Information About & YouTube Examples Of The Singing Game "All Around The Kitchen"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides information about and examples of the African American originated children's singing game "All Around The Kitchen".

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

The Addendum to this post features a picture book with the title "All Around The Kitchen". This sing along storybook is a jazz flavored adaptation