We recently passed the ten year anniversary of my Dad's passing, and he's been in my thoughts a lot lately. My sister was talking about some of her favorite Sunday dinners that Dad cooked, and some of the lakefront and backyard bar b ques in the summer that we all enjoyed. Then my cousin brought up another favorite memory, the silly songs he sang to us when we were kids.
You may recall from an earlier post that my Dad was a musician; he loved to entertain us, or maybe we just bugged him until he gave in. There may have been more, but the three favorite songs brought smiles and giggles to children in our family for years. Now with the help of the internet, I'll share them with you.
1) Honkety Hank - not sure Dad knew the whole song, but his sound effects made the tune. I found out this song was written in 1949 by Pinto Colvig, who was the original voice of Bozo the Clown. Here's some of the lyrics:
Young Honkety Hank, a mechanical boy
Built himself the silliest toy
An automobile that went when he run it
The neighbors all said that he shouldn't o' done it.
The poofiest car that a kid ever built
All painted and patched like an old crazy quilt
'Twas made out of boxes and tin cans and such
That didn't have even a brake or a clutch.
'Twould jiggle and twiggle and wiggle and giggle
And mutter and sputter and flutter
Would cough and sneeze and and wheeze
Down the street with a terrible clutter.
That old hunk-a-junk would make anyone laugh
The motor inside was an old phonograph
The wheels were wobbly and bubblegum tires
And all would every time it backfired.
2) The Unicorn Song - Sung in Dad's best Irish accent, this song by The Irish Rovers was a top 10 hit in1968 and is still popular in Irish pubs today
3) My Mule Charley - this was my personal favorite, sorry couldn't find the lyrics but did find an audio snippet.
My Mule Charley
The rest of the song involves a trip to town to buy a horn, Charley getting into the shop and greats sound effects and a glockenspiel. It ended in a rousing rendition of "Oh Susana!"
So these are the songs that we all have such fond memories of, thanks Dad! Hope the family enjoys this and maybe shares with the next generation of Connell kids.
Kev, I am so glad you poted this!! I looked up the Honkety Hank song after we were talking about it on fb myself!! It was fun to hear them...and I loved reading that Honkety Hank shared the flip side with Oh what a Mule was Charlie!! what fond memories!!I remember when we would drive in the car...we would ask Dad to sing a song and he would sing.." a song, a song, a song..." and we would all say.." noooo Daaaadddd!!!!" " sing a real song" and then he would entertain us with one of these precious songs we all seem to remember at least parts of!! Do you remember.." water , water, water , water , water....and on and on and on??"
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