Selected Examples Of The Hand Clap Rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" (1965-1990s)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision- December 9, 2024

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on the hand clap rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama".

Part I provides information and comments about the recreational rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" originated as an African American rhyme.

Part I of this pancocojams series also presents selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" regardless of their titles* that the contributors remember from 1965-1999 or that were published in books or online during that time frame. The dates that I'm using for these examples are given in italics to distinguish them from their publishing dates.

*These examples include (accidental) folk processed versions of that title (such as "Mazoo" as well as purposely changed versions of that title (such as "E.T."). 

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/09/selected-examples-of-hand-clap-rhyme_1.html for Part II of this series. Part II of this pancocojams series presents selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" hand clap rhymes regardless of their titles that are dated from 2000 on.
 
Part II also includes examples of rhymes from the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhyme family (regardless of their titles) that have no demographic information about their dates, but I believe are later versions of those rhymes.

DISCLAIMER: This series isn't meant to be a comprehensive compilation of all of the numerous versions of rhymes in the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhyme family.

Also, my focus on this rhyme or any other children's rhyme in this pancocojams blog doesn't mean that this rhyme or any other showcased rhyme was or is only chanted by Black people.

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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/folk-processing-childrens-rhyme-miss.html for a 2013 pancocojams post on "Folk Processing The Children's Rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" for my theories about the meanings of the referent "Scooby Doo" and the phrase take a smooth shot" in some examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama"

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The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who contributed examples to this post and all those who are otherwise quoted in this post. Thanks also to those who are featured in the embedded video in this post, and thanks to the publisher of that video.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE 
Here's why I believe that the "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhyme is probably of African American origin: 
1. the earliest collected examples of this rhyme are from African American girls

2. the examples' textual structure, and the African American American Vernacular English (grammar & words/phrases) that are found in these examples.

3. the percussive hand clapping performance activity that accompanies the performance of these rhymes is also associated with African Americans.

4. anecdotal comments from some contributors* suggests that this rhyme is very well known among African American girls (after a certain time period). For instance, this comment: "I lived in Indiana my whole life although I changed schools a lot, and this song ["Miss Sue From Alabama"] seemed to be known by every other African American child I met."

The example that accompanies this comment is given as Version #4 in Part II of this pancocojams series.

I'm an African American female who performed partner hand clap routines in the 1950s (in Atlantic City, New Jersey). However, I have no recollection of any version of "Miss Sue From Alabama".
-snip-
UPDATE January 18, 2019: Click https://books.google.com/books?id=O08wAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Miss+Sue+From+Alabama%22&dq=%22Miss+Sue+From+Alabama%22&num=100&client=firefox-a&pgis=1
for three citations of recorded folk songs (rhymes) entitled "Miss Sue From Alabama" that were included in Archive of Folk Song (U.S.), United States. Work Projects Administration (Washington, D.C.) Library of Congress, Music Division, 1942. One of these citations directly refers to the race of the children singing that song (rhyme) "Sung by eight Negro girls Kirby industrial school, Atmore, Alabama; John A Lomax, 1934."
-snip-
1934  is the earliest date that is mentioned for those three citations. The other two citations are from 1939. Unfortunately, I haven't found the text (words) to those 1934 and 1939 versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama".

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SOME EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" (1965-Late 1990s)
These rhymes are given in relative chronological order. Numbers are assigned for referencing purposes.

Brief editorial comments are included after some of these examples.

MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA [Example #1)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama

Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue from Alabama

Show me what you can do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Show me what you can do
Miss sue from Alabama

Is this the way you do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue from Alabama

Hey Hey
A doobie-do-wah
Your mama's broke
And your papa's broke
Turn to the east
Turn to the west
Turn to the very one you love the best
Milk in the pitcher
The butter's in the bowl
Can't catch a sweetheart
To save your soul


I think this is the way we sang this game in Northern Mississippi cira 1965.
-GUEST,nanasallthat, 11 Dec 07, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097
Subject: RE: Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes?
-snip-
This contributor didn't include any racial demographic information. However, the textual structure and vernacular language of this example is clearly of African American origin,.

