Rock-a-bye-baby is a bit strange. My mother used to sing an alternate version because she thought the image of a baby rocking on a high branch, and falling down when the wind blows, was a bit unpleasant.

Frankie and Johnny is an upbeat song about cheating and murder. It's not exactly a children's song, more just a traditional song, but I associate it with childhood because my mother used to play it on the piano all the time.

If You Go Down To The Woods Today is my favourite childhood song.

If you go down to the woods today,
You're sure of a big surprise;
If you go down to the woods today,
You'd better go in disguise;

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic...

And so on.

Oh, we have plenty. One of my favourites is a song about a fly and a dor beetle. The dor beetle wants to marry the fly, but the fly thinks the dor beetle is too poor to marry her. Then the dor beetle slaps the fly in the face, and they get married on a pile of horse poop

London bridges falling down.

Well, it wasn't a song, but it was a poem, and it's still being told to children in pre-schools and nurseries... When you're a kid you don't really see anything wrong with it, but now that I remembered it... see for yourself. Ladies and gentlement, I present to you, "Murzynek Bambo" by Julian Tuwim (meaning Black Boy Bambo )


Murzynek Bambo w Afryce mieszka,
Czarną ma skórę ten nasz koleżka.
(^ Negro Bambo lives in Africa,
This friend of ours has black skin.)

Uczy się pilnie przez całe ranki
Ze swej murzyńskiej Pierwszej czytanki.
(^ He's learning carefully all mornings,
From his first Negro abc-book.)

A gdy do domu ze szkoły wraca,
Psoci, figluje - to jego praca.
(And when he comes back home from school,
He's naughty and makes mess- that's his job.)

Aż mama krzyczy: "Bambo, łobuzie!"
A Bambo czarną nadyma buzię.
(So his mom shouts at him, "Bambo, you naughty!"
But Bambo just frowns his black face.)

Mama powiada: "Napij się mleka",
A on na drzewo mamie ucieka.
(So his mom tells him, "Drink a glass of milk",
But Bambo runs away onto a tree.)

Mama powiada: "Chodź do kąpieli",
A on się boi, że się wybieli.
(So his mom says: "Take a bath",
But he's scared he will turn white.) <<<<... I have no comments for this one lol

Lecz mama kocha swojego synka,
Bo dobry chłopak z tego Murzynka.
(But his mom loves her son,
Because Bambo is a good Negro.)

Szkoda, że Bambo czarny, wesoły,
Nie chodzi razem z nami do szkoły.
(It's a shame though, that Bambo, black and happy,
Doesn't go to school with us.)

I went to quite a few pre-schools and junior schools, and there always was a mention of this poem. I know that these days my little cousins are also listening to them lol Kind of disturbing.

Frère Jacques. I knew it in 4 languages as a kid. Not now, though.

Children's song? My childhood song was Smooth Criminal.