Animal Fair (song)

Animal Fair is a traditional folk song and children's song.

As early as 1898, it is attested as being sung by American sailors.^[1] The song was attested in Life magazine in 1941 as a cadence of soft shoe tap dancing.^[2]

Lyrics

The version attested in 1898 has the following lyrics:^[1]

I went to the animal fair,

The birds and the beasts were there,

The old raccoon by the light of the moon

Was combing his auburn hair

The monkey he got drunk

And fell on the elephant's trunk

The elephant sneezed and went down on his knees

And that was the end of the monkey monkey monkey monk...

Other versions substituted "the old raccoon" (1915)^[3] for "the little raccoon", while modern recordings use "the big baboon" or "the old baboon". The Barney and Captain Kangaroo versions changed other lyrics as well.

Recordings

• Sung in Barney & Friends episodes The Dentist Makes Me Smile (1993) and Barney's Super Singing Circus (2000).
• Captain Kangaroo with Mitch Miller orchestra & The Sandpipers (1958)^[4]
• Sung by Richard Dreyfuss's character Moses Wine to his sons in the film "The Big Fix" (1978)^[5]

References