Today Is the Day They Give Babies Away With a Half a Pound of Cheese Song Origin
| BABY-ROCKING MEDLEY (Rosalie Sorrels) BELLS OF IRELAND I'Thousand GONNA TELL LONESOME ROVING WOLVES Related threads: Lyr Req: This is the day they requite babies away (10) (origins) Origins: 'The Baby Tree' by Rosalie Sorrels (2) Recording: I'm Gonna Tell (Rosalie Sorrels) (twenty) Lyr Add: Bells of Ireland (Rosalie Sorrels) (seven) Rosalie Sorrels Annual Memorial Festival (3) (origins) Origins: Lonesome Roving Wolves (Rosalie Sorrells) (12) (origins) Origins: Terminal Go Round-Rosalie Sorrells (6) Lyr Req: Another place another fourth dimension(Sorrels) (four) W Declension Rosalie Sorrels Memorial Aug20-Pasadena (two) Lyr Req: Favorite Things Parody - Rosalie Sorrells (ii) Obit: Rosalie Sorrels (1933-2017) (19) Aid needed for Rosalie Sorrels (14) Lyr Add together: The Baby Tree (Rosalie Sorrels) (11) Today is the twenty-four hours they give babies abroad (9) Rosalie Sorrels needs our support 2014 (13) Rosalie Sorrels at Freight and Salvage-Oct 2012 (three) Rosalie Sorrels assistance 2011 (7) Salt Lake Urban center folk: Phillips & Sorrel (ane) Rosalie Sorrels CD Paramount Sire LPs (9) Lyr Add: They'll Know Who I Am (Rosalie Sorrels) (6) Lyr Req: I've Got a Home Out in Utah (R Sorrels) (9) Rosalie Sorrels, a treasure (4)
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From: concon
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 12:40 PM
There is an former Irish gaelic or Scotch or somewhere folk song that's about a housewife that's having a bad mean solar day. When the baby starts to cry, she picks it up, sits in a rocker and rocks furiously while singing:
"Today's the day we give babies away with half a loaf of staff of life."
I heard this song years ago on the radio and have no thought what it's name is or who sings it or where to find it. It has driven me crazy for years.
Have you ever heard of it?
Thank you, Connie
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From: Mrrzy
Engagement: xiii Aug 02 - 01:02 PM
Yes, I accept - but that is all I can say! Bank check some one-time Clancy Brothers record covers? Peradventure the ane where they sing Weela Walia?
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From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 01:05 PM
I found a snippet with tea instead of bread, simply non the whole vocal. See here.
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From: Invitee
Date: xiii Aug 02 - 01:41 PM
Steve Roud'due south folksong index lists it just in Combs' 'Folk-Songs of the Southern United States'.
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From: GUEST,robinia
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 02:37 PM
Yes, I remember "This is the 24-hour interval nosotros give babies away" from an old Rosalie Sorrels (or Bonnie Dobson??) children's record. It had the two verses Malcolm cites (but not the lead-in complaint) and was paired with the "Isle way out in the sea." Information technology wasn't until I read the jacket notes, which said that the vocal was pop in Western bars, that I woke up to the spirit in which it could be sung ...
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From: GUEST
Date: xiii Aug 02 - 05:36 PM
Since the vocal is an infant lullaby, it doesn't need many verses. You just sing the same damn verses over and over until the baby falls asleep from colorlessness, or y'all fall asleep from burnout. Nevertheless, I like to add the post-obit (original) verse:
Oh this is the day we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea
If you've got the feeling you'd like some Darjeeling
Nosotros'll throw information technology in for free
Jacob (male parent of an baby who sleeps very well, thank God)
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From: Beak D
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 06:35 PM
I was thought Rosalie wrote it...*shrug*...she made it temporarily famous fifteen-20 years agone...
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From: Invitee,robinia
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 07:00 PM
"if yous know whatsoever ladies who want whatsoever babies/ simply send them around to me" -- at present that does strike me equally a unusually suggestive "infant lullaby," which is not to say it's inappropriate... I think babies appreciate simply about anything you sing to them, especially if it has a good rousing rhythm, which "this is the day nosotros give babies abroad" has; it also has a expert tune that flows very naturally (the first half-dozen notes are the aforementioned) as "Island fashion out in the sea, where the babies they all grow on trees"...
