Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Perhaps the most reviled camp song, at least in some circles, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is a lively tune that is easy to learn.  So why the animosity? Because it involves standing up and, essentially, doing calisthenics for five minutes as you touch each body part every time you sing its name (or hum it).  

So any campers or staff who are sitting at the dining table, groggily finishing breakfast, let out a moan when they hear the song leader chirp, "Everybody stand!"  They know what's coming. HSKandT.

After singing though the song once, it is repeated at a slightly faster tempo, this time humming the word "head" instead of singing it. Third time through, even faster and also humming the next body part (shoulders).  Repeat (one body part at a time) until the entire song is hummed at a frantic pace. Finish by reprising the original tempo and singing all the words.

Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes
Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes
And eyes and ear and mouth and nose
Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes

The song is sung to the tune of "There's a Tavern in the Town," which can be traced back at least as far as the 1883 edition of William H. Hill's Student Songs, a popular songbook at Ivy league colleges.  I assume some student revised the words one summer while working at a camp and HSKandT spread from there.

The song was popularized by Rudy Vallee, one of the most popular entertainers in the early days of mass media. He released two versions in 1934 (under the title "The Drunkard Song"), the second of which featured Vallee losing control and laughing away in the middle of the song:

This recording reached #6 on the pop charts.

Returning to HSKandT, there are many versions of this on YouTube, but almost all of them are aimed an nursery school kids, with versions from all of the usual suspects: The Wiggles, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, etc.  But the song works just as well with a bunch of teenagers who could use a little waking up.  

That said, I'll end with a cute version I found, performed by young children learning English in Thailand:

"It's a Beautiful Day Today"

I just did a little housecleaning on the long list of camp songs featured on the right side of this page. Deleted a few duplicates, changed the title of a few, and added ten or so songs that are either newer to me or that I'd mistakenly omitted.

One of the songs I added has an unusual origin, as it's an obscure song released in 1968 by the psychedelic/folk rock band Moby Grape (great name, it's the answer to "What's purple and swims?").  It wasn't a hit at the time.

Moby Grape came out of the San Francisco scene made famous by the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, but never attained similar commercial success, despite the great musicianship of the band's members. Unfortunately, they've endured decades of legal battles with their ex-manager and two of the band members were diagnosed as schizophrenic and ended up homeless for a while.

One of these two members was bass player Bob Mosely, who wrote and sang lead on "It's a Beautiful Day Today." He now lives in Santa Cruz and performs regularly there.

I don't know how this song found its way to my camp, nor if it's sung at any other camp - but it should be.  As you can hear below, it's a lovely song, perfect for campfires.

A book about camp songs

Just a quick note to share something I recently came across, a book that was published last year titled "Camp Songs, Folk Songs" by Patricia Averill.  She has a website with an exhaustive list of songs as well as information about her book and herself.

This is not a songbook, FYI, but an academic book about the history and usage of these types of songs.  If that's of interest, check it out.  I'll be doing the same.

 

The Ultimate Camp Song Playlist

It's still a work in progress, but here is a new playlist I've put up on Spotify:

Ultimate Summer Camp Songs

I'm about halfway through the @200 songs listed on the right side of this page.  The low hanging fruit is gone but I'll do my best to add the missing songs.  Some simply aren't anywhere to be found, some are under different names, etc.

If you know of any that I've missed - or have versions that you think are better than the ones I've selected - please let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, you can spend the next five and a half hours listening to camp songs, if you are so inclined...

I wrote about "When You Hear a Cannon" nearly five years ago, wondering how there could be so little information online about this simple round.  I searched again recently and found nothing new.  So I decided to put up a version on YouTube and to write the sheet music.  Nothing too fancy for either effort. 

First, the video:

Second, the sheet music:

Please chime in on the comments if you know this song.

Rock Versions of Camp Songs - A Playlist

I created a YouTube playlist of rock singers covering songs from the list on the right side of this page.  If you know of any videos that I should add to the playlist, please let me know in the comments.  For you listening pleasure, here are Jack White, Paul Westerberg, U2, Eric Clapton, the Real McKenzies, the Hooters, the Melvins, Jeff Beck with ZZ Top, Van Morrison with Lonnie Donegan, Relient K, and Bruce Springsteen:

"One Tin Soldier" - Song #38

This past summer, one of the more popular songs among both girls and boys at Camp Ajawah was "One Tin Soldier," a pop song from the early 1970s.  Unlike many camp songs, its origins are clear and the writers are still alive.  OTS was written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who wrote many Top 40 hits, from "Don't Pull Your Love Out On Me Baby" to "Ain't No Woman Like The One I've Got."

Dennis Lambert was nice enough to do a Q+A with me.  You can read at my other music blog, which consists of interviews with pop musicians.  The name of the blog says it all: One Song, Seven Questions.

Please check it out.  In the meantime, here's the original version of the song from 1969: