The Clapping Song - Shirley Ellis
Of course, this is the real skipping song. For all the convoluted instructions on clapping, buying into the sixties mania for new dances, it should have been called "the Skipping Song" not "The Clapping Song". This is girls in the playground with a skipping rope right from the first note down to Shirley's distracted delivery of the nonsensical semi nursery rhyme lyrics. You feel that she's only giving half of her attention to singing, as though she's got one end of the rope while her friend is doing the jumping. The whole band is controlled as if they are all watching the jumper, clapping, taking the rhythm from her jumps, counting the numbers, one hundred and one, one hundred and two, one hundred and three, one hundred and four....and they fade away, an eternal vision of innocent childhood, kissed soldier and all.
"Three six nine
the goose drank wine
the monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line
the line broke
the monkey got choked
and they all went to heaven in a little row boat."