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From: Beak D
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 07:ten PM
babies are similar dogs...if say it in a sugariness, lulling tone, you tin can say anything ---and get out LOTS of hostility...*big grin*
"What will we do with the baby-o,
If he won't become to sleepy-o?"
Every fourth dimension the babe cries,
Poke our finger in the baby's eyes"
"Come, stupid, worthless doggie...exercise your business, and let me get out of this pelting!" (said in the MOST gentle manner!~)
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From: Harold W
Engagement: 13 Aug 02 - eleven:18 PM
Ah... y'all youngsters. I don't know if it was ever was a song, but an expression used back in the days of grocery stores when people did not have baby scales. On shopping days mothers used to take the babies in to the store and the clerk put the babies on the calibration. Hence the expression is, "This is the mean solar day they give babies 'a weigh' with a half apound of tea."
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From: Deckman
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 11:54 PM
I have a funny connection with this song: back in 1965, my wife and I put in for adoption. During the long interviewing process, we were visited at home by our "adoption caseworker." She turned out to be a really fun lady. Through subsequent visits, while she got to know the states, and u.s. her, I one time grabbed my guitar and sang this song. My married woman was horrified and I was indeed quite relieved when the caseworker burst into laughter. Something must have worked, as we received son Peter when he was 6 weeks old. He is now 37! Cheers, Bob
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From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: xiv Aug 02 - 08:41 PM
Rosalie Sorrells wrote the song, "THE Infant TREE," and our visitor, Geordie Music Publishing Co., published information technology for her in 1970. A few years later on, she formed her own publishing company and we assigned her songs to her (I believe her company is Grimes Music). I don't think she'd mind my setting down the words here- it'southward a charming song!
There's an island style out in the sea
Where the babies they all grow on copse,
And it's jolly good fun to swing in the sun
Just you gotta watch out if you lot sneeze, sneeze,
You gotta watch out if you sneeze.
Yes you lot gotta scout out if you lot sneeze,
For swingin' up there in the trees
Y'all're liable to cough-you might very well fall off
And tumble downward flop on your knees, knees,
Tumble downwards flop on your knees.
(Occasional chorus-different tune)
O this is the day they give babies away
With a half a loving cup of tea-
If you know any ladies who want any babies
Only send 'em around to me...
And then when the stormy winds wail
And the breezes blow high in a gale,
There's a curious dropping and flopping and plopping
And fat lilliputian babies only hail, hail,
Fatty little babies just hail!
And the babies prevarication there in a pile
And the grown-ups come after awhile,
And they e'er pass by all the babies that cry
And take only babies that smile, smile,
They accept simply babies that smile.
Even triplets and twins if they'll smile!
(Words & music by Rosale Sorrells Grimes Music)
I guess you'll accept to find the tune on one of Rosalie's albums- information technology was on one of her early ones. Hope this clears upward some wonder-ings for you! Jean
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From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: xiv Aug 02 - 08:53 PM
Malcolm- Apologies; I hadn't clicked on your Baby-Rocking Medley, and didn't know yous'd given the lyric already. Ane more thing. BillD, that's one of my "Babe-O" verses; I made up that one and the, "Pour a fiddling moonshine in his oral fissure" one. Rosalie used to sing that version of "Baby-o" to sort of introduce her "Baby Tree" vocal.
And past the mode, "Baby Tree" was recorded by Jefferson Plane in the seventies, and Paul Kantner's "Blows Against the Empire" anthology.
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From: CapriUni
Engagement: 14 Aug 02 - 10:59 PM
According to my mother, this was the outset advertisement jingle, for the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Visitor (A&P stores), and it was a sales gimmick; around the time that cameras were a newfangled thing, the store was giving away photos of babies to anyone who bought a half-pound of tea.
The lyrics were:
Today's the day
we requite babies away
with half a pound of tea.
If you know whatever lady who wants a babe
But send her 'round to me!
