Oats Peas Beans and Barley Grow

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Oats peas beans and Barley Grow is a traditional British and American folk song. Roud 1380.

The tune normally used, goes by the name "Baltimore" and appears in Joshua Cushing's book "The Fifer's Companion" (1790). The sleevenotes to "The Wild Mountain Thyme" claim that the tune was written by John Playford (1650). According to Alice Bertha Gomme's book "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (1894), this is a "play song", in which children perform actions with the song, standing in a ring. In "Notes and Queries" 7th series, number xii (c 1870) it is discussed, but the Columbia State University website claims that the earliest known version of the words is dated 1898 (Gomme).

[edit] Recordings

Tim Hart and Maddy Prior on "Folk Songs of Olde England" Vol 2 (1968)
Roberts and Barrand on "Mellow With Ale From the Horn" (1975) as "Oats and Beans and Barley Grows"
Raffi on Baby Beluga as Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley 1980
The Friends of Fiddler's Green This Side of the Ocean as Oats and Beans 1981 and 1997
The Revels on "The Wild Mountain Thyme" (1994)
Broadside Band on "Old English Nursery Rhymes" (1996)