"Down By The Rollercoaster" Examples Of "Down Down Baby" Rhymes (From Sesame Street, The Big Movie, And From Other Sources)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest update -May 12, 2025

This pancocojams post presents a few examples of "Down Down Baby" recreational rhymes that include the words "down by the rollercoaster".

My comments about some of these examples are given after those examples

"Down Down Baby" rhymes are also referred to as "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" or similar titles.
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Because this collection only focuses some examples of this large rhyme family that include the words "down by the rollercoaster",  it doesn't include a number of other examples of that rhyme including "Down Down Baby, I Can Do Karate".

Click  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/videos-word-only-examples-of-down-down.html for a pancocojams post about "Down Down Baby. I Love Karate" rhymes.

This pancocojams post also doesn't include the sub-section of "Down Down Baby" rhymes whose formulaic textual structure and words refer to race and confrontation.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/racialized-versions-of-i-like-coffee-i.html  for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled "Racialized Versions Of "I Like Coffee I Like Tea"
("I Like A Black Boy And He Likes Me" and other racial referents)."

This is just one of pancocojams' posts about these versions of "Down Down Baby" rhymes.

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

All copyrights remain with their owners.
 
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the producers and publishers of the videos that are included in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-biscuit-phrase-in-down-down-baby-i.html for the pancocojams post entitled The "A Biscuit" Phrase In "Down Down Baby", "I Have A Boyfriend" And In Other African American Children's Singing Games & Recreational Rhymes.

A few examples of rhymes from that post are included in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on examples of various sub-sections of the large fanily of "Down Down Baby" ("Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop") rhymes. 

These posts that have been published on pancocojams don't mean that these are the only recreational rhymes that include verses of "Down Down Baby" (Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" rhymes. 

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EXAMPLES OF "DOWN DOWN BABY" (Also known as "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" or similar titles).
These examples are given  in chronological order based on their collection date, the publishing date for books, or their internet publishing date.

The earliest example of that rhyme in this particular post is from "the late 1970s" [Example #4 below].

However, as I indicate in my note to Example #7, some "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" jump rope rhymes are documented to have been chanted in the United States in the late 1950s and in the 1960s (as a result of not one but two dance records with the title "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop". 

These examples are given without titles and are numbered for referencing purposes only.) 

Example #1 
"The Blacks go

Down down baby
Down by the roller coaster
Sweet, sweet baby
I don't want to let you go
Just because I kissed you once
Doesn't mean I love you so

[CHANTED]

Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy
Shimmy Shimmy pop!
Shimmy, shimmy, shiimmy, shimmy
Shimmy,shimmy.coke-ca-pop!"
-John Langstaff and Carol Langstaff's 1973 book Shimmy Shimmy Coke-Ca-Pop!: A  Collection Of City Children's Street Games And Rhymes (Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Co), page 78
-snip-
In the context of this rhyme the words "the Blacks go" mean "This is the way that Black Americans (children/youth) say and do this rhyme." 

However, "the Blacks" is a socially problematic way of saying "the Black people". "The spades" is another even more socially problematic way of referring to Black people (or specifically, to Black American people) that sometimes appears in examples of this rhyme and in a few other English language recreational rhymes.  

I believe that a lot of people who chant "the spades" at the beginning of this rhyme and at the beginning of some other rhymes don't realize that "spades" was/is a derogatory colloquial referent for Black people. Sometimes the words "the spades" was/is changed to "the space" which I believe further reflects the lack of awareness about the history of the word "spades" as a referent for "Black people". 

The "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" rhyme that was chanted in the 1988 American movie Big is one relatively widely known example of "the space go" or "the spades go" phrase in children's recreational rhymes. I have found both the space go and "the spades go" given in online transcripts of the "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Pop" rhyme in that movie. (That rhyme is given as Example #12 in this pancocojams post.)
 