Also, note that the certain verses (particularly the lines "turn to the east/turn to the west/turn to the very one you love best" are still recited in 2019 in certain playground rhymes. That same verse can be found in other African American folk rhymes such some in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise And Otherwise.
-snip-
"doobie-do-wah" probably originated as a jazz scatting phrase but was changed to "Scooby Doo" because of the popularity of an animaed television series starring a dog with that name.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo
"Scooby-Doo is an American animated franchise comprising many animated television series produced from 1969 to the present, as well as their derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, for Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1969. This Saturday-morning cartoon series featured teenagers Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers, and their talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo, who solve mysteries involving supposedly supernatural creatures through a series of antics and missteps.[1]

Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC aired various versions of Scooby-Doo until canceling it in 1985, and presented a spin-off featuring the characters as children called A Pup Named Scooby-Doo from 1988 until 1991. Two Scooby-Doo reboots aired as part of Kids' WB on The WB and its successor The CW from 2002 until 2008. Further reboots were produced for Cartoon Network beginning in 2010 and continuing through 2018. Repeats of the various Scooby-Doo series are frequently broadcast on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang in the United States as well as other countries. The current Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, premiered on June 27, 2019, as an original series on Boomerang's streaming service and later HBO Max.

In 2013, TV Guide ranked Scooby-Doo the fifth-greatest TV cartoon of all time."

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Example  #2)
Miss Sue, Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you Scooby -doo
Now let me see you smoothing
Now let me see you smoothing
-from Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America, edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie, (Temple University Press, 2003, page 99)
-snip-
Here's an excerpt from a summary of this book that is found on https://books.google.com/books?id=9_4fUgF9BFMC&dq=miss+sue+from+alabama+in+other+countries&source=gbs_navlinks_s:
"Collected primarily in metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black street poetry (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s) these raps, signifyings, toasts, boasts, jokes and children's rhymes will delight general readers as well as scholars. [These texts range] from the simple rhymes that accompany children's games to verbally inventive insults and the epic exploits of traditional characters like Shine and Stagger Lee"..."

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #3)
"mmm-Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
Now let’s have a party.
Chicka boom chicka boom
chicka boom boom boom
Now let’s have a tic tac toe
Ah tic ah tac ah tic tac toe

My mother’s in the kitchen peelin white potatoes
My father’s in the alley drinkin lemonade-o
Brother in the clink waitin for the clock to go

boom tic tock boom tick a wally wally (7x)
boom tic tock

Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
She ma *
My mother had a baby
My father called it crazy
But, if it’s a girl
I’ll give it a curl
And If it’s a boy
I’ll give it a toy.
Wrap it up in toilet paper
Send it down the elevator
First floor ¬ Stop!
(Think it over)
Second floor -Stop!
(Think it over)
Third floor, you better not stop
'Cause S.T.O.P spells stop.
-Songs for Children from New York City [1976]
Transcribed by Azizi Powell from the sound file published on YouTube.
-snip-
*"She ma" seemed like it was an utterance that the girls chanting this rhyme caught and then moved on to the "My mother had a baby" verses. "Mother had a baby" is a stand alone jump rope (hand clap) rhyme (a rhyme that can be chanted by itself).

Here's that sound file:  

SHOWCASE SOUND FILE: Miss Sue From Alabama; Miss Sue From Alabama



Various Artists - Topic, Published on May 30, 2015

Songs for Children from New York City [1976]

Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

℗ 2004 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / 1978 Folkways Records

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #4)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you,
scooby do
your Mama's got the measles
Your papa's got the flu
magic measles
magic flu
Take an a b c d e f g
Take an h i j k l.m.n.o.p.
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
and now freeze.
-Eleanor Fulton, Pat Smith, editors Let's Slice The Ice, (Magnamusic-Baton, 1978; St. Louis, Missouri; p. 16)
-snip-
I think that the words "take a smooth shot" are folk processed forms of the words "take a flu shot" [i.e. get an immunization to prevent against getting influenza [disease]. 

