The Clapping Song

"The Clapping Song" is an American song originally recorded by Shirley Ellis in 1965. The song was released shortly after Shirley had hit it big with a similar song, "The Name Game". The lyrics of "The Clapping Song" are reminiscent of a nursery rhyme or jump-rope rhyme, and also feature instructions for a clapping game. The song made it to the top ten on the charts, the last of three songs Shirley performed which did so.

The repeated chorus is very memorable::Three, six, nine:The goose drank wine:The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line:The line broke, the monkey got choked:And they all went to heaven in a little row boat

Remakes

The song has been remade several times:
*Red De San Luis had a big hit in Spain with a cover (in Spanish) in 1980. The Spanish translated title was "Bailad". Spanish lyrics preserved the absurd spirit of the original.
*The Belle Stars covered the song in 1982
*Pia Zadora had a minor top 40 hit with a cover in 1983
*Aaron Carter released a cover of the song on his 2000 album "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)"
*Lil' Kim performed the song (as Shirley Ellis) on an episode of the NBC drama American Dreams
*Gary Glitter covered this song on 3 albums "Glitter" in 1972, "Glam Years" 1991 and "Gary Glitter" in 1995.
*The Rotters Club recorded a cover which was featured on Skins Secret Party Special
*Jack Clayton-Wright then released a cover in 2004 and also performed it live at Aylesford school.
*The Hip-hop gospel Congolese group Makoma has covered the song recently.
*Timbaland protege Izza Kizza samples the chorus in his song "Walk The Dawg" featuring Missy Elliott.
*R&B Singer Cupid did a cover of the song with B.O.B on the Step Up 2 OST
*Hot 2 Go covered the song in 2008 featuring Jennie Matthias from The Belle Stars

Trivia

*A recent Old Navy commercial featured an original song called "The Sky is Blue," which was to the tune and beat of "The Clapping Song"
*James May attempted to parallel park a Lamborghini Countach to the song on an episode of Top Gear
*The song was used in an advertising campaign for Matalan in the UK.
*The song was featured in the hip hop documentary "Scratch" as part of a story where Steinski speaks on one of his early encounter with hip-hop DJing. He mentions the song being played at a party, bringing back memories from his childhood, and how he loved the song at the party just the same.
*The song's verse structure is much like that of Tom Waits' song Clap Hands on Rain Dogs (1985)
* Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" quotes the line "And we all went to Heaven in a little row boat."
* Buck65's "1957" quotes the line "we all go to Heaven in a little row boat."
*In "Loco Mosquito"(Soldier,1980) Iggy Pop quotes some lines from The Clapping Song.
*The song 'Red Red Wine' by UB40 also quotes some of the lyrics ("The line broke, the monkey get choke")
*MTN South Africa used the song in a TV advert in 2007. The Advert was created by the Jupitor Drawing Room.