(likewise co-ordinate to my mother, she sang this on the manner to the hospital to deliver me!) ;-)
So naturally, I had to check this thread out -- it'south my song!
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From: Deckman
Date: xiv Aug 02 - 11:52 PM
CapriUni ... what a neat story! Thanks for sharing. Tell me please, what years? Bob
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From: CapriUni
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 12:56 AM
1964 was the year I was built-in... I forget the year Mom said the song was used every bit a jingle... 'Form, information technology could've been a folksong offset, and got picked up and used by the store for an advertizing ...
If so, it certainly wouldn't exist the concluding time...
BTW, I was born ix weeks early on, and then I was a bit of a surprise!
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From: Guest
Engagement: 15 Aug 02 - 02:39 AM
From Bessie Fiddler, Linn, W.Va., who learned it from her mother. Collected by Carey Woofter, 1924.
To-day is the twenty-four hour period we requite babies abroad,
With a half a pound of tea;
If you lot see whatever ladies without any babies,
Only send them around to me.
Oh all you young ladies,
From nearly and from far;
Beware of the sailor
With the bright morning star.
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From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 08:21 PM
I seem to remember that Rosalie said she got the basis for the song from a verse form past Olive Burt (not too certain about that name, and tin't locate her book nor Rosalie'due south tape, just I think that'southward right, that she started with that poem). I'll have to write to her...why doesn't everyone have e-mail??? Just I'd beloved to find out more about the ad, and which came start, the song (or verse form) or the ad. Jean
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From: CapriUni
Date: xv Aug 02 - 08:44 PM
.... Hmmm... I don't even know if it was ever an ad.
All I accept is my mother's story, and I don't know where she got her information...
Hmmm...
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From: GUEST
Appointment: xv Aug 02 - 09:18 PM
Olive Wolley Burt, writer of 'American Murder Ballads'. I've heard Rosalie sing some songs from that book, or directly from Olve Burt.
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From: Frivolous Sal
Engagement: 11 November 03 - 01:11 PM
My mother also told me it was an ad, or a jingle based on the fact that at the fourth dimension green stamps were a serious thing, and everyone used them. She would date the song as 1930s.
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From: Frivolous Sal
Engagement: xi Nov 03 - 01:35 PM
Ohhhh--Today is the solar day nosotros give babies away
with a half a pound of tea.
Simply open the lid
and out pops a kid
with a one-half a pound of tea.
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From: Guest,Clint Keller
Engagement: xi Nov 03 - 01:57 PM
In the thirties my father sang
All of y'all ladies who haven't got babies
Simply come along with me
For this is the day that we give them away
With a half-a-pound of tea...
…just I had the idea that information technology came from earlier in the century; don't know why.
And I heard it was a send-upwards of the A&P's custom of giving away premiums with tea.
clint
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From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Appointment: xi Nov 03 - 01:59 PM
Today is the day they requite babies away, with half a pound of tea,
You open up the lid and out jumps a kid with half a pound of tea.
In notes on the Ragtime hit, "Yankee Bird," 1910, the piece is a march and wo-stride based on "The gal I Left Behind Me," and "This is the Twenty-four hours They Requite Babies Abroad."
http://www-kmadg.svf.stuba.sk/jmkollar/midi/primeline/midnot_s.htm# and scroll style down.
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From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Engagement: 11 November 03 - 06:44 PM
I recall we used a fake cockney accent, day, away and tea all rhymed with die. Never having met a cockney, I'm certain that would make one cringe.
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From: LadyJean
Engagement: 12 Nov 03 - 12:53 AM
My female parent was a silverish haired lady, who favored bourgeois clothes and sensible shoes. You lot have not idea how badly she shocked my friend Nils by singing "If you know any ladies who want any babies only send them effectually to me". Nils knew the germ-free version.
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From: cetmst
Engagement: 12 Nov 03 - 06:55 AM
Sing Out v. xx, 1971, p.v, quotes Rosalie Sorrels "Really I only wrote the music to this 1. I got the words from Olive Burt, author of 'American Murder Ballads and Their Stories'. She learned information technology from her mother who constitute it in a book of children'south poesy from the early 1800's". It is recorded on a Prestige album, 'Rosalie's Songbag'.
