Song Lyric Sunday: Twinkling

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\relative c' { \key c \major \time 4/4 c4 c4 g'4 g4 a4 a4 g2 | f4 f4 e4 e4 d4 d4 c2 \break g'4 g4 f4 f4 e4 e4 d2 | g4 g4 f4 f4 e4 e4 d2 \break c4 c4 g'4 g4 a4 a4 g2 | f4 f4 e4 e4 d4 d4 c2 \bar "|." } \addlyrics { Twin -- kle, twin -- kle, lit -- tle star, how I won -- der what you are! Up a -- bove the world so high, like a dia -- mond in the sky. Twin -- kle, twin -- kle, lit -- tle star, how I won -- der what you are! }

 

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim has taken on a suggestion from Di, of the pensitivity 101 blog, that we play songs based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales – his post tells all. Given my love for, and knowledge of, folk music my first thought was that I’d be spoiled for choice on this one, but then the penny dropped: all those folk tales which have been handed down through the centuries aren’t fairy tales, are they, so I had to rule them out to stay true to the suggestion. I did a fair amount of searching but nothing really stood out for me, and then I had my lightbulb moment: why not play an actual nursery rhyme? So that’s precisely what I’m doing:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is an English lullaby with lyrics from an early 19th century poem – The Star – written by Jane Taylor. This was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is now sung to the tune of the French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, which was first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart. The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known, so in the spirit of SLS I’m giving you the full poem, just to prove that this recording is the whole thing!

 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the trav’ller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often thro’ my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

‘Tis your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the trav’ller in the dark:
Tho’ I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

 

The version I played is, as you saw, by The Hound + The Fox, information about whom is a little hard to come by – even their own Facebook page doesn’t reveal their names! What I have found is that they are McKenzie and Reilly Zamber, a husband and wife duo from Grants Pass, Oregon. They have been making records together for around eight years, and also produce their own videos: they make videos for others, too, including for the likes of Pentatonix. They sell their CDs direct, and are also available on Apple Music/iTunes and Spotify.

This is from their sixth and most recent album, Star Songs: Lullabies For The Whole Family, which came out in early 2023. They had previously released an album of lullabies for children, hence the extension of the title of this one. They make beautiful music – both their own songs and a wide range of covers (Blink-182, anyone?) – and McKenzie in particular is blessed with the most beautiful voice. But then I have always been a sucker for beautiful female vocals, haven’t I! That’s not to downplay Reilly’s role in the partnership – his voice blends well with his wife’s. I have played them several times before and they are always well received, and I hope you will have enjoyed this one from them too. It is only three months or so until December hits us, and you may well be seeing them a couple of times in my seasonal posts during that month!

That would have been where I left it today, but I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun from a version of this song which was on my favourite album by one of my favourite bands. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The St. Eleye Primary School Junior Choir:

St. Eleye, I hear you ask – who was he? As the video has made clear, there is no such saint, and that was Steeleye Span having a bit of fun with a song in the way that they often did on their albums and in concert, hence the attribution they gave to the ‘performers’ in the sleeve notes. But they only did the first verse version! This was on their sixth album, Now We Are Six, which was released in March 1974. It was produced by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, although he admitted that his part in the making of the album was minimal except for a little supervision and the invitation to David Bowie to play the saxophone on the album’s other novelty track, a version of the old Phil Spector song, To Know Him Is To Love Him.

I think that is about all the mileage I can stretch out of a nursery rhyme, so I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your day. I hope to see you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊🎶

54 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Twinkling”

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    • I don’t think many know more than the first verse! Their harmonies are lovely and they have made so many nice videos too. The second one was a bit of fun, from a band who were known for it. I have seen them play it live, many years ago. Their version of Buddy Holly’s Rave On is in the same vein, also great seen live 😊

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      • I love the way Tim Hart mimicked the catch in Buddy’s throat, perfectly done. Glad you enjoyed it. They did it as the final encore the first time I saw them live, just the five of them (as they were then) unaccompanied. It brought the house down 😊

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  6. This was one of the first songs I ever remembered. One of the most beautiful songs ever.
    If I would have participated I probably would have done The Beatles song Cry Baby Cry….it’s based off a fairy tale that I don’t know…called “Sing a Song of Sixpence”. I already did it around a month or two ago though.

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