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Example #2
"Down Down Baby
Down by the Roller Coaster
Ah Biscuit
Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pah
Ah Biscuit
Um Shar Shara
Uh she she ahwa
Ah Biscuit
I had ah boyfriend
Ah Biscuit
He’s so fine
Ah Biscuit
Like a cherry pie
AH Biscuit
Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pah
Um Shar Shara
Uh she she ahwa
I wanna tickle you."
-Diamond, Quala. Ashley, (African American females); Quinton, Javonte (African American males); Duquesne, Pennsylvania, July 1999; Collected by Azizi Powell
-snip-
I collected this version of "Down Down Baby" at a children's summer camp in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Duquesne is a city that is located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These children were shy and therefore didn't show me the hand clap routine that they usually did with this rhyme. The hand clap rhyme formations for this and other rhymes were (and still are) with two people standing facing their partner; with three people in a diamond formation, with four people -two sets of partners facing each other in a square formation, or standing in a circle formation with more than four people.

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Example #3
"Ronald McDonald a biscuit, a biscuit
Are shu shu wanna wanna biscuit
I’ve got a boyfriend, a biscuit
He’s soo sweet, a biscuit,
Ice cream cherry on the cherry on the top.
Ice cream cherry on the cherry on the bottom.
Down down baby
Down down the roller coaster
Sweet sweet baby,
I don’t wanna let ya go. [actually let cha]
Gimme gimme lollipops
Gimme gimme pow
Gimme gimme coco pops
Gimme gimme stick-ups!
-©Laurie and Winifred Bauer 2002, https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/research/our-research-areas/new-zealand-english/language-in-the-playground-project/publications/lip70.pdf [New Zealand] NZ Playground Language [page 16]
-snip-
There are other similar examples of this rhyme in that pdf. 

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Example #4
"Here's a pretty innocuous version. Clapping rhyme, Atlantic City NJ, late 70's:

Down Down Baby, down by the roller coaster
Sweet Sweet Baby, my heart's in love
Ooh, che-chihuahua
Biscuit
I solemnly love her
Biscuit
She is so sweet
Biscuit
Like a cherry treat
Biscuit
Touche Turtle, pull down your girdle
Biscuit"
Ruth Archer, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=100653&messages=29 "Down Down Baby-Race in Kid's Rhymes", 10 Apr 07 (from Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1970s) 
-snip-
"Ruth Archer" is the screen name for a White woman who was a member of the online folk music forum Mudcat during some of the years that I was also active in that forum. 

In addition to adding that example to that Mudcat discussion thread that I started, Ruth Archer used Mudcat's private email feature to share a 1970s "introduce yourself" cheer from her years at Atlantic City High School. (I grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey and attended that high school, but I graduated in 1965. I don't recall reading anything else on Mudcat's discussion thread from Ruth Archer before or after that "Down Down Baby" comment and I didn't know that she was from Atlantic City.

In her email to me, Ruth Archer mentioned that Black girls and White girls chanted these examples. For what it's worth, I was born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey and didn't know that Ruth Archer was from that city. 

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Example #5
"Ronald Mcdonald
A biscuit
Ronald Mcdonald
A biscuit
Ah shimmy shimmy walla walla
Biscui
I've got a boyfried a biscuit
He is as sweet as a biscuit
Ice cream soda with a cherry on the top
Ice cream soda with a cherry on the top
Down Down baby
Down down the rollercoaster
Sweet Sweet baby, I will never let you go
Shimmy Shimmy coco pop
Shimmy shimmy pow
Shimmy Shimmy coco pop
Shimmy shimmy POW!
-Pistachionut, http://www.dance.net/topic/7106059/1/General/Do-you-remember-those-old-rhymes-you-d-sing-as-a-kid.html "re: Do you remember those old rhymes you'd sing as a kid?", Wed Apr 23, 2008

