Hickory Dickory Dock

 "Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language nursery rhyme. 

The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London in about 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'. The next recorded version in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.

The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme. Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers Hevera (8), Devera (9) and Dick (10) which are from the language Cumbric.

The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse went up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The mouse went down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

A snake.
Hickory dickory dock.
The snake went up the clock.
The clock struck two.
The snake went down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

A squirrel.
Hickory dickory dock.
The squirrel went up the clock.
The clock struck three.
The squirrel went down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

A cat.
Hickory dickory dock.
The cat went up the clock.
The clock struck four.
The cat went down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

A monkey.
Hickory dickory dock.
The monkey went up the clock.
The clock struck five.
The monkey went down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

An elephant?! Oh no!
Hickory dickory dock
The elephant went up the clock.
Oh no!
Hickory dickory dock.

God Bless America

 This is the story behind “God Bless America.” This simple one-verse song became an overnight hit, and a hopeful song as war threatened. “It’s not a patriotic song,” composer Irving Berlin said in a 1940 interview, “but an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means.” Today, many Americans consider “God Bless America” an unofficial national anthem of the United States.

The life of Irving Berlin is a uniquely American success story. He was born Israel Baline in the Jewish village of Tyumen, in a harsh region of Russia known as Siberia. When he was about five, an anti-Jewish mob destroyed his family’s home, and the Balines set out for America. They settled on New York’s Lower East Side.

Irving Berlin's father died when he was eight, and “Izzy” went to work selling newspapers to help support his family. As a young teen, he began singing in saloons and at some point taught himself piano. He began copying the musical styles of the day, and developed an incredible instinct for creating popular tunes that people loved to sing. A printing error on a published piece of sheet music left him with the name Irving Berlin, and that was the name he carried as he wrote song after song. In 1911, he wrote his first huge dance hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

After that, Berlin’s career took off like a rocket. He wrote stage musicals and film scores, and produced hit after hit. Many are still sung today, including: “White Christmas,” “Blue Skies,” “Always,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Heat Wave,” “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,”—and “God Bless America.”

When describing his goal as a songwriter, Berlin said: “My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American…that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country….My public is the real people.”

Kate Smith, one of the great singers of her day, had asked for a new number for her radio show. The year was 1938, and she was looking for something fresh to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of the Great War, what would later be called World War I. Irving Berlin had composer’s block. 

Berlin felt the urgency to deliver. He had recently returned from Europe, where catastrophe was brewing. Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, was growing more powerful and aggressive and seemed to be preparing for war. But Berlin wasn’t focused on writing a get-America-ready-for-war song. He wanted to create something to celebrate America as a special place to live.

Then he remembered a song he had drafted years earlier. He pulled out an old trunk and dusted off the 20-year-old manuscript. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

God bless America, 

Land that I love, 

Stand beside her and guide her 

Through the night with a light from above; 

From the mountains, to the prairies, 

To the oceans white with foam, 

God bless America, 

My home, sweet home. 

God bless America, 

My home, sweet home. 

Hava Nagila

"Hava Nagila" (Hebrew: הָבָה נָגִילָה, Hāvā Nāgīlā, "Let us rejoice") is a Jewish folk song. It is traditionally sung at celebrations, such as weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvas, and other festivities among the Jewish community. Written in 1918, it quickly spread through the Jewish diaspora. 

"Hava Nagila" is one of the first modern Jewish folk songs in the Hebrew language. It went on to become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and bar/bat(b'nei) mitzvah celebrations.

The melody is based on a Hassidic Nigun. It was composed in 1918 to celebrate the Balfour Declaration and the British victory over the Ottomans in 1917. It was first performed in a mixed choir concert in Jerusalem.

Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882–1938), a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition; one of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson, who with the rest of his class was presented by the professor with a 19th-century, slow, melodious, chant (niggun or nigun) and assigned to add rhythm and words to fashion a modern Hebrew song. There are competing claims regarding "Hava Nagila"'s composer, with both Idelsohn and Nathanson being suggested.

The niggun has been attributed to the Sadigurer Chasidim, who lived in what is now Ukraine. This version has been recreated by Daniel Gil, based on a traditional song collected by Susman Kiselgof. The text was probably refined by Idelsohn. Members of the community began to immigrate to Jerusalem in 1915, and Idelsohn wrote in 1932 that he had been inspired by that melody. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

These are the lyrics to “Hava Nagila” translated to English.

Hava nagila, hava nagila : Let us rejoice, let us rejoice
Hava nagila ve-nismeha : Let us rejoice and be glad
Hava neranena, hava neranena : Let us sing, let us sing
Hava neranena ve-nismeha : Let us sing and be glad
Uru, uru ahim : Awake, awake brothers
Uru ahim be-lev sameah : Awake brothers with a happy heart 

Goodbye Old Paint

 "Goodbye Old Paint" is a traditional Western song that was created by black cowboy Charley Willis. The song was first collected by songwriter N. Howard "Jack" Thorp in his 1921 book Songs of the Cowboys. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

In writing about "Goodbye Old Paint", Thorp wrote: "Heard this sung by a puncher who had been on a spree in Pecos City. He had taken a job temporarily as a sheep-rustler for an outfit in Independence Draw, down the river, and was ashamed of the job. I won't mention his name." Charley Willis, a former slave who became a cowboy and rode the Wyoming trail in the late 1800s, is now credited with authorship. Willis was in demand on cattle drives because his voice was reportedly calming to the herds.

Though folklorist John Lomax did credit Willis with the authorship of the song, Lomax never recorded a performance of the song by any black person. In spite of the somewhat-concealed history of the song, many people have been credited with writing it. In 1928, a newspaper in Amarillo, Texas reported that Texas cowboy fiddler Jess Morris had composed it. Apparently Morris' arrangement had previously caught Thorp's eye. Morris never claimed to have written the song, saying that he learned it from a black cowboy named Charley Willis. Western writer and singer Jim Bob Tinsley has said that credit for saving "Goodbye Old Paint" from being forever lost "...belongs to three Texans: a black cowboy (Willis) who sang it on cattle drives, a cowboy who remembered it (Jess Morris) and a college professor (Lomax) who put it down on paper."

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne, I'm off to Montan'
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

Old Paint's a good pony, he paces when he can,
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

Go hitch up your hosses and give them some hay
And seat yourself by me as long as you may.

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

My hosses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay
My wagon is loaded and rolling away.

Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne;
Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne.

My foot's in the stirrup, thr reins in my hand,
Good mornin', young lady, my hosses won't stand.