Animal Fair (song)


Animal Fair is a traditional folk song and children's song. As early as 1898, it is attested as being sung by American sailors. The song was attested in Life magazine in 1941 as a cadence of soft shoe tap dancing.

Lyrics

The version attested in 1898 has the following lyrics:
Other versions substituted "the old raccoon" for "the little raccoon", while modern recordings use "the big baboon". "The monkey he got drunk" can be replaced with "The monkey fell out of his bunk", "The monkey bumped the skunk", "You ought to have seen the monk" or "You should have seen the monk". The Barney & Friends and the Captain Kangaroo versions changed other lyrics as well.
The song may be sung as a round with the last word "monkey, monkey" repeated until the song finishes or the group repeats.

Recordings