Foolish Frog
"The Foolish Frog," also known as "Yankety Yank," or "Mary Irwin's Frog Song." was first released in 1907.
Here are a couple of famous versions:
Blind Blake, 1952 - This one has all of the original lyrics
Pete Seeger, 1971 - This is the version that introduced me to the song - what a
great version from a great man - and the film is hilarious!
And here's our version - our new lyrics are in red.
Foolish Frog
Way down south in the yankety-yank,
a bull frog jumped from bank to bank,
Just because he had nothing better for to do!
He stubbed his toe and fell in the water;
you could hear him yell for a mile and a quarter,
just because he had nothing better for to do.
He kept on croaking a moninn’ and a groanin
Telling the story about his toe and
All the frogs gathered round to hear his song
After a while they said maybe you oughta
shake it off and head back to the water
Well it’s not so bad, nothin’s really wrong
But the frog said come on don’t you want to hear me,
come on guys don’t you want to cheer me
up again please listen to my tale
Then one by one they hopped away,
they had better things to do that day
than to sit and listen to that bullfrog moan and wail
Now there’s lots of folks just like that foolish frog of mine,
get themselves into trouble just to pass the time,
said there’s lots of folks just like that foolish frog of mine,
get in trouble cause there’s nothing better to do…