Edited by Azizi Powell
This is pancocojams post features examples of "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine" and examples with similar titles BEFORE Shirley Ellis' 1965 record "The Clapping Game".
These examples are from the visitor comment sections for these two previous pancocojams posts: "3 6 9 The Goose Drank Wine" - The Clapping Rhyme (Lyrics, & Video Examples) https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-6-9-goose-drank-wine-clapping-song.html August 9, 2012 and "Some Early Examples Of The Children's Rhyme "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine" and https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/02/some-early-examples-of-childrens-rhyme.html , February 23, 2019
Unlike this 2025 post, the examples in those 2012 and 2019 pancocojams posts are "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine" rhymes and rhymes with similar titles that are published in discussion threads of the online folk music forum Mudcat Discussion.
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The criteria that I am using to feature the rhymes in this 2025 post are:
-comments that include words for a version of these rhymes and also provide a date prior to 1965*
*I don't include any examples with the dates "the 1960s or thereabouts" (or similar wording) which have the same words that Shirley Ellis sang.
or
-comments that include the words for a version of these rhymes that refer to a grandparent or parent or older adult sharing this rhyme with the commenter prior to 1965. However, I have included a few comments of versions of these rhymes from 1965 and afterwards if that version is different from Shirley Ellis' record
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The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the original composers of these rhymes. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
SELECTED VISITOR COMMENTS THAT INCLUDE AN EXAMPLE OF THESE RHYMES
These comments from visitors to these pancocojams posts are numbered for referencing purposes only
"3 6 9 The Goose Drank Wine" - The Clapping Rhyme (Lyrics, & Video Examples) https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-6-9-goose-drank-wine-clapping-song.html August 9, 2012
"Been looking for the origins of "The Goose Drank Wine" bit of rhyme.. thanks for posting about it.
My dad taught me his version from south Georgia, in the 1950's:
Once upon a time
The goose drank wine,
Monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line.
The line broke,
The monkey choked,
And got tobacco juice down his throat."
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"This is so interesting .. thank you for this.
My grandfather told me of a little poem he use to say when he was a little boy. It went:
"Once upon a time when the birds chewed Lion and the monkeys chewed tobacco, the little boy run with a bullet in his bum to see what was the matter."
He was born in Queensland, Australia in 1895. It's a small world!"
Sue
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3. AnonymousAugust 5, 2016 at 1:46 PM
"My grandad sang this one while I was growing up once upon a time the goose drank wine the monkey chewed tobacco the little pigs run with there fingers up there bum to see what was the matter"
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"I never knew this as a song, just a nursery rhyme from my dad, and he said:
Once upon a time, a goose drank wine
Spit tobacco juice on the street car line
The line broke, the motor got choked
And we all went to town on a billy goat"
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"My aunts used to sing another version in the 1940's (in Baltimore). They sang it to me when I was a little girl (born in 1945).
"Once upon a time the goose drank wine and a monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line. The line broke, the monkey got choked and we all went to heaven in a little red boat."
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"So funny this song is popular again!!! I first heard it from my Ma (born in 1920's Texas) as "The Rubber Dolly" song (no 3-6-9) and my Grandma (born in 1890 S. Illinois) sang ..." once upon a time a goose drank wine and a monkey spit tobacco on the streetcar line-the line broke, the monkey got choked and everybody went to heaven on a billy goat" with no Rubber Dolly part....and no clapping instructions!"
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"The way I heard this from my mother who was born in 1911:
Once upon a time a goose drank wine
The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line
The monkey took a choke; The street car broke
And that’s the end of my elephant joke."
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https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/02/some-early-examples-of-childrens-rhyme.html
, February 23, 2019
1, Brian Richard AllenJune 16, 2022 at 12:53 AM
Hi there, Dear Azizi
United States 5th and 6th Marines Regiments, then encamped around my Masterton, New Zealand, home -- and/or in and out of our family-owned private hospital -- taught me a pretty rough version of this rhyme during World War Two, when I was less than 5 years old.