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From: Celtaddict
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 08:19 AM
My male parent, in the fifties, used to sing (not that it had much of a tune, more a chant), "Today is the 24-hour interval they give babies abroad, at iv o'clock in the morning." Is this something different, or a flake of an amalgam?
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From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 09:34 PM
From A Reader'south Guide to William Gaddis's The Recognitions:
- "The Mean solar day They Gave Babies Abroad" is a story past Dale Eunson that appeared in the Christmas 1946 number of Cosmopolitan, their most successful Christmas story ever. It was published as a book the following year. Perhaps more than to the point, there was a soldiers' ditty circulating in the 1940s that went "Today is the twenty-four hour period they requite babies away / with a one-half a pound of tea. / If you know any ladies who want any babies / Just send them round to me."
"This Is the Day We Requite Babies Away" past Priscilla T. Nagle, is an article in the volume "The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, and Adopted Daughters Tell Their Stories," edited by Susan Wadia-Ells, 1995.
The line "Today is the twenty-four hour period we requite babies abroad, with half a pound of tea..." is quoted in this Autobiography of Virginia Bradford (1900-1996) -- silent picture star. It comes from a passage where the actress is reminiscing nearly several songs she knew as a child before 1913.
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From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Engagement: 13 Nov 03 - 10:08 PM
Since part of a ragtime tune from 1910 is based on "This is the mean solar day they give babies away," we take to look before that date.
I take never found the adv. (anecdotal) about a brand of tea, nor can I find anything by an author or poet named Olive Burt (mentioned by Sorrels) in the proper time frame.
Origin however a mystery.
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From: Jim Dixon
Appointment: 15 Nov 03 - 02:49 PM
The Library of Congress lists Olive Woolley Burt, 1894-, equally the author or editor of at least 54 books—mostly children's books about the West—between 1929 and 1980. One of them is "American murder ballads and their stories. Nerveless and edited by Olive Woolley Burt. New York, Oxford Academy Press, 1958." Note that Sorrells doesn't say that the song appears in any of Burt'due south writings.
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From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: fifteen Nov 03 - 02:57 PM
There are several Olive Burt'southward. The author about the west is too late for the time frame. I couldn't discover 1 who fit.
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From: Jenny Islander
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 12:38 AM
They used to play this cut on my local public radio station in the '80s (I think), and the woman who sang information technology had an unmistakable voice, but I can't remember her name! It's live--you can hear the audience laughing--and she leads in with a little spiel about when to sing the vocal. Something like: "It's four o'clock in the morning. The baby is still crying. The paregoric is gone. Information technology'south gone considering yous drank it. That's when you take a deep breath, smile, pick that babe up in your artillery, and, in your softest, kindest vox, sing 'The Hostile Baby-Rocking Song.' "
Oh, this is the mean solar day we requite babies away
With a half a pound of tea.
If you know whatsoever ladies who want whatsoever babies,
Send 'em around to me.
Oh, this is the twenty-four hours we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea.
Yous open the chapeau and you lot take out the kid
With a written guarantee.
I think there's a 3rd verse that slipped my memory.
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From: GUEST,T. Blair
Date: 30 April 04 - ten:36 PM
I heard the ditty as:
Today'south the day they requite babies away,
with a half a pound of tea.
Only open the lid, examine the kid,
and there you'll notice the guarantee.
My mother learned it from her mother.
I understood the ditty to have come from the early colonial days and that it was Irish in origin. At least that is what I was told by an elderly Irish nun.
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From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 11:xi PM
All nosotros know is that information technology is old earlier 1910, but probably not much earlier.
No show of the rhyme before its use in a 1910 ragtime lyric, every bit stated before.
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From: Trivial Robyn
Date: 01 May 04 - 05:37 PM
I don't recall ever hearing the vocal but I do remember a stock phrase that was used when I was a child - "give you abroad with one-half a pound of tea."
Robyn
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From: GUEST
Appointment: 21 Feb 06 - 12:13 AM
My grandmother used to sing this to my father, and I've been trying to find a copy for his birthday, any thoughts?
