“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is an English language nursery rhyme and a popular children’s song. It can also be an “action” nursery rhyme, whose singers sit opposite one another and “row” forwards and backwards with joined hands.
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" Lyrics
The most common modern version is often sung as a round for four voice parts.
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Gently down the stream.
The text above is often sung multiple times in succession to allow for the different voices to interweave with each other, forming four-part harmony.
People often add additional verses, a form of children’s street culture, with the intent of either extending the song or (especially in the case of more irreverent versions) to make it funny, parody it, or substitute another sensibility for the perceived innocent one of the original. Versions include:
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
If you see a crocodile,
Don’t forget to scream.
And:
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Throw your teacher overboard
And listen to her scream.
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" Chords
G Em C G Row, row, row your boat G Em D Gently down the stream G D G C Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily D7 G G Gently down the stream
"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" Origins
It has been suggested that the song may have originally arisen out of American minstrelsy. The earliest printing of the song is from 1852, when the lyrics were published with similar lyrics to those used today, but with a very different tune. It was reprinted again two years later with the same lyrics and another tune. The modern tune was first recorded with the lyrics in 1881, mentioning Eliphalet Oram Lyte in The Franklin Square Song Collection but not making it clear whether he was the composer or adapter.
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