Some Early Examples Of The Children's Rhyme "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision: December 14, 2022

This pancocojams post showcases videos and early examples of the English language children's rhyme  "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine". 

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

All rights to this material remain with their owners.

Thanks to the un-named composers of the children's rhyme "3 6 9 The Goose Drank Wine" ("Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine"). Thanks to Lincoln Chase for his composition "The Clapping Song" and  thanks to Shirley Ellis, and others for her performance of that song.  Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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Most of the content in this post was originally published in http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-6-9-goose-drank-wine-clapping-song.html [August 2012]. A number of comments are also found in that post.

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1863 VERSION OF THIS RHYME FROM A CHARLES DICKEN'S STORY
"I've just come across the following in one of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories. It's entitled Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings and dated 1863.
A young boy by the name of Jemmy is relating a story and it begins with:
'Once upon a time, When pigs drank wine,
And monkeys chewed tobaccer,
Twas neither in your time nor mine,
But that's no macker ----'"
-comment from Anonymous, Dec. 14, 2022

Thanks for sharing this version, Anonymous! 

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EXAMPLE FROM THOMAS W. TALLEY'S 1922 BOOK "NEGRO FOLK RHYMES: WISE AND OTHERWISE 

From https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Negro Folk Rhymes, by Thomas W. Talley

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org


Title: Negro Folk Rhymes
       Wise and Otherwise: With a Study

Author: Thomas W. Talley

[originally published 1922]

[page 99]

A FULL POCKETBOOK

De goose at de barn, he feel mighty funny,

Caze de duck find a pocketbook chug full o' money.

De goose say: "Whar is you gwine, my Sonny?"

An' de duck, he say: "Now good-by, Honey."

De duck chaw terbacker an' de goose drink wine,

Wid a stuffed pocketbook dey shō' had a good time;

De grasshopper played de fiddle on a punkin vine

'Till dey all fall over on a sorter dead line.

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OTHER EARLY RHYME EXAMPLES
From http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5088 "Lyr Req: Once upon a time, the Goose drank wine..."

Example #1:
Our version is South Carolina was:

Once upon a time, a goose chewed wine
Billy goat a'settin' on the streetcar line
Streetcar broke, the monkey got choked
and they all went to heaven on a nanny goat."
-Guest,WadeHP; Date: 04 Nov 03 - 01:18 PM

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Example #2
My version is a little diffrerent. I grew up in the south in the 1930's and we sang it this way:

"Once upon a time, The goose drank wine,
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line.
The streetcar broke and the monkey choked,
And they all went to heaven on a dead billy goat."

Now, ain't that a hoot???

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Example #3
This is the "goose drank wine" rhyme as I remember it from my childhood in the 1950's. I don't recall any game or activity associated with it; we just recited it.

Once upon a time
the goose drank wine;
the hen pecked corn
off the streetcar line.
The streetcar broke
the monkey got choked
Steamboat! Steamboat!
Holler like a Nanny Goat!
Guest,Terry Mount; Date: 05 Apr 04 - 11:26 AM

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Example #4:
All of the above versions seem to be American.
For a possibly earlier English chant obviously related.(1950s Yorkshire)

Once upon a time when pigs ate/sh^t* lime
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
The little piggy run with his finger up his bum,
To see what was the matter.

I'm sure I've seen other British variants too.

Ah here we are.
Chambers Popular Rhymes of Scotland p57

Lang syne, when geese were swine,
And turkeys chewed tobacco,
And birds biggit their nests in auld men's beards
And mowdies del't potawtoes--

which kicks off a folk tale called The Wife and her Bush of Berries.

I have another half dozen versions from various parts of Britain.
-Steve Gardham; Date: 29 Jul 09 - 07:09 PM

Editor:
*The "s" word is fully spelled out in this post.

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Example #5
My mother-in-law, Marguerite LeMieux Marsh, taught me a version of this rhyme that she learned in Orono, Maine in the 1920s.
"Once upon a time when a goose drank wine,
and a monkey chewed tobacco on a streetcar line.
The streetcar broke. The monkey told a joke.
And they all went to heaven in a little tin boat."

This may have been one of the first rhymes she learned in English, as they spoke French at home, and her knowledge of English was rather scanty when she first went to school.
-Guest,Silvia Wilson; Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:02 AM

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Example #6
Once upon a time the goose drank wine the monkey played the fiddle on the sweet potato vine..The vine broke the monkey choked they all went to heaven on a billy goat I learned that verse from my Gradmother (Louisiana)
-GUEST,Beckie In louisiana; Date: 14 Jan 10 - 04:51 PM

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Example #7
Same meter, similar verse from Hopalong Peter- might have been a ropeskip verse?
Old mother Hubbard and her dog were Dutch
A bow-legged rooster and he hobbled on a crutch
The hen chewed tobacco and the duck drank wine
The goose played the fiddle on the pumpkin vine
-iancarterb; Date: 15 Jan 10 - 10:35 PM
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Click http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-Hopalong.html for information, lyrics, and a music score of the song "Hopalong Peter".

The author of that lizlyle... post writes that "Hopalong Peter isn't very widely collected, and I suspect that means it isn't very old. There seem to have been two recordings on 78s..."