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From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 07:48 PM
Please note that Rosalie Sorrells chosen her work BABY ROCKING MEDLEY. "Medley" implies more than than one song, and probably more than one source. I call back we may be barking upward the wrong tree by assuming Olive Burt wrote the line "Today is the day we requite babies away with a half a pound of tea," even if Sorrells did cite Burt equally a source. Surely she meant a source rather than the source.
I don't take Rosalie'south recording, and I don't know the tune(s). Someone who has it, please tell me: Can you tell if there's more than one tune in the medley? Tin you identify where one tune ends and the next begins? (Please refer to the lyrics in the DT.) Can y'all identify whatever of the tunes?
I remember the tune that my ex-mother in law (at present deceased) used when she sang "Today is the day…." I recall it'south the opening confined of a Sousa march, merely I don't know its proper name. I'm hoping someone else will know. If not, I might try listening to several Sousa marches until I recognize information technology.
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From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 February 06 - 10:15 PM
??Where is the beginning of this thread? My first posting is (to me at least) obviously an answer to the original question... and I exercise remember not starting this one...
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From: Invitee,M.Ted
Engagement: 22 Feb 06 - 01:06 AM
"There's an Island Way off in the sea" is one melody, and "This is the twenty-four hour period we requite babies away" is some other--I have it on vinyl, only my turntable has not exist operational for about half-dozen years--elsewise I'd convey you a re-create--it is delightful and amusing, both on record, and alive--
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From: Stewie
Appointment: 22 Feb 06 - 03:00 AM
Mrrzy, click on 'Printer Friendly' link at the elevation of the page and it should put the letters in proper guild. Joe Offer gave this tip some time ago.
--Stewie.
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From: Guest,Galley
Date: twenty Oct 06 - 11:twenty AM
In response to Q who dated the ditty "Today'south the twenty-four hours they give babies away with one-half a pound of tea; open up the lid and out jumps the kid with a written guarantee" to effectually 1910 or slightly earlier. Tin can you lot tell me the source for the information? I'm doing inquiry on infant-farming in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and this sounds like a rhyme that might have been a social annotate on the exercise.
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From: Jim Dixon
Engagement: 22 October 06 - 04:41 PM
Google Book Search constitute a book with this description:
- Title: Sunset [volume XXVIII]
Publisher: Passenger Dept., Southern Pacific Co.
Author(s): Southern Pacific Company. Passenger Dept, Southern Pacific Company
Publication Date: 1898
- "Well, where's the baby?" ...
"What babe? What are you talking about?" ...
"The infant you're whistling nigh" returned the other lightly.
- "Oh, this is the 24-hour interval we give babies away
With a half a pound of tea!"
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From: Jim Dixon
Engagement: 24 Oct 06 - 08:25 AM
Oops! I gave some wrong information about that terminal quote. (Google's information was a fleck confusing.) The book (or mag) I quoted from was one of a series that began in 1898, but this particular volume was published in 1912—every bit y'all can see by displaying the title page.
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From: GUEST,degener
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 09:25 AM
my begetter used to sing a slightly different version - "Today is the day they give babies away for a one-half a keg of beer." I doubtable it was a fraternity drinking song version of the more popular lyrics. Has anyone a comment on these lyrics?
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From: Invitee
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 09:45 PM
Hi
My grandpa used to sing whn we were kids quite a long version of the vocal- that was what I was trying to find when I saw this thread.
todays the day nosotros give babies away with half a pound of tea
You lot elevator upwardly the lid and there is a kid with a written guarantee
there were other verses that followed
isn't it a compassion shes merely 1 titty to feed the baby on. The poor litter bugger he couldn't play rugger ( i.e Rugby football) he's non sufficiently strong
tra la la la
then some poetry about the queen of all the fairys (which sounds now that I hear information technology to be some reference to homosexuality- didn't option up on it as a kid)
will ask my cousin- he used to know all the words and sing it all the time.
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From: GUEST,Jesse
Date: 25 Jul 07 - 08:41 PM
Re: This Is The Day They Give Babies Away.
To the person who remembers a lady singer singing this vocal, I think it was Gracie Fields.