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Example #6
"i went down town to see charlie brown
he gave me a nickele to go buy a pickle, the pickle got sour so he gave me a flower
flowers dead so this is what he said:

down down baby down bye the rollercoaster,sweet sweet baby i will never let u go
catch 'em bye the rollercoaster naughty naughty
jump out the window crazy crazy(ur doing the hand motions on the second part to lemonade country ice)

itsy bitsy soda pop itsy bitsy boo,
itsy bitsy soda pop a boy likes u
not bcuz ur pretty
not because ur sweet
not because u kissed a boy behind a magazine!(ur criss crossing ur legs doing this)"
-Bex,  April 24, 2008
-snip-
I'm not sure whether the referent to chanting the "Lemonade Country Ice" rhyme or just doing the motions to that rhyme while chanting the words to the "Itsy bitsy soda pop" verse. Alternatively, that "itsy bitsy soda pop" verse might be the commenter's remembrance of second rhyme. There was a space between the reference to lemonade country ice rhyme and the first line in the "Itsy bitsy soda pop" verse.

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Example #7 -Sesame Street: Handclapping Chants

Sesame Street, Mar 27, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-FpmUUc7U&t=4s
-snip-
Here are the words to this version of "Down Down Baby":

"Down, down baby
Down by the roller coaster
Sweet, sweet baby
I'll never let you go.

Shimmy shimmy coco pa
Shimmy shimmy pow!
Shimmy shimmy coco pa
Shimmy shimmy pow!

 Grandma, Grandma sick in bed.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
Let's get the rhythm of the head.
Ding dong.
Let's get the rhythm of the hands
Clap, clap.
Let's get the rhythm of the feet
Stomp, stomp.
Let;s get the rhythm of the Hot dog.
Put it all together and what do you get?
Ding-dong, clap, clap. Stomp, stomp. Hot dog.
Say it all backwards and what do you get?
Hot dog. Stomp, stomp. Clap, clap. Ding dong!"
-snip-
This version of "Down Down Baby" was showcased in a 1980s segment of Sesame Street that featured a group of young Black girls at a park teaching a circle hand clap version of this rhyme & its movements to a younger Black girl .

The Sesame Street version of "Down Down Baby"has become so popular that it has basically become the "standard", iconic version of "Down Down Baby". So widely known has this version become that some people in the United States and elsewhere think that it is the only way that "Down Down Baby" can be chanted and performed. The only other version of this rhyme that some people know is the one from the 1988 American movie Big that is given as Example #__ below).

However, there are numerous versions of "Down Down Baby" rhymes from the late 1950s on. Those early "Down Down Baby" rhymes were performed as jump rope rhymes. (I confess that I only have a vague remembrance of chanting a jump rope version of "Shimmy Shimmy Co Co Pop" in the late 1950s (after the release of the R&B version of "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop"- read the next paragraph of this note). Furthermore, I confess that I has forgotten about the existence of versions of "Down Down Baby" before that 1980s Sesame Street example even though I researched that rhyme and documented some earlier examples in cocojams2 posts such as this one as well as in pancocojams posts such as "Down Down Baby" ("Shimmy Shimmy Co Co Pop") Rhymes with chronological information from 1973 to 2023 https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/06/some-examples-of-down-down-baby-shimmy.html "Down Down Baby" ("Shimmy Shimmy Co Co Pop") Rhymes with chronological information from 1973 to 2023".

     
"Down Down Baby" rhymes are often called "Shimmy Shimmy Co Co Pop" or similar titles. The precursor of these rhymes were the Pop record "(Shimmy Shimmy) Ko Ko Wop," which was released by a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania group called the El Capris in 1956 and the much more popular 1959 R&B record "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko-Bop" by Little Anthony & The Imperials (which was basically a re-written version of the first record). Click https://www.songfacts.com/facts/little-anthony-the-imperials/shimmy-shimmy-ko-ko-bop for more information about the Little Anthony &The Imperial song. 

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Example #8
"me and my friends do down down baby like this even when we are still 6 years old so it goes like this

down down baby
down down the rollacouster
sweet sweet baby
sweet sweet don't let me go
i have a boyfriend a BISQUIT
he so cute a BIQUIT
apples on the table petch in the frot 
step on baby i don't love you any more
to the front to the back
to the side to the side
to the front to the back
to the side to the side and . . . FREEZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-TIFFINILE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTFdsz8llOI, July 2010
-snip-
This video is no longer available. I reformatted this example from its run-on sentence form.
"Rollacouster" is the word "rollercoaster".
"BISQUIT" is the word "biscuit". "Petch" is probably the word "peaches". "Flot" is probably the word "floor". 

