The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Recently a revised version of the “ABC Song” was released, to a bit of consternation on the Internet.

The traditional version that I learned is set to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and famously rushes “LMNOP” into two notes.

The new version gives each letter a note, so that kids don’t think of LMNOP as one letter with a long name— but to the ruination of the flow of the song. I agree with the rationale, but I think it could’ve been executed with more songcraft.

So my challenge, to anyone on the SFBB who cares, is to make their own version of the ABC Song, giving each letter a note but preserving some singability and flow.

And post it in this thread.

Here’s a CNN story about the controversy: https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/10/2 ... xp-vpx.hln

JB

Oh god. How am I 40 years old but only just learned that the ABC song is twinkle twinkle? How on earth did I miss that?

Uh uh. No way. If they're going to marginalize my fake band name, I just might stop turning in songs for songfight.

Oh. Oh my. I'm not even sure where to start with this! Do we have a due date?

Let’s say Nov 30, why not. Happy Solsmachashannazaka or whatever

Without having read the controversy article... or listened to the new ABC song... I can say that it would be great for my 4 year old not to get caught up on the LMNOP part of the song. I think he even calls that "letter": EnEmMenO?

Here's mine, thanks for the session players in Music Memos on my iphone.

Here’s mine. You get to see my face and everything.

This one goes out to the Zeds and Aspirated H-ers.

wait that rewrite was serious?! I thought it was a random comedian just having a laugh

here's the original tweet, note that nobody is saying who "they" are and like, this account is full of comedy stuff?

https://twitter.com/NoahGarfinkel/statu ... 2431741952

i can't believe people are taking this seriously? i mean I can because INTERNET but

fluffy wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:35 pm

wait that rewrite was serious?! I thought it was a random comedian just having a laugh

here's the original tweet, note that nobody is saying who "they" are and like, this account is full of comedy stuff?

https://twitter.com/NoahGarfinkel/statu ... 2431741952

i can't believe people are taking this seriously? i mean I can because INTERNET but

The video seems to have dreamenglish.com as a watermark, and that looks like a straightforward song site.

I mean, there's no ABC Song Authority, so it's whatever a blog article writer can drum up to get clicks. This one caught on.

I was all set to listen to this and say, “pffft, get over yourselves.” But, no. it _is_ that bad.

I showed it to my kids and my daughter said, “Ugh! What if *my kids* learn this version!"

The great thing about this new version is there’s no rhyme structure so that’s going to make it harder to catch on.

I've had a go:

I remember when I was in kindergarten, kids would get whacked on the leg with a ruler if they said “zee” instead of “zed”, because that was clear evidence that they had been watching “Sesame Street” - a show that had just recently appeared on the ABC - a show with weird accents and puppets and non-Anglo people that was clearly marking the end of civilisation as we knew it. Or as suburban 1970s Newcastle NSW knew it anyway.

I'm thinking 'Whacked on the Leg' is perfect for your next Nur Ein band name.

How can we prepare our children to live in the Real World (tm) if we teach them that everything is always fair and logical? What next, will we remove silent vowels from English because they're too difficult?