My female parent remembers that during the 1930s in Vancouver, B.C. Canada it was regularly played on the radio by Billy Brown on his Breakfast Club which ran for years on radio station C J O R 600 Kc.
Gracie Fields also use to recite a little poem, as follows.
Don't throw stones at your mother,
She never threw stone at you,
Don't throw stones at your mother,
You'll be distressing if you lot do;
When y'all were just a little kid,
She'd tuck you lot in your bed,
and then, don't throw stones at your mother-
Throw rocks at your father instead:
Cheers
Jesse Oliver
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From: Y_Not
Date: 26 Jul 07 - 09:56 AM
At that place is a moving picture from the 1950s "The Twenty-four hour period they Gave Babies Away" starring Glynnis Jones, a real tear jerker.
I wonder if there is whatsoever link to the vocal?
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From: GUEST,Jack Kelley
Engagement: 16 Aug 07 - 05:35 PM
I remember it this way:
Today is the twenty-four hour period we requite babies away for a pound and a half
of cheese. If you know any ladies who need any babies, la lala
la lala la la
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From: GUEST,bilwilk
Appointment: 05 Oct 07 - 05:46 PM
My mother use to sing this vocal to me, back in the 1930's. She said it was from a tea company commercial (probably in the twenties or very early on thirties) and that they packed a celluloid(?) doll in the summit of the box of loose tea leaves.
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From: Invitee,ELKA
Date: 13 Nov 07 - 02:24 AM
I learned it from my begetter, who learned it from his English female parent, who was born at the beginning of the past century:
"Today's the day they requite babies away with a one-half a pound of tea/just open the chapeau/and examine the kid/with a written guarantee."
So it may take simply been transatlantic cultural tidbits, but someone in England in the 1910's and 1920's was saying this.
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From: Deckman
Date: 13 November 07 - 04:08 AM
Back in 1965, my wife and I were in the "procedure" of adopting. The interviews and exams were many and long. During one of the adoption caseworker's visits, I sang her this song. Nosotros got the infant anyway! Bob
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From: GUEST,Folio
Date: 17 May 08 - 01:16 PM
I'g 70 and I heard my grandmother sing this to "the babies". She was from the south so e'er idea it was a folksong or rhyme.
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From: Guest,pennymac
Date: 01 Jun 08 - 12:30 PM
I found myself starting to sing this song the other day and couldn't call up anything beyond the first line. Maybe because we lived in Wisconsin, my mother sang this song in the early on 1940s not using "tea" just "cheese"
I practise believe that the second line as many have suggested was "If you lot know whatsoever ladies that want any babies, simply send them 'round to me."
The tune sounds similar a vaudeville number, just I have no noesis of the song's origin.
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From: Guest,Guest, Peggy
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 09:56 PM
My vulgar grandparents always sang
Today is the twenty-four hours they requite babies away
With a half a pound of cheese
The fatter the women the meliorate the swimmin'
to swoop betwixt their knees"
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From: Phil Edwards
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 05:26 AM
Then it's either
a) a nasty lullaby (like Stone-a-good day Baby)
b) an advertising jingle
c) a bluesy lament about women having to give their babies abroad
d) a bawdy soldiers' vocal about, er, 'giving' women babies
e) a rhyme nearly weighing babies
and information technology dates from no afterwards than 1912!
c) and e) seem pretty unlikely to me. The advertising jingle is well-attested, only 1912 sounds awfully early for that kind of campaign - besides which, would an advertiser really write about giving babies abroad? I'd guess that it started as a genuine lullaby, was used in an ad campaign and was later adopted by soldiers. But there's basically no show for this theory.
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From: Invitee,Heather Morse Depression
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 06:31 PM
My Grandmother, Mary Morse Low, born (1917?) and raised in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, used to sing it. When I was a child I used to sing along and it wasn't until I was much older when I understood what I was singing...
Today is the solar day they give babies away
with a one-half a pound of tea
If yous know any ladies that want to have babies
just send 'em 'round to me
I'll give 'em a grinning, I'll requite 'em a grin
Send 'em to me! I'll fill them with glee!
And send them on their way!