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Example #9
"I used to do a chant/clap game similar to that with my friends in elementary school when I lived in Indiana, it went something like this:

Down, down baby, down by the rollercoaster
Sweet, sweet baby, too sweet, I'll let you go
Shimmy Shimmy coco pop
Shimmy shimmy down
Shimmy Shimmy coco pop
Break down, break down
Two Chinese, sitting on a bench,
Tryin' to make a dollar outta 15 cents
You miss, you miss, you miss like this
This is how me and my boy friend kiss
Like this

 

Looking back on it now, years later, it seems racist, but I didn't really think about it when I lived in an area that was virtually just Caucasian, even though I, myself, am hispanic."
-Guest ,Alexis; 22 Dec 10,  http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=100653&messages=24 ; Lyr Add: Down Down Baby-Race in Children's Rhymes
-snip-
I believe that versions of "Down Down Baby" that have the words "sittting on a bench -or fence- and trying to make a dollar out of __ cents) came from the racist "Ching Chong" rhymes. However, I believe that simply mentioning a race (in a rhyme or anywhere else) is automatically racist. That said, the "trying to make a dollar out of __ cents, can be interpreted as mocking those persons' lack of understanding of United States money. It also possible that those words can be interpreted as being scornful of those persons' engaging in "hustling" (trying to get more for less).
-snip-
In the context of African American music, "breakdown" is an exclamation or an interjection that is usually given as "Break it down!". The "Break it down!" call is directed from the audience to a person who is dancing. An example of this exclamation is M.C. Hammer's 1990 hit Hip Hop record, "U Can't Touch This". In that record, M.C. Hammer sings "You can't touch this.../ Break it down!/ Stop, Hammer time!" 

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Example #10 - Learn FUN hand clapping game "Down Down Baby"

 KSquared, Nov 9, 2013

Instructions on how to learn hand clapping game. Also learn the song.
-snip-
Here are the words to this example:
Down down baby
Down by the roller coaster
Shimmy Shimmy baby
Oh how I love you so
Shimmy shimmy Coco pop
Shimmy Shimmy ride
Shimmy Shimmy Coco pop
Shimmy Shimmy ride.
I like coffee I like tea
I like a boy. He likes me
From up and down and side to side
All around and shake it little ride
P. o. p spells pop" 

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Example #11 
"Down down baby
Down by the rollorcoaster
Sweet sweet baby
Mama never lets you go
Shimmy shimmy cocoa puffs
Shimmy shimmy wow
Shimmy shimmy cocoa puffs
Shimmy shimmy break it down
I have a boyfriend
A biscuit
He is as sweet as
a biscuit
Down down baby
Down by the rollorcoaster
Sweet sweet baby
Mama never lets you go
-http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunnyfrogs/galleries/72157624912523550/ Clapping Rhymes, retrieved November 1, 2014

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Example #12
"My sister and cousins had a similar conversation a few years ago.  We noticed that the songs are prevalent across the US and that they transcend generations.  My aunt (14 years my senior),  myself, and my cousin (30yrs my junior), played some of the same hand games.  Interestingly, my nieces who did not attend Black elementary schools,  played little or no hand games and the ones they did play had more innocent lyrics.  One of the most risqué songs was a version of "Down, Down, Baby" played in Los Angeles in the early 70s (my aunt and cousin sang different versions of this song).   These are the lyrics to the Los Angeles 1970s version:

"Down, down baby, down by the rollercoaster.  Sweet, sweet baby, please don't you let me go.  Shimmy, shimmy coco pop, shimmy, shimmy aiyeee.  Shimmy, shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy aiyee.  I got a boyfriend, a biscuit,  he so sweet, a biscuit, light my  cherry tree."….
-davina845, 2018 [comment from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfzHL_1PdbY&t=3s]
-snip-
These are the entire words to that rhyme that are given in this comment.

