The Weird Origins of Popular Kid’s Music: 10 Creepy Children’s Songs

Songs for kids might seem like they couldn’t get any more wholesome. Who doesn’t love a lively round of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider”?

While some kid’s songs are exactly what they seem, some have sinister origins that will make you think twice about singing them to or with your children. We’ve got a list of 9 creepy children’s songs that will make you reevaluate parts of your childhood that were spent singing about death, molestation, and destruction (no, we aren’t exaggerating).

Without further ado, let’s get to tainting those childhood memories!

1. Ring Around the Rosie

This first one is a little controversial. While it hasn’t been proven that this kid’s rhyme is linked to the Black Plague, many people theorize that’s where it originated.

Let’s back up a second: the Black Plague? What does that have to do with pockets full of posies?

Well, many people theorize that the line “ring around the rosie” refers to the red splotchy rashes that people with the bubonic plague would get all over their bodies. These rashes, or rosies, were usually found in rings and were a common symptom of the black plague.

Continuing on with this interpretation, “posies” were a known herbal treatment for the black plague at the time of the epidemic. People at the time believed that filling their pockets with posies (a type of flower) would help ward off the plague.

The final line of this rhyme is the creepiest of all: “ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Have any guesses now that you know this is on a list of creepy kid’s songs?

Many people theorize that the “ashes” line refers to the fact that most people died from the plague and their diseased bodies were burned to ashes after death.

Want to avoid singing this with your kids? We aren’t surprised. Check out binkikids.com for some more kid-friendly nursery rhymes and songs.

2. London Bridge is Falling Down

Many people consider “London Bridge is Falling Down” one of their favorite children’s songs. What could be wrong with, ” London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady,” besides a strange story about engineering failure?

What most people don’t realize is there are a few creepy origins to this song: it could reference killing children and human sacrifice.

This song very likely references the pagan belief that burying or entombing people within a bridge would help to maintain the structure. The belief was that entombing people, most often children, alive within the bridge’s structure would serve as a sacrifice to keep the bridge steady and strong. Otherwise, the bridge would “fall down.”

This practice of sacrificing people, mostly children, within buildings and bridges has been proven with evidence (yes… evidence of bodies within buildings and bridges. We told you these are creepy kids songs, didn’t we?).

It’s also believed that burying children within the bridge would make them an eternal watcher over the bridge as a sort of protector.

This theory of the song is supported by the game called “Bridges” that children often play. Children will run underneath an “arch” of other kids holding hands. The “arch” of hands collapsed on them (“falls down” if you will”) trapping the child there.

Creepy, no?

3. Jimmy Crack Corn

It’s almost guaranteed you don’t know what this song means because it seems like nonsense words thrown together to make kids laugh.

The song goes like this:

Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care,
My master’s gone away.

So what does “Jimmy crack corn” mean? Jimmy crack corn refers to a slave celebrating after their slavemaster was killed.

The “my master’s gone away” line is pretty obvious when you think about it. The story goes that a fly bit the master’s horse, causing the horse to buck and throw the slavemaster off the horse to his death.

Let’s add some booze onto this children’s song, shall we? The “Jimmy crack corn” part of this song was originally sang as “Jim crack corn” or “gimcrack” which refers to cheap whiskey.

So this children’s song is essentially about slaves getting hammered and celebrating after their probably evil slavemaster was killed after being thrown from a horse.

4. Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

What seems like an innocent song about maintaining a clean appearance and tidying your room is actually a prison work song.

When women were introduced to a Wakefield, Massachusetts prison, they would sing this work song with their children as they, you guessed it, walked around the mulberry bush.

While this still might not seem too bad, the implication of the song is that if the children didn’t listen to the lyrics and maintain their hygiene, they would probably die of typhoid or some other horrible disease while trapped in prison.

5. Pop Goes the Weasel

Pop goes the weasel is one of the most widely distributed songs on this list: from ice cream vans to toy commercials to Jack-in-the-boxes, almost everyone has heard this tune at least once.

Besides these wholesome applications of the song, this rhyme is actually about pub crawls and getting blackout drunk. The lyrics seem innocuous because they’re written in slang code.

“Pop goes the weasel” refers to the men having to sell all their clothes after they spend all their money on beer and cigs. The rest of the song has subtle nods to specific bars and pubs.

You’ll never hear these songs the same way now that you know little Sally is essentially chanting about getting hammered as she draws with chalk in the driveway.

6. She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain

When we’re kids, we all thought this song was about a fun traveling aunt or a nice visitor who’s coming around the mountain to visit, right?

Well, the truth is that this is talking about death. “She” is death and death is coming around the mountain of life to take us all whenever she wants. “When she comes,” if we’re being specific.

The origin of this arrival of death via carriage on the mountain comes from a song called “When the Chariot Comes.” The tune of both the “Chariot” song and the “mountain” song are eerily similar and the lyrics mirror each other as well.

It’s believed that “When the Chariot Comes” is a direct reference to when Jesus returns for Judgement Day and all those who are unworthy are killed. This kid’s song is literally talking about the end of the world coming to kill us all. Super.

7. Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Perhaps you can guess where this one is going: “ears” doesn’t actually refer to “ears.” “Do Your Ears Hang Low” is the clean version of an explicit army song that asks, “Do Your Balls Hang Low?”

That pretty much sums this one up. The next time you hear this silly song, just know that it’s actually a reference to low hanging testicles.

8. Frere Jacques

We couldn’t get through this list of creepy kid’s songs without running into a racist one. This song is popular around the world even though it comes from a deeply Catholic background that essentially is an antisemitic chant.

The song itself makes fun of this guy named Frere Jacques, who essentially represents every non-Catholic in France, but mostly Jews. So singing this song is basically giving a big middle finger to all Jewish people, which is probably not what you want to be teaching your childing.

9. Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Let’s end on a classic. This song that you probably sang to your infant child in the bathtub comes from gross men staring at naked women while they were trying to take baths.

By itself, it’s somewhat homoerotic. It’s about three men taking a nice bath together. Not too bad, right? Well, the original lyrics refer to “three maids in a tub” at “the fair,” which is what they called strip clubs back in the 14th century.

The song is basically an ode to men who go to strip clubs after work to ogle at women instead of going home to their wives. But let’s sing it to our children while they take baths, why not!

9 Creepy Children’s Songs You’ll Never Get Out of Your Head: Wrapping Up

We’re sorry to have ruined your and your children’s childhoods by revealing the true origins of some of your favorite kid’s songs. Ignorance is bliss sometimes, but to be fair you are the one who decided to read this post, so we can’t take all the blame here.

While these creepy children’s songs don’t have the best origin stories, they’re still catchy and their original meanings have somewhat faded away. So if you still find yourself humming “Frere Jacques,” don’t feel too bad about it.

If you want to check out some other weird facts that may or may not ruin a part of your childhood, check out our other popular articles.

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