"The A.B.C." and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ redirect here. For other similarly named songs, see ABC song (disambiguation). For the U.S. television channel, see American Broadcasting Company. For the Australian television broadcaster, see Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
An alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children an alphabet, used in kindergartens, pre-schools and homes around the world. Alphabet songs typically follow the alphabetic principle (though the phonics method offers variants). In languages such as English with morphophonemic variation, an alphabet song usually chooses a particular pronunciation for each letter in the alphabet (i.e. "cake" is /ˈkeɪk/, not [ˈkaːkɛ]) and also typically for some words in the song.
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"The A.B.C." ( /ˌeɪˌbiːˈsiː/) or "A.B.C's" ( /ˌeɪˌbiːˈsiːz/) is one of the best-known English language alphabet songs, and perhaps the one most frequently referred to as "the alphabet song", especially in the United States.
The song was first copyrighted in 1835 by the Boston-based music publisher Charles Bradlee, and given the title "The A.B.C., a German air with variations for the flute with an easy accompaniment for the piano forte". The musical arrangement was attributed to Louis Le Maire (sometimes Lemaire), an 18th century composer. This was "Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1835, by C. Bradlee, in the clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts", according to the Newberry Library,[1] which also says, "The theme is that used by Mozart for his piano variations, Ah, vous dirai-je, maman."[2] This tune is more commonly recognizable as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
Lyrics: (each line represents two measures, or eight beats)
In the United States, Z is pronounced zee; in most other English-speaking countries it is pronounced zed. Generally the absent zee-rhyme is not missed, although some children use a zee pronunciation in the rhyme which they would not use elsewhere. Variants of the song exist to accommodate the zed pronunciation. One variation shortens the second line and lengthens the last, to form a near-rhyme between N and zed:
In UK (Nursery Rhymes):
Other variants make significantly more changes in order to rhyme with zed, and even alter the rest of the song to fit a new rhythm. For example:
This alphabet song, sung to a different melody from that of the previous, is taught by some pre-schools that use the phonics method.
(continue for each letter with several slightly different melodies)
This song teaches children that each letter has a name and sounds. Just like a dog says "woof" and a cat says "meow", the "I" says "eye" and "ee".
There are also songs that go through the alphabet, making each letter stand for something in the process. One example was recorded in 1948, by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, Sidney Lippman, and later Perry Como, called A, You're Adorable:
The group Wee Sing released an alphabet song with the letters in reverse order. It is called ZYXs. It goes as follows:
The Canadian children's TV series The Big Comfy Couch used a version of the song in the episode "Backwards".
Comedian Soupy Sales released a song in 1966 called "Backwards Alphabet" which contained the reverse alphabet in lyrical style.