Comments on: Sarah the Whale http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/ Fri, 03 Jan 2025 07:36:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.11 By: Diana Cox http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-795529 Fri, 03 Jan 2025 07:36:32 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-795529 I’m 71, and my youngest brother came home from kindergarten or first grade (1965-66) singing this song, and we teased him mercilessly because it was so improbable:

There once was a whale and he ate a lot, and someday he was going to dieeeee…
What can you do in a case like that?
What can you do but sit on your hat,
Or your toothbrush , or your grandmother,
Or anything that is helpless.

But get this – my parents were big Burl Ives fans, and we had most of his children’s records. But neither of them knew this song. I even tried to look it up several years ago and came up empty. But it came into my head the other day in the shower, and I have struggled since then to remember to look it up – I remembered I wanted to look up SOMETHING, but couldn’t remember what. And it finally just came to me.

My parents (and grandmother who we teased with his version of the song) are gone now, and they would have been just tickled. But I sent the following LINK WITH BURL IVES SINGING IT!! with the same tune!!! to my siblings, and I can’t wait for their response. https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/ulwff/the_whale/

]]> By: Jennifer VanDyke http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-718455 Wed, 06 Mar 2024 05:14:43 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-718455 Hi! I’m looking for the chords for this song, for ukulele, if anyone has them.
Otherwise, I’ll have to figure them out myself, and I’m lazy. ?
Thanks!

]]> By: Ryan http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-338196 Sat, 27 Mar 2021 01:31:51 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-338196 Hey, I know this thread is pretty old… So I don’t know if anyone will actually get this message or care. But I wanted to let Rick know that the Burl Ives album was one of a couple that he recorded for Disney. And the only place that I’ve been able to find Oriole. (Last I checked his estate wasn’t able to re-release it because of Disney.) Anyway, it was titled: Walt Disney Presents Burl Ives’ Animal Folk. Great album all around but I am not sure it’s on anything but vinyl.

]]> By: Nancy Dixon http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-39075 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 22:21:31 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-39075 I learned it from my grandmother when I was a little girl. (I am 67 now.)
it was a slightly different version:

A plump little robin flew down from a tree
to hunt for a work that he happened to see.
A frisky young chicken came scampering by and
gazed at the robin with wondering eye.

Can you sing, asked the chicken; The robin said no.
and asked in return if the robin could crow?
So, the bird sought a tree and the chicken a wall
and each thought the other knew nothing at all!

]]> By: kara http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36487 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:32:13 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36487 Hey Rick! There’s a little recording of me singing the Whale song near the bottom of the post. Yeah, the tune is similar to Dixie.

I remember the Oriole song!!!

Oh, oriole, oriole, oriole, oh
oriole oh,
oriole oh,
Oh, oriole, oriole, oriole, oh
Has anyone seen my baby-o?

I’ll email this too you, too, in case you don’t check back here again.

]]> By: RIck Rodney http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36486 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:25:04 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36486 I, too, got here from a search engine – yahoo. Wouldja believe that I also heard this on a Burl Ives recording we borrowed from a library in Denver in 1967!!! Unless I am completely nuts (not a complete improbability) it goes to the tune of “Dixie” (just the verses of Dixie – not the chorus). It has been driving me crazy trying to find out about the album. It also had “Tommy Doolan’s Cat,” “Oriole”, and a song about a robin and a chicken comparing each other

A plump little robin flew down from a tree,
to hunt for a worm which he happened to see.
A frisky young chicken came scampering by
and gazed at the robin with wondering eye.

Said the chick “what a queer looking chicken is that!
It’s wings are so long and its body so flat.”
While robin remarked, loud enough to be heard
“Dear me, an exceedingly strange looking bird.”

I can’t remember the rest but it is, of course, about prejudice and ends up with both leaving thinking they were better than the other. If this jogs any memories for you or anyone else that might help me track this album down, it is greatly appreciated. Contact me at rickrodney@yahoo.com. Either way, thanks for posting this so at least I know I am not the ONLY person who ever borrowed this album from a library – lol!

]]> By: kara http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36187 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:34:44 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36187 Yep, good ol’ google. The helpless grandmother bit always cracked us up!

]]> By: Jan http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36186 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:30:38 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-36186 Heh heh… the phrase that popped into my head this evening was the bit about sitting on your hat, or your toothbrush, or your grandmother, or anything else that’s helpless. I couldn’t remember where it was from, but google pointed me here. Good ol’ google.

]]> By: Alice http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-34484 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:17:24 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-34484 My father sang this song to my sister and me when we were little along with lots of others that are hard to find. Our Sarah lived in “Portland Town”. We lived in New York. Go figure. I’m on a mission to find all those songs my father sang. Currently the only MP3 of this I can find of Sarah is Sharon, Lois, and Bram. Ok, but ….. Does any one know of another recording? I don’t seem to find Burl Ives.

]]> By: Jordan http://kayray.org/2007/03/24/sarah-the-whale/#comment-32720 Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:02:33 +0000 http://kayray.org/2007/03/25/sarah-the-whale/#comment-32720 I remember Burl Ives singing “Sarah the Whale”. Now we sing it to our grandchildren.

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