Cock a doodle doo
| "Cock a doodle doo" | |
|---|---|
| Roud #17770 | |
| Song | |
| Written | England |
| Published | 1765 |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
| Writer(s) | Traditional |
| Language | English |
"Cock a doodle doo" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 17770.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:
Cock a doodle do!
My dame has lost her shoe,
My master's lost his fiddlestick,
And knows not what to do.[1]
- ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 128.
Origins
The first two lines were used in a murder pamphlet in England, 1606, which seems to suggest that children sang those lines, or very similar ones, to mock the cockerel's (rooster in US) "crow".[1] The first full version recorded was in Mother Goose's Melody, published in London around 1765.[1] By the mid-nineteenth century, when it was collected by James Orchard Halliwell, it was very popular and three additional verses, perhaps more recent in origin, had been added:
Cock a doodle do!
What is my dame to do?
Till master's found his fiddlingstick,
She'll dance without her shoe.
Cock a doodle do!
My dame has found her shoe,
And master's found his fiddlingstick,
Sing cock a doodle do!
Cock a doodle do!
My dame will dance with you,
While master fiddles his fiddlingstick,
And knows not what to do.[1]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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In popular culture
- Herman Melville wrote a short story, perhaps a satire on other writers, with the title 'Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!' (1853).[2]
- Cock-a-Doodle Dandy is a 1949 play by Irish dramatist Seán O'Casey.[3]
- Cock-A-Doodle Deux Deux was the title of a 1966 short cartoon for The Inspector, in which Inspector Clouseau suspects chickens of stealing a diamond.[4]
- The title was used for an episode of Sex in the City (2000).[5]
In Oliver Stone's 1992 film JFK, the John Candy character uses this expression during his conversation with Kevin Costner's character.
Notes
- 1 2
- ↑ L. J. Budd and E. H. Cady, On Melville: The Best from American Literature (Duke University Press, 1988) p. 116.
- ↑ M. Banham, The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 808.
- ↑ Cock-a-Doodle Deux-Deux, IMDB, retrieved 11 April 2009.
- ↑ Cock-a-Doodle-Do Sex and the City: Season 3, Episode 18: Cock-a-Doodle-Do, IMDB, retrieved 11 April 2009.