Oh! (and start singing once again from outset)
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From: Invitee,Amber
Date: 28 Aug 08 - 12:11 PM
To Jenny Islander. I know this message is late but I was doing some enquiry and wanted to respond your question. It was Roaslie Sorrels that sings that song. On my version it is 6:thirty in the forenoon and the kid hasn't quit howling for half-dozen hours. Then comes the cereal, lead sandwiches and milk. But the milk has been forgotten. I know the youngest of her sons and virtually likely the howling ane so this item song is extra close to my heart. Just thought I would allow you know from someone who knows her at present. Thank you for listening, reading, and possibly wondering who the heck I am responding about 5 years after:) Bister
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From: Guest,Amber
Engagement: 28 Aug 08 - 12:sixteen PM
To Pip. I dont think information technology is either. It is coming from a woman who raised five children on her own. Regardless of who you are, anyone can exist tired and know what it is similar to exist upwardly all night with a crying child. That is why she states in her spoken function that keeping all of that bottled upward inside could make you go "strange and punch the babe in the mouth merely you deceit exercise that." So you sing the hostile baby rocking song to go out the frustrations w/o any ill intent. Well, that is what I exit of it at least. :) Ha ha, all this time for just a little tid bit.
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From: GUEST,m harvey
Date: 07 Nov 08 - 02:35 PM
My aunt remembers this song from a flick where the hubby (Possibly
King Harrison ) she doesn't recollect .. who sings this to his wife
who is in labour, she would like to know the title of the movie if
anyone else remembers ..
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From: GUEST,Bdaleday
Date: 15 Nov 08 - 05:19 PM
Call me wierd, merely I am desparately trying to observe a recording of the song. I'm one-time enough to remember fondly when Elsa Lanchester sang information technology on early on TV, perhaps on the Milton Berle or other diversity testify. Tin you send me a link to Whatever recording?!?!
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From: Invitee,Marcus Hill
Date: fifteen Dec 08 - 03:49 PM
Back when I was a sailor at Moffett Field, California in the early '70s I used to listen to a radio station, KFAT (the wide spot on your punch), out of Gilory, California (garlick upper-case letter of the world). Interesting station, they'd play only nigh anything you can think of.
Anyway they played the two songs "Today is the solar day.." and the "Baby Tree" sung past Mother Mary McCaslin. I don't recall if it was live in the studio (higher up the dentist'due south office if I recall correctly) or a recording but information technology stuck with me all these years. I'll have to run into if it is on ane of the tapes I made of that station way back when.
And then Jefferson Starship ( the Aeroplane with shuffled membership ) did it on their Blows Against the Empire album as noted previously in this thread, It was so out of character for that ring, well done as well with simply a banjo if I remember right. I take it ripped from the record as an 18Mbyte wave file, I'thousand willing to share if it won't country me in jail.
Anyway if your are looking for a recording yous might endeavour tis Mother Mary McCaslin, She was yet around as of concluding year.
All-time regards,
Marcus Hill
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From: Guest,George Weinberg-Harter
Date: 23 Oct 09 - ten:57 AM
My dad, who was born in 1910, used to sing information technology:
Today is the day they requite babies away
With a half a pound of tea.
Open the box and out he pops
With a written guarantee.
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From: Susan A-R
Engagement: 23 Oct 09 - 04:xvi PM
I establish myself humming this ane as I walked by a sign for La Leche (sp?) League "Baby sale." The couple behind me on the street also exclaimed "Ooooh, a Baby sale!! Do we want whatsoever?"
My Dad used to sing it, and I didn't realize until quite recently what the offer of "sending them round to me" implied. And they say my generation has a risque sense of humour. . .
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From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 December 09 - 08:15 AM
I finally recognized the melody to which my ex-mother-in-law sang "Today is the 24-hour interval they requite babies away with a half a pound of tea...." Information technology's the opening theme of BLAZE Abroad. I mistakenly chosen it a Sousa march to a higher place, but it's really past Abe Holzmann, from 1901. Here's a midi file. I believe the same melody is also used for "I love to go swimmin' with bowlegged [or "bare-naked"] women...."
