Limerick (song)

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The Limerick  (help·info) is a traditional humorous drinking song with many obscene verses. Alternate titles for this song are "In China They Never Eat Chili", "Sing Us Another One", "Ya-Ya", "Rodriguez the Mexican Pervert" and "Aye-Yi-Yi-Yi". The tune usually used for sung limericks is "The Gay Caballero" (help·info).

Contents 1 Recorded Versions 2 Printed Versions 3 Variant Choruses 4 Lyrics 5 References

[edit] Recorded Versions

• The Limerick Song has been commercially recorded many times. The earliest version of limericks being sung is 1905 under the title Fol-The-Rol-Lol  (help·info) as sung by Edward M. Favor on Edison records. The earliest date for limericks being sung to the "Gay Caballero" tune is May 11, 1931 on the recording titled Rhymes  (help·info) sung by Jack Hylton which was issued on Decca records.

[edit] Printed Versions

The earliest printed date for limericks being sung is 1928 in the book A Collection of Sea Songs and Ditties from the Stores of Dave E. Jones^[1]. Since many of the verses used for this song are bawdy the song tended to get issued in rare, underground mimeographed songbooks. Some of these are (in chronological order):

• 1934. Leech.^[2]

[edit] Variant Choruses

There are several different choruses for this song. One of the most popular in the USA is sung to the tune of "Cielito Lindo" and usually goes like this:

I-Yi-Yi-Yi,

In China, they never eat chili

So here comes another verse worse than the other verse

So waltz me around again, Willie.^[3]

Another chorus, to an unknown tune, is also not uncommon in the UK:

That was a cute little rhyme

Sing us another one, do--oo--^[4]

A less commonly reported chorus goes:

Sweet Violets, sweeter than all the roses,

Covered all over from head to toe,

Covered all over with [shit]^[5]

[edit] Lyrics

The lyrics for the Limerick Song are usually ribald and sometimes original. Here are some from the public domain book Sea Songs and Ditties:

There was a young lady named Lou

who said as the parson withdrew--

"Now the Vicar is quicker,

And thicker, and slicker,

And two inches longer than you.^[6]

Chorus:

That was a cute little rhyme

Sing us another one, do--oo-- ^[7]

There was a young man from Nantucket

Whose cock was so long he could suck it

And he said with a grin

As he wiped off his chin--

"If my ear was a cunt I could fuck it."^[8]

chorus

There was a young man from Samoa

Who had just one inch, and no more

It was all right for keyholes

And little girl's pee-holes

but not worth a damn to a whore.^[9]

chorus

There was a young man named Perkin

who was furtively jerking his gerkin

His wife's face grew red

As to him she said

Perkin you're shirkin your perkin^[10]

chorus

Here's to old king Montazuma

For fun he buggered a puma

The puma one day

Bit both balls away

An example of animal humor.^[11]

chorus

[edit] References

• Cray, Ed. The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs (University of Illinois, 1992).
• "Jones, Dave E." A Collection of Sea Songs and Ditties from the Stores of Dave E. Jones. No publisher. No date (1928). Unpaginated.
• Legman, Gershon. The Limerick.
• Legman, Gershon. The Horn Book. (New York: University Press, 1964).
• Reuss, Richard A. An Annotated Field Collection of Songs From the American College Student Oral Tradition (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Masters Thesis, 1965).