Pop! Goes the Weasel
Pop! Goes the Weasel
All around the mulberry bush,
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun.
Pop! goes the weasel.
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle.
That’s the way the money goes.
Pop! goes the weasel.
Up and down the City Road,
In and out of the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes.
Pop! goes the weasel.
Half a pound of tuppenney rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Award Winning Children's Music Lesson Series
Characters from famous nursery rhymes are recast as hip musicians that introduce your child to the world of musical instruments. Imagine the Itsy Bitsy Spider as a groovy piano player or the Three Blind Mice as a rock trio and you'll begin to get the idea. Groove Kid Nation provides a fresh new approach to introducing children to music.
Origin
“Pop Goes the Weasel” seems to have started out as a popular English dance in the 1850s, making its way to the United States around the same time and published as, “Pop goes the Weasel for Fun and Frolic.” Many different versions of the lyrics exist, all with stanzas ending the same way, and all sung to the same country dance tune (which itself dates back to the late 18th century). The meaning of the phrase “pop goes the weasel” has been interpreted as an English pawnshop transaction, a tailor’s flat iron, and a counting shuttle used in weaving, among many others. Since there is no significant evidence to support any one theory, it has been suggested that even in the 1850s, no one really knew what the phrase meant.