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From: GUEST,Laura Waddell
Date: 27 Dec 09 - 10:40 AM
My female parent-in-police e'er recited the first verse
Today is the solar day they requite babies abroad
With every bundle of tea.
At work one twenty-four hour period my husband recited the verse and the Scottish admirer that sabbatum in front of him told him to stop information technology. My husband said he didn't know any more than that and his mother recited it when he was a child and information technology always stuck in his mind. His female parent was born in l901 and loved all types of poetry from the fourth dimension she was a child.
The one-time Scott finished it similar this...
If you know any ladies who would like to take babies,
please send them to me!
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From: GUEST,Steve Lawrence
Engagement: 03 Jan ten - 09:08 PM
Most of you lot folks have it correct with its regional variations.
Fred McMurray sings the first stanza to Claudette Colnert in the
opening scene of the movie the "Egg and I", a prelude to "Green Acres.
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From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 10:27 AM
Fred MacMurray sings it this way
Today is the 24-hour interval they give babies abroad
With a half a pound of cheese,
Half a pound of cheese...
Half a pound of cheese...
Just open the lid, and out pops a kid
with a one-half a pound of cheese...
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From: Young Buchan
Engagement: 02 Apr 10 - x:32 AM
And there is e'er the old song Christening the Baby which concludes:
...The parson held his hand out and demanded £sd
But none of us had got a bob to pay the christening fee.
The parson he got aroused and demanded half a quid.
He said 'Who is going to pay me at present for all the work I did?'
And so just to salvage an argument we permit him go along the child
And we all went rolling abode.
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From: Bettynh
Appointment: 02 Apr 10 - 11:15 AM
You can heed to Rosalie Sorrels here
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From: and e
Engagement: 02 Apr x - 05:09 PM
This vocal is found on the 1947 movie "The Egg and I". The tune used is "Blaze Away" the same tune used for "I love to get swimming with bowlegged women...".
See the video hither:
http://www.youtube.com/sentinel?v=Kthh7-OqoYU
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From: Guest,A Commerton
Appointment: 29 Aug 11 - 03:29 PM
As child in England I call back going to a musica hall performance where a human being sang "Today is the mean solar day they requite babies away with one-half a pound of tea, If you lot know any ladies who'd like to accept babies just send them up to me." That'due south all I remember, simply would like to know the residual.
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From: Invitee,islander
Date: 03 May 12 - x:36 AM
My mother, historic period 95, just recalled this ditty
Today is the day we requite babies away
with half a pound of cheese.
And so I googled information technology and information technology'due south a plant nursery rhyme!
Ain't the internet grand!
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From: Guest
Date: 24 Aug 12 - 11:33 AM
This is a fascinating thread! It appears that the original comment dates dorsum 10 years ago and people are however discussing it. I found this conversation by googling "today is the mean solar day we give babies away".
I did that because I was thinking about my grandmother who used to sort of dirge, not sing, the phrase. But it was always preceded by "It's a bang-up day for the Irish". And and so "Today is the day we give babies away with a pound and a half of tea". (every bit opposed to the half a pound of tea). She wasn't Irish but plain her neighbor was (an Irish imigrant to New York city) who used to say this all the fourth dimension in the xxx'south or 40'due south, and she just copied him.
Information technology seems certainly possible that the phrase or verse form or vocal dates back to some early time in Ireland, got transported to the U.Southward., was used by others to write songs or make jingles and so possibly originates as some traditional folklore- 1800's and now exists in many different forms? This is all only hypothesizing....
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From: GUEST,Mukraken
Engagement: 13 October 12 - 02:37 PM
When I was a toddler, in the early 1950s, my female parent used to sing this to me:
This is the solar day they give babies abroad
with a sample box of tea;
Open the chapeau and examine the child
and come across what you can run across...
That's all I recall of the lyrics. Our indigenous groundwork is Scot-Irish.
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From: GUEST,Tina
Date: fifteen December 13 - 11:28 AM
My grade 10 science instructor used to say "today is the day we give babies away and a half a pound of tea" and sometimes he'd say "today is the day we give chickens abroad and a half a pound of tea"
But that'southward all I've ever heard of it & information technology's clearly stuck with me after all this time. This thread is very interesting!
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