Leaving some to the imagination, my version goes like this:
Once upon a time
When the cows ate lime and
The monkeys chewed tobacco
A little boy run
With his fingers up his b*m and
The Devil ran past
With a chisel up his a&s
To see what was the matter
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor- This is how this commenter wrote this rhyme
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2. Clarice MartelSeptember 23, 2020 at 4:53 PM
"I learned the following from my grandmother in the 1990s, she was born in 1930 (East Texas/Louisiana).
2. Clarice MartelSeptember 23, 2020 at 4:53 PM
"I learned the following from my grandmother in the 1990s, she was born in 1930 (East Texas/Louisiana).
Once upon a time, the goose drank wine
The monkey played the fiddle on a 'tater vine,
The vine broke, the monkey choked,
and now my monkey's dead....lol-she had a sense of humor!
the last line would vary between the above: and they all went to heaven on a billy goat.
This version is similar to the above version listed from Louisiana"
-snip-
This comment departs from my above stated criteria as it appears that the commenter learned this version from her grandmother and not from Shirley Ellis' 1965 record.
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"My mother just told us about a rhyme she remembered as a child growing up in Jermyn, PA (born 1931). It goes like this:
Once upon a time, a goose drank wine
A monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line.
The streetcar broke, the monkey choked, and they all went to heaven on a white nanny goat."
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4. UnknownJuly 25, 2021 at 4:36 AM
"The year is 1958 and I was 4 years old and living in South East London.
My father used to sing this version when he thought no one else was listening.
It’s obviously a very crude corruption of the song/chant discussed in this article.
He sang it in the old English ‘Music Hall’ style and it sounded quite melodic.
There are many English Drinking/Rugby songs that are crude in their nature and I imagine the original song "Once Upon A Time The Goose Drank Wine" was used as the basis for my Father's similarly styled ditty.
(Rude word warning)
Once upon a time when the birds ate lime
And the monkeys chewed tobacco
There lay Stan, a funny old man
And he’s crying out for water
Water... water...
’Til water came at last
He said I don’t want your water
You can stick it up your a*se!
It didn't win a Nobel prize for literature but it made a 4 year old London boy laugh."
Pancocojams Editor- This is how this commenter wrote this rhyme
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5. UnknownOctober 15, 2021 at 9:25 PM
"Ok I just googled a rhyme and found this site. I was
born1949in rual NW Florida. I heard the following a time or two. Not from
grandma but other kids. Today I see it was a goose. This is what I thought we
said: Once upon a time the monkey drank wine. Trying to get to heaven on a
potato vine. The vine broke,the monkey got choked(something something something
about an old Billy goat...I don't remember the rest����"
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"My Grandmother born in the 20's from the Baltimore and Tacoma Park area of Maryland sang it: "once upon a time, a goose drank wine, a monkey chewed tobacco on a street car line, the streetcar broke, the monkey choked, and they all went to heaven in a little green boat. (Sometimes rowboat, sometimes tin boat)"
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7. madbird, April 14, 2022 at 2:51 PM
"I grew up in the 90s, my daddy's side we're Louisiana Creole, and I guess I'm only just now realizing THAT'S where this originated most likely for him. When I was young, I would ask him to tell me a story, and in true dad fashion, every so often he would find it so funny to start off: "Once upon a time..." And then roll right on into, "The goose drank wine, the monkey played the fiddle on the sweet potato vine. The vine broke, the monkey got choke, and they all went to heaven in a little row boat!" I never thought it was as funny as he did at the time. But now with children of my own, and also learning how important it is to be proud of my culture and family's history (and thankfully I live right across the river from SW Louisiana),I am taking great pleasure in teaching my own children these things.
I should add- it wasn't only in our family that was sung growing up. If my memory serves me right, us neighborhood kids in the 90s in Beaumont, TX on my block, we also sang the same version that I listed, and did a patty-cake-type hand game, as well as other child games to that and many other little ditties.