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #5)
"Hi there. I'm from Mississippi and was in elementary school in the late 80's through early 90's. the version of "Miss Sue" I remember was not listed here. I thought I'd help you out. Last time I heard it, I think it had varied ever so slightly from when I was in school, but this is how I remember it: Miss Sue (clap clap clap) Miss Sue (clap clap clap) Miss Sue from Alabama Sittin' in a rocker eatin' betty crocker watchin' that clock go tick-tock, tick-tock-banana-nana tick-tock, tick-tock banana-nana ABCDEFG-wash those stains right out'a my knees MUSHKA, MUSHKA, MUSHKA FREEZE (as fast as you can) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10! I never got the last part...sometimes the rule was you had to stay still while you counted, and sometimes it was to count the fastest. The most distinct difference I remember is that there were always three claps after "Miss Sue." I hope that was helpful."
-Allison (Mississippi; late 1980s, early 1990s), 2/28/2007; cocojams. com 
-snip-
Cocojams.com was the name of my cultural website. That website was online from 2000-2014. I voluntarily deactivated that  website in 2014. A lot of the children's recreational rhymes, singing games, and cheers that were posted on that website were submitted by children. pre-teens, and teens through an easy to use page on that site. Some of that content is on various pancocojams posts as well as on another blog that I voluntarily curate https://cocojams2.blogspot.com/

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #6)
Miss Sue, (clap, clap)
Miss Sue (clap, clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama,
Let's make a movie,
Sittin' in a rocker,
Eatin' Betty Crocker,
Hey wise girl,
Whatcha gonna do,
When your mama's at work,
Baby's got the flu,
Daddy's got the chicken pox,
And so do you?
Take an a b c d e f g,
Take an h i j k l m n o p,
Take a booty shot,
take a booty shot,
And FREEZE!!
-from http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml "Children's Rhymes From the Eighties"

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #7)
Miss Sue (Clap Clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama
She's havin a party
Chica Boom Chica Boom Chich Boom Boom Boom
Mama got the measels
Daddy got the flu
I ain't lyin
Neither are you
Just sittin in the field pealing white potatas
Sittin in the hall drinkin achahol
Got to drunk I fell out
How many hours was I knocked out
-from http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml "Children's Rhymes From the Eighties
-snip-
This entire example was written in upper case letters, and was also written in paragraph form. I changed those features in order to conform to the other examples on this page.s

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ET FROM OUTER SPACE (Version #8 of "Miss Sue From Alabama")
ET from outer space.
He has an ugly face.
Sittin in a rocket
eatin very tocket
watchin the clock go
Tick tock
tick tock shawally wally
ABCDEFG
You betta get your black hands offa me
You gotta smoooth cho
You gotta smoooth cho
You gotta smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth.
Now Freeze!
(alternative last line: My mama said "Black eye peas").
-Kiera, African American girl, 8 years old, (Pleasantville, New Jersey) and Kion, African American male, 6 years old, (Pleasantville, New Jersey), 11/8/2008
-snip-
Comments:
Kiara & Kion are my great niece & great nephew. (Their mother, Kiemon, told me that she recited this same rhyme when she was a child in the 1980s).

The "ET" in the rhyme is the lead character from the hit 1982 American science fiction movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial for more information about this movie. I'm not sure why that character and his ugly face replaced the standard "Miss Sue from Alabama" lines in some versions of this rhyme.
-snip-
Italics added to highlight this note.

I believe that "You got smoooth cho" is a folk processed form of "take a smooth shot" [meaning a quick vaccination shot [probably to prevent tuberculosis.]

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/get-your-black-hands-off-of-me.html for a pancocojams post about the line "Get your black hands off of me."

