Ella Jenkins - Children's Songs "Who Fed The Chickens" And "Did You Feed My Cow?"

Smithsonian Folkways, Dec 5, 2012

Watch Ella Jenkins' performance of "Who Fed the Chickens?" from the Ella Jenkins Live at the Smithsonian DVD. Recorded with children from the Smithsonian Institution Early Enrichment Center, Ella made this video so kids at home could also participate. This song is included on her Smithsonian Folkways album 'Get Moving with Ella Jenkins.'...

All songs written or arranged by Ella Jenkins/Ell-Bern Publishing Co., ASCAP
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This isn't the first release date for this record.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video of  Ella Jenkins teaching the song "Who Fed The Chickens?" to a group of young children. This post also showcases a sound file of adults singing the song "Did You Feed My Cow?", a traditional African American song that  was arranged and popularized by Ella Jenkins.

In addition, this pancocojams post includes information about Ella Jenkins from her Wikipedia page and from an online tribute article about remarkable accomplishments to children's music.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.  

Thanks to Ella Jenkins for her music and thanks to all those who are featured in these YouTube examples. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/jambo-ella-jenkins-lyric-sound-file.html for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled "Jambo" - Ella Jenkins (Lyrics, Sound File, & Video).
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This post on Ella Jenkins is part of an ongoing pancocojams series that showcases African American performing artists whose last names are included on the United States Census (2010) list of  most common Black American surnames.

For the purpose of this series, I'm usually limiting these posts to African American performing artists with a last name that is listed as one of the top 100 most common Black surnames in the United States.

For example, the United States Census (2010) documents that "Jenkins" is the #44th most common surname (last name) among Black people in the United States. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-fifty-most-common-black-last-names.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The Fifty Most Common Black Last Names In The United States And The List Of Fifty Most Common White Last Names In The United States (US Census 2010)".

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SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLE #2

Ella Jenkins - Topic, May 21, 2015

Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Did You Feed My Cow? · Ella Jenkins

African-American Folk Rhythms

℗ 1998 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Released on: 1998-10-20
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INFORMATION ABOUT ELLA JENKINS
Excerpt #1
From  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Jenkins
"Ella Jenkins (born August 6, 1924) is an American singer-songwriter. Called "The First Lady of the Children's Folk Song", she has been a leading performer of folk and children's music.[1][2] Her album,

Multicultural Children's Songs (1995), has long been the most popular Smithsonian Folkways release. She has appeared on numerous children's television programs and in 2004, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[3][4] According to culture writer Mark Guarino, "across her 67-year career, Jenkins firmly established the genre of children’s music as a serious endeavor — not just for artists to pursue but also for the recording industry to embrace and promote."[5]

Family and personal life

Jenkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in predominantly lower-middle-class neighborhoods in the south side of Chicago. Although she received no formal musical training, she benefited from her rich musical surroundings. Her uncle Floyd Johnson introduced her to the harmonica and the blues of such renowned musicians as T-Bone Walker, Memphis Slim and Big Bill Broonzy. Her family frequently moved around the south side and, as she moved to different neighborhoods, she learned new children's rhythms, rhymes and games.[6] Gospel music became a part of her soundscape as neighborhood churches broadcast their services onto the street.[1] She also enjoyed tap dancing lessons at the local theater and was able to go to the Regal Theater to see such performers as Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Peg Leg Bates. Cab Calloway is the person who she credits with getting her interested in call and response singing.[7] While attending Woodrow Wilson Junior College, she became interested in the music of other cultures through her Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican friends.[6] In 1951, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with minors in Child Psychology and Recreation from San Francisco State University.[1] Here, she picked up songs of the Jewish culture from her roommates. Upon graduating, she returned to Chicago where she began her career."...

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Excerpt #2
From https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-center-folklife-cultural-heritage/2024/08/06/a-century-of-ella-jenkins-tributes-to-the-first-lady-of-childrens-music/ "A Century of Ella Jenkins: Tributes to the First Lady of Children’s Music"

Over her decades-long career as a beloved musical educator, Ella Jenkins has encouraged children to use participation and individual creativity to sing and learn together. Across forty albums, the “First Lady of Children’s Music” introduced the African American call-and-response form to an enormous audience of eager listeners and taught kids to sing, dance, count, share cultures and traditions, and play musical instruments of all kinds.

A GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award winner, she brought her music to the international stage, from our own Smithsonian Folklife Festival to Sesame Street, Barney and Friends, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Each of Ella’s albums is a monument to her legacy of fostering compassion and mutual understanding through music.
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A Foundation of Folkways

The day Ella Jenkins brought a demo of herself singing a children’s song to Moses Asch in 1956 was important for her future and for Folkways Records. The label had always had children’s music as a major part of its catalog, but she became one of their bestselling artist for decades to come.  Ella’s sales made it possible for Asch to create a wide-ranging catalog of albums including tribal music and science sounds, which otherwise would not have supported themselves.

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She went to San Francisco State University and studied sociology, child psychology, and recreation. She got a job at the YMCA in the 1950s singing with teens and creating programs that incorporated world music. She has always been good at getting children to sing along—frequently to call-and-response songs. These talents led her to host the Chicago public television show This Is Rhythm. The theme of rhythm was central to her programs and later work. By the time she went to see Asch at Folkways, she had decided to devote her life to music.

[...]

The first thing the Smithsonian did after acquiring Folkways in 1987 was make sure all of Ella’s records were in print. As soon as the compact disc appeared, Smithsonian Folkways created about forty titles in the format; roughly half were Ella’s."...
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