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Example #13 - BIG. Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop with Tom Hanks (Full Lyrics)

What About When, May 28, 2023  #tomhanks #bigmovie #whataboutwhen

Adult Josh Baskin and his friend Billy sing Shimmy Shimmy Cocoa Pop.

 Billy discovers that his friend Josh has become an adult version of himself and the only way Josh can convince that he is actually the Josh that Billy knows, he has to sing a song that only they share the knowledge of.

Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop - Full Lyrics:

The space goes...down down baby, down down the roller coaster.

Sweet sweet baby, sweet sweet don't let me go.

Shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rock.

Shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rock.

I met a girlfriend- a triscuit,

she said a triscuit-a biscuit,

ice cream soda pop, vanilla on the top.

Ooooh Shalida, walking down the street,

ten times a week.

I meant it. I said it.

I stole my mama's credit.

I'm cool. I'm hot.

Sock you in the stomach three more times."

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Example #14
"Down, down, baby
Down, down the roller coaster
Sweet, sweet, baby
I’ll never let you go
Shimmy, Shimmy cocoa pop
Shimmy, Shimmy pow
Shimmy, Shimmy cocoa pop
Shimmy, Shimmy pow!

I like coffee
I like tea
I like another boy
And he likes me
Up and down and side to side
All around and shake it little ride
P-O-P spells POP!"
-https://www.nurseryrhymes.org/down-down-baby.html [No publishing date is given for this example]. 
-snip-
Here's a quote from that website:
"Down Down Baby is a popular nursery rhyme and clapping game. It is often seen in schoolyards all over the USA and in UK.

Below you will find the Down Down Baby lyrics (most common version) as well as as clapping instructions (video). So what are you waiting for? Get up, sing and clap! And have fun! :)"
-snip-
I don't think this is the most common version of "Down Down Baby" in the United States as that website indicated. As I stated earlier in this post, I believe that by far the most common  version of "Down Down Baby" (in the United States, and probably elsewhere in the world) since at least the 1990s is the one that is given as Example #7 in this pancocojams post (The example numbers are based on their publishing years). That Example, from a 1980s Sesame Street television segment, shows a group of Black girls teaching a younger Black girl how to chant and perform the motions to "Down Down Baby".

I also believe that since at least the mid 1990s, the movie Big's version of the "Down Down Baby" rhyme (given in this pancocojams post as Example #13) is in second place, However, my guess is that version is chanted or quoted far less often than the version of "Down Down Baby" that was popularized and is still being popularized by that 1980s Sesame Street clip. 

Which version/s of this rhyme are you [most] familiar with? 

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UPDATE  May 12, 2025
Here are two more versions of the "Down Down Baby" rhyme/singing game that I found online while looking for examples of "Little Sally Walker":

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3653896478089568

[Example #15]

April Love,  January 2025

I’m from Cali,

We use to sing:

down down baby …down down… a roller coaster… sweet sweet baby sweet sweet. ..Don’t let me go…shimmy Shimmy Coco pop shimmy, shimmy…rise…Shimmy Shimmy Coco pop… I had a boyfriend ….a biscuit …he so sweet… a biscuit …like a cherry tree… a biscuit…ice cream, soda pop cherry on top …aweee BB awww Baby, I said it… I meant it… I’m cool ..smooth ?something….. don’t remember the rest😆😆
-snip-
In a subsequent comment, April Love shared that she remembers this from the late 1970s. 

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[Example #16]

Reply

Alieda Viruet, January 2025

April Love I'm from Chicago

We used to don't a variation of this song like this:

Down down baby, down down the roller coaster...

Sweet sweet baby I don't wanna let you go...

Just because I kiss you, don't mean I love you...

Shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rock...

Shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy break down...

Man and lady sittin' on a bench, trynna make a dollar out of fifteen cent...

You missed, you missed, you missed like this

🤣😂😂Little less innocent than your lyrics... though we didn't realize it as kids.

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