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MISS MOO (Version #9 of "Miss Sue From Alabama")
Miss Moo
Miss Moo, Miss Moo, Miss Moo from out of space,
Rocking in a rocking chair
Eating candy floss
Watching the clock go tick tock tick tock bananarama
Tick tock tick tock bananarama
A B C D E F G
Watching the stars jump out of me
Moonshine moonshine moonshine FREEZE! Vashti (talk) 01:42, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
- Vashti, (southeast Wales, UK version circa 1986, sung to music); January 2017; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AClapping_game/Examples#Miss_Moo_.28southeast_Wales.2C_UK_version_circa_1986.2C_sung_to_music.29 (talk page)
-snip-
Here's a note about this example from the editors of this Wikipedia talk page:
"This one is interesting, it has the same hand movements as the Midwest version above, and "Bananarama" is clearly a British 80s adaptation of "banana-wana", but it also has the moonshine part from the Appalachian version listed here."
-snip-
Those examples that are referenced in that note don't include any demographic information about when they were performed.

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Example #10)
Hi there. I'm from Mississippi and was in elementary school in the late 80's through early 90's. the version of "Miss Sue" I remember was not listed here. I thought I'd help you out. Last time I heard it, I think it had varied ever so slightly from when I was in school, but this is how I remember it:

Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue (clap clap clap)
Miss Sue from Alabama Sittin' in a rocker
eatin' betty crocker
watchin' that clock go
tick-tock, tick-tock-banana-nana
tick-tock, tick-tock banana-nana
ABCDEFG-wash those stains right out'a my knees
MUSHKA, MUSHKA, MUSHKA FREEZE
(as fast as you can) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10!

I never got the last part...sometimes the rule was you had to stay still while you counted, and sometimes it was to count the fastest. The most distinct difference I remember is that there were always three claps after "Miss Sue." I hope that was helpful.
-Allison {Mississippi; memories of late 1980s, early 1990s}; posted on cocojams.com on 2/28/2007 

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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Example #11 & "MAZOO FROM ALABAMA" - Example #12)
"grind gremlin said:
“Miss Sue, Miss Sue,
Miss Sue from Alabama.
She's sittin in the kitchen, doin a bit of knitting,
watching the clock going
tic, toc, tic, toc bananarama
tic, toc, tic, toc bananarama
ABCDEFG, wash those cobwebs off my knee,
Awooshka, Awooshka, turn around and freeze.

[also includes an example of "C C my playmate"]"


We had versions of these two as well. They seem to have come from the U.S.

Ours went something like this:

Mayzoo, Mayzoo,
Mayzoo from Alabama,
Sittin' in her rockin' chair
Doin' a bit of knittin'
Watchin' the clock go
Tick tock, tick tock shawala wala,
Tick tock, tick tock shawala wala,
ABCDEFG,
wipe those cobwebs of my knee,
With a woochacha, woochacha
woochachacha,
A woochacha, woochacha
woochachacha,
Turn around, tip the ground and freeze!


[includes an example of "Sisi my playmate"],

[..].

We would have played these games around 1993 - 1999.
-Emily88, https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2055548787/3?,
School-yard Rhymes. [from the United Kingdom ?], 26-Oct-2014

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E.T. FROM OUTER SPACE (Example #13)
E.T....E.T....
E.T from outer space he has an ugly face, sitting in the rocker, eating betty crocker, watching the clock go tick tock, tick tock shawawa(sp)(x2), a-b-c-d-e-f-g betta get your mama off of me, betta get your mama off of me musha, musha, musha, freeze.
-IHEARTWRITING, http://nothingliketheninetys.blogspot.com/2008/08/etet.html, August 3, 2008 "I Heart The 90s”
-snip-
"Get your mama off of me (also given as "get your grandma off of me") is a Dozens type sexual put down as it infers that the mother (or grandmother) of the person referred to as "your" has trying to have sex with the person who is chanting this rhyme.

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This concludes Part I of this two part series on selected examples of "Miss Sue From Alabama" (and other titles).

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