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Example #8
"Once upon a time a goose drank wine a monkey chewed tobacco on the trolly line the trolly broke the monkey choked and they all lived together in a little tin boat. followed by a shave and a hair cut"
-GUEST,karen, Date: 14 Jul 12 - 11:02 AM

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Example #9
From: GUEST,Bob K, Oak Hill, VA
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 05:58 PM
"The version I know, circa 1951, is almost identical to the one posted by the person who said "I grew up in the south in the 1930's." I learned it from my father, who grew up in Louisville,KY in the 1920's:

"Once upon a time, the goose drank wine.
A monkey chewed tobacco on a streetcar line.
The streetcar broke. The monkey choked,
And they all went to heaven on a billy goat.""...

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INFORMATION ABOUT RHYTHM & BLUES SONG ENTITLED "THE CLAPPING SONG" 

"The Clapping Game" lyrics also include a version of the American children's rhyme "Once Upon A Time" (The Goose Drank Wine)". Thhis rhyme is also known as "3 6 9 (The Goose Drank Wine)". 

Here's information about that R&B song from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clapping_Song:

"The Clapping Song" is an American song, written by Lincoln Chase, originally arranged by Charles Callello and recorded by Shirley Ellis in 1965. The song was released shortly after Ellis had released "The Name Game". The lyrics of "The Clapping Song" were borrowed from the song "Little Rubber Dolly", a 1930s song recorded by the Light Crust Doughboys, and also feature instructions for a clapping game. The song made it to #8 on the charts.

The song returned to the charts in 1982, when the Belle Stars' version charted at number 11 in the U.K. This version did not chart in the U.S."

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SONG LYRICS: THE CLAPPING GAME

(Lincoln Chase)

Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine,
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line
The line broke, the monkey got choked,
They all went to heaven in a little row-boat

Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Slap

Clap-Pat: Clap your hand, pat it on your partner's hand (right hand)
Clap-Pat: Clap your hand, cross it with your left arm, pat your partner's left palm
Clap-Pat: Clap your hand, pat your partner's right palm with your right palm again
Clap-Slap: Clap your hands, slap your thighs, and sing a little song; go:

My mother told me
If I was good-ee
That she would buy me
A rubber dolly

My aunty told her
I kissed a soldier
Now she won't buy me
A rubber dolly

Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine,
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line
The line broke, the monkey got choked,
They all went to heaven in a little row-boat

Clap-clap: Clap you hands and prepare to pat
Pat: Take your right arm pat your partner's right palm with your right palm
Clap: Take your hands back and clap

Pat: Take you right arm cross your right arm with your left arm pat your partner's left palm with your left palm.
Clap: Take your hands back and clap
Pat: Take your right arm cros your left arm and pat your partner's right palm with your right palm.
Clap: Now back, with a clap
Take the flats of your palms and slap your thighs and watch the fun materialize as you sing this little song:

My mother told me
If I was good-ee
That she would buy me
A rubber dolly

My aunty told her
I kissed a soldier
Now she won't buy me
A rubber dolly

Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Slap

Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Pat
Clap-Slap

From http://www.lyricsbay.com/the_clapping_song_lyrics-shirley_ellis.html
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The Belle Stars sung the same song lyrics as Shirley Ellis.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
KW  03 SHIRLEY ELLIS The Clapping Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltxwB_Sl8w8&ab_channel=BLOWUPBONN

BLOW UP BON, Jan 17, 2016
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Here's a summary of this song from the video that was previously embedded in this post but is no longer available:

"New York vocalist and composer Shirley Ellis was in the Metronomes before earning fame as co-composer and performer of some enjoyable soul novelty tunes in the mid-'60s. These included the Top Ten R&B hits "The Nitty Gritty" and "The Name Game." "The Name Game" was co-written with her manager and husband Lincoln Chase, and peaked at number four R&B and number three pop in 1965. She and Chase also collaborated on the follow-up, "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)," which reached number 16 R&B, but also represented the end of the creative line for the trend. Ellis landed one final moderately successful, more conventional soul tune two years later, "Soul Time." All except "Soul Time" were recorded for Congress; she had moved to Columbia by 1967, when "Soul Time" was issued. ~ Ron Wynn," Rovi
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The copy of the earlier YouTube video that was embedded in this post was taken from a television dance series called "Shivaree" (Mar 20, 1965). This film clip probably is the same film clip.

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Video #2: Belle Stars - The clapping song 1982



Uploaded by fritz5135 on Aug 30, 2010

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Video #3: 2012 Beetle High Five Volkswagen Commercial


Uploaded by openwheel6 on Sep 19, 2011

I did the driving for this commercial. I do not own the rights to this commercial.
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RELATED LINKS
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYQ1lkP1j_g for a video of "Red Red Wine".

Also click http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/babymama/redredwine.htm for the lyrics of that song.

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A verse from UB 40's 1983 Reggae song "Red Red Wine" has very similar lyrics to the children's playground rhyme "Once Upon A Time [or "3-6-9"] The Goose Drank Wine":

"Red red wine you make me feel so fine
Monkey pack him rizla pon the sweet dep line"
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From Arbuthnot, Date: 15 Jan 10 - 01:10 AM on Mudcat link given above:
"Rizla is what the English call those cigarette papers - the manufacturers are a company called Riz, La Croix (translates as Rice and Cross), and they shortened the name to Riz La+ on the packets!"

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