-3909@reddit
In some parts of the country the “around the campfire” songs are most likely to be hymns/religious songs. Amazing Grace, It Is Well, and How Great Thou Art are maybe some better-known ones.
thatmeddlingkid7@reddit
You Are My Sunshine
Oh My Darlin', Clementine
She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain
I've Been Working on the Railroad
A lot of American folk songs come from hymns or slave spirituals. Other developed from specific industries like railroad building and mining.
PineappleFit317@reddit
Kumbaya
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Little Liza Jane
Hey Lolly Lolly Lo
Down in the Valley
I Like to Eat, Eat, Eat, Apples and Bananas
Going Over, Going Under
LimeTunic@reddit
Country Roads by John Denver
Aggravating_Fishy_98@reddit
Normal people don’t do this unless it’s the Fourth of July, or you’re old enough to be a grandparent, but You’re a Grand Old Flag and America the Beautiful are both common songs. In elementary school they made us do the pledge of allegiance AND sing either of those songs every day. And they say the LGBT community is indoctrinating people…
An8thOfFeanor@reddit
Tumblin' Tumbleweeds is one of my favorites
alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit
Quite a few ppl were really into accordion music from Eastern and Central Europe, where my husband grew up and used to live. The polka and button box music crowds were always big at the festivals and fairs there.
And every Friday night, lots of places used to have singers and musicians playing “ethnic folk” at bars near the steel mills and rail yards there.
Some sang others just played their instruments and everybody sang the songs. Some in English, some in whatever language the original song came from.
You’d have Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Slovenians, drinking together at the bowling alleys and outdoor bocce and pétanque courts too.
They still do it as retirees or third gen family members but the mills are mostly gone or are half the size they used to be/repurposed now to do other things.
sorbrrse@reddit
I've Been Working on the Railroad
MiseEnSelle@reddit
I don't see "Polly Wolly Doodle" here!
Oldy_VonMoldy@reddit
Sounds Polly-wolly Crappy!
yodellingllama_@reddit
I remember hearing My Hometown (the Bruce Springsteen song) around a campfire, and most everyone was able to join in. This was thirty years ago, though, so it might have been close enough in time to Born in the U.S.A.'s release (although that wasn't a single).
Somethingisshadysir@reddit
Oh mah darlin, oh mah darlin, oh mah daaarlin Clementine!
Thin_Cable4155@reddit
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
No-Clerk-5600@reddit
This Little Light of Mine. My darling Clementine.
Cleo2012@reddit
This land is your land. Most people know this one. Woody Guthrie.
Hegemonic_Smegma@reddit
"This Land Is Your Land."
redmambo_no6@reddit
This Land is Your Land