Inchworm (song)

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"Inchworm", also known as "The Inch Worm", is a song originally performed by Danny Kaye in the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen. It was written by Frank Loesser.

The song has become a popular children's song and is best known for its arithmetic-based chorus:

Two and two are four

Four and four are eight

Eight and eight are sixteen

Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two

Two additional verses are then sung in counterpoint with the first:

Inchworm, inchworm,

Measuring the marigolds,

You and your arithmetic,

You'll probably go far.

Inchworm, inchworm,

Measuring the marigolds

Seems to me you'd stop and see

How beautiful they are.

In the film, a children's chorus sings the "arithmetic" section over and over inside a small classroom, while Andersen, listening just outside, gazes at an inchworm crawling on the flowers and sings the main section of the song.

It has been covered by many artists including The Brothers Creeggan, Anne Murray, Kenny Loggins, We Five, John Lithgow, Mary Hopkin, Doris Day and Kurt Wagner, and has been performed in skits on Jim Henson's Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Performed instrumentally, it was a regular feature of the John Coltrane Quartet's repertoire.