"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" is a children's song and nursery rhyme about a farmer named MacDonald (or McDonald, Macdonald) and the various animals he keeps on his farm. Each verse of the song changes the name of the animal and its respective noise.
In many versions, the song is cumulative, with the animal sounds from all the earlier verses added to each subsequent verse. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 745. For example, the verse uses a cow as an animal and "moo" as the animal's sound.
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" Lyrics
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
With a moo-moo here
And a moo-moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Everywhere a moo-moo
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" Chords
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had some chickens,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With a cluck-cluck here,
D D A
And a cluck-cluck there
A D
Here a cluck, there a cluck,
A D D
Everywhere a cluck-cluck
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E A A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had some cows
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With a Moo-Moo here,
D D A
And a Moo-Moo there
A D
Here a Moo, there a Moo,
A D D
Everywhere a Moo-Moo
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E A A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had a dog,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With a Woof-Woof here,
D D A
And a Woof-Woof there
A D
Here a Woof, there a Woof,
A D D
Everywhere a Woof-Woof
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E A A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had some ducks,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With a Quack-Quack here,
D D A
And a Quack-Quack there
A D
Here a Quack, there a Quack,
A D D
Everywhere a Quack-Quack
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E A A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had some Sheep,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With a Baa-Baa here,
D D A
And a Baa-Baa there
A D
Here a Baa, there a Baa,
A D D
Everywhere a Baa-Baa
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E A A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
A D A
And on that farm he had some Pigs,
A E A
Ee i ee i oh!
D D A
With an Oink-Oink here,
D D A
And an Oink-Oink there
A D
Here an Oink, there an Oink,
A D D
Everywhere an Oink-Oink
A D A
Old MacDonald had a farm
A E7 E A A E A
Eeeeee i , eeeeee i , ohhhhh ! !
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" Origins
In the 1917 book Tommy's Tunes, a collection of World War I era songs by F. T. Nettleingham,[2] the song "Ohio" has quite similar lyrics—though with a slightly different farmer's name and refrain:
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-i-o,
With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there,
Here a bow, there a wow, everywhere a bow-wow.
This version lists seven species of animal: some dogs (bow-wow), some hens (cluck cluck), some ducks (quack quack), some cows (moo moo), some pigs (grunt grunt), some cats (meow meow), and a donkey (hee-haw).[3]
The Traditional Ballad Index consider the Tommy's Tunes version to be the earliest known version of "Old Macdonald Had a Farm", though it cites numerous variants, some of them much older.[1]
Two of these variants were published in Vance Randolph's Ozark Folksongs in 1980. One was "Old Missouri", sung by a Mr. H. F. Walker of Missouri in 1922, a version that names different parts of the mule rather than different animals:
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho,
And on this mule there were two ears, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
With a flip-flop here and a flip-flop there,
And here a flop and there a flop and everywhere a flip-flop
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
A British version of the song, called "The Farmyard, or The Merry Green Fields," was collected in 1908 from a 74-year-old Mrs. Goodey at Marylebone Workhouse, London, and published in Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs.
Up was I on my fa-ther's farm
On a May day morn-ing ear-ly;
Feed-ing of my fa-ther's cows
On a May day morn-ing ear-ly,
With a moo moo here and a moo moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, Here a pret-ty moo.
Six pret-ty maids come and gang a-long o' me
To the mer-ry green fields of the farm-yard.
Perhaps the earliest recorded member of this family of songs is a number from an opera called The Kingdom of the Birds, published in 1719-1720 in Thomas D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy:
In the Fields in Frost and Snows,
Watching late and early;
There I keep my Father's Cows,
There I Milk 'em Yearly:
Booing here, Booing there,
Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo,
We defy all Care and Strife,
In a Charming Country-Life.
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" Youtube Videos