🥰
-Carley (Thompson) O'Burke"
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"My grandmother was born in the 20s in Louisiana and she use to sing this to me when I was a little girl. Her version:
Once upon a time the goose dranked wine
The monkey chewed tobacco on a street car
The car line broke
And the monkey got choked
And we all went to heaven on a little paper not
When we got to heaven we didn’t know what to do
So we smiled at the angels and walked on thru."
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"My mother would sing this to me when I was a baby/toddler. She was born in 1942 in Selma, AL and then moved to Pensacola, FL. I don’t know who she learned it from for sure but her parents were born in the 20s. I was born in 1976 and I have sung it to my daughter who was born in 2013. I just googled it because I was singing it to myself and was curious about the origin of it. That’s how I came across this. Thank you so much for putting this together. There is so much more to it than I imagined."
Once upon a time a monkey drank wine
Sitting on top of a streetcar line
The line broke
The monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row boat"
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10.AnonymousDecember 14, 2022 at 10:31 AM
"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 ----'
It immediately made me think of The Clapping Song and hence brought me here."
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"My family uses this line as an opener to telling a tall story:
Once upon a time, when the birds ate lime, and Mr Irvine chewed tobacco...
Mr Irvine, I'm told, was a neighbour. This would have been 1950s in Pukekohe, NZ.
I always thought it was a "family" rhyme!"
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"A version recited by my father, and apparently common in England in the 1930s/WW2 period, goes like this:
Once upon a time when the birds ate lime
And the monkeys chewed tobacco,
They all took snuff to make themselves tough,
My word, how they did chatter!"
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"I was born in the 1950s, and my father always recited it this way:
Once upon a time the goose drank wine
The monkey did the shimmy on the trolly car line
The trolly car broke
The monkey did choke
And the monkey went to heaven in a little tin boat"
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"My mother, raised on the Mississippi delta in the 40s & 50s, said it like this:
Once upon a time, the goose drank wine,
the horse spit tocacco on the streetcar line,
The streetcar broke, the monkey choked,
and they all went to heaven on a blue billy goat."
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"#6 Once upon a Time
When I was a girl growing up in the 70's in Independence, Louisiana, a place where Italian immigrants settled between 1894 and 1924, me and my grandmother would sit on the porch in her rocking chairs and she would tell me stories related to the immigration about ,how our people came here by crossing the ocean on a big ship and she would sing rhymes and one of the rhymes that she taught me was Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time the goose drank the wine and the monkey played the fiddle on the sweet potatoe vine
The sweet potato vine broke and the money got choked
They all went to heaven on a Billy goat.
Today is October 13, 2023 and I am 53 years old and this rhyme just came up as a thought in my head and I decided to look it up on the internet and this is how I came here and thank you I always thought my grandmother made this up but today I have discovered that it's a rhyme in books as wellas on the internet today. I wish I could tell her."
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"My mom grew up in St. Louis from 1939-1959 and taught us “Once upon a time, the goose drank wine. The monkey spit tobacco on the streetcar line. The streetcar broke. And all the people choked and had to go to Heaven on a nanny goat.” "
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"My Grandpa taught me as a little girl in Australia.
Once upon a time when the birds ate lime
And the monkeys chewed tobacco
The devil ran past with a chisel in his mouth
To see what was the matter
The wind blew North
The wind blew South
The wind blew the chisel from his ear to his …….mouth
Wondering now if chisel might have been whistle, such a long time ago."
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18. AnonymousNovember 10, 2024 at 8:56 AM
Once upon a time
A goose drank wine,
A monkey chewed tobacco on a streetcar line.
The streetcar broke; the monkey choked,
And they all went to heaven in a little green boat.
-snip-
I've added this example to this compilation even though the commenter didn't include any date or how
they learned this version. The following comment was published as a reply to this comment.
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That one is as close to the one my father would recite to me..except..mine was always a Duck drank wine...not a goose.
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"The closest to the one we sang in school in the bay area, mid-1960s, was the one posted above from the 1920s in Maine.
Once upon a time, the goose drank wine.
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line.
The streetcar broke, the monkey told a joke.
And they all went together on a little nanny goat."
-snip-
I'm including this comment in this compilation although its date may be the same as Shirley Ellis' 1965 record.
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