Track Listing

1. Fly Through My Window
2. I Had a Rooster
3. Come All You Bold Sailormen
4. Old Grey Mule
5. Alligator, Hedgehog
6. Frog Went A-Courting
7. Raccoon's Got a Bushy Tail
8. I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)
9. Ground Hog
10. Mister Rabbit
11. Grey Goose
12. Teency Weency Spider
13. Old Hen
14. Skip to My Lou
15. My Little Kitty
16. Little Black Bull
17. Leatherwing Bat
18. Keeper and the Doe
19. Darby Ram
20. Mole in the Ground
21. Fox
22. Turtle Dove
23. Old Paint
24. Elephant
25. Foolish Frog
26. Little Dogies
27. Bear Hunt
28. Old Blue

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16317 in Music
• Released on: 1998-02-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Best of
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
Folk music represents the best of Americana, and nobody performs folk music better than Pete Seeger. This charming collection of animal songs, remastered from two Seeger LPs originally recorded in 1955, will delight children and parents alike. Comfortable, well-known titles such as "I Had a Rooster", "Frog Went A-Courting", "Skip to My Lou", and "I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)" allow for great family sing-alongs. This album is an excellent example of the simplicity of traditional folk music, with Seeger's warm, friendly vocals and a single yet finely picked banjo as accompaniment. Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes would be an excellent choice for car trips as well as for feeling right at home in your living room. --Deborah Moore

Customer Reviews

For my children too
My parents borrowed this record from the library and recorded it to casette to listen to on our first long car trip.I was probably four years old. It quickly became a family favorite. Somewhere a long the way the tape was lost. Two decades had passed when just the other day I happend to catch a snippet of Froggie Went A Courtin on a public radio station. All of those memories came flooding back. Now I am buying it for my own children. I don't know what speaks more powerfully for this album than that.

For my children too
My parents borrowed this record from the library and recorded it to casette to listen to on our first long car trip.I was probably four years old. It quickly became a family favorite. Somewhere a long the way the tape was lost. Two decades had passed when just the other day I happend to catch a snippet of Froggie Went A Courtin on a public radio station. All of those memories came flooding back. Now I am buying it for my own children. I don't know what speaks more powerfully for this album than that.

A reminder of my early school days
For me, this is pure nostalgia - it brings back memories of the fifties. It seems from reading other reviews that today's young children get as much pleasure from this music as those of my generation did, although I can't imagine anybody recording music this way now.

I don't remember all the songs, but I recognise several of them. I know an old lady is immediately recognisable from the title, but I recognised others immediately upon hearing them again, including The keeper and the doe - it has the (for me) immortal chorus lines

hey down hoe down derry derry down
among the leaves so green-o.

Of course, in the age we now live, some of these songs are not politically correct and some may not appeal to vegetarians, but I don't ever remember hearing much about vegetarians until the eighties. Before then, there were very few of them around. I don't mind such people, but Pete could hardly have been expected to consider them when these songs were recorded.

I read another review where somebody complained about Pete's imitations of animal noises. I'm sure that a modern recording of such songs would use authentic animal noises, but again, this music must be seen as a product of its time.

So, this is a fun album, not to be taken too seriously, which can be enjoyed by young children, or by adults trying to remember when they were young children themselves.