Apples and Bananas

"Apples and Bananas"
Song
Genre Children's
Writer Traditional
Recorded by Raffi, Barney

"Apples and Bananas" or "Oopples and Boo-noo-noos"[1] is a traditional[2] North American children's song that plays with the vowels of words. The first verse usually begins unaltered:

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.

The following verses replace most or all vowels with one given vowel sound, usually each of the long vowels sounds of ⟨a⟩ (/eɪ/), ⟨e⟩ (/iː/), ⟨i⟩ (/aɪ/), ⟨o⟩ (/oʊ/), and ⟨u⟩ (/uː/), although potentially any English vowel can be used. For example:

Ay lake tay ate, ate, ate ayples aind baynaynays.
Ay lake tay ate, ate, ate ayples aind baynaynays.

/eɪ leɪk teɪ eɪt eɪt eɪt ˈeɪpəlz eɪnd beɪˈneɪneɪz/
/eɪ leɪk teɪ eɪt eɪt eɪt ˈeɪpəlz eɪnd beɪˈneɪneɪz/

Raffi, a Canadian musician, released a version of the song on his album One Light, One Sun (1985). Raffi's version only changed the vowels in "eat", "apples", and the last 2 syllables of "bananas". The song was described as one of several "old favorites" by the Ottawa Citizen in 1984.[3] The song was also sung on three early episodes of the children's television program Barney & Friends, as well as on Rock with Barney, the final video in the predecesor series Barney & the Backyard Gang. As with Raffi, Barney's version also only changed the vowels in "eat", "apples", and the last 2 syllables of "bananas".

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Smith, John A. The Reading Teacher, Vol. 53, No. 8, May 2000. "Singing and songwriting support early literacy instruction". Accessed 10 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "One Light, One Sun", AllMusic.com.
  3. ↑ Ottawa Citizen. "Entertainers promise music, magic, mimicry". May 29, 1984, p. 43. Retrieved on July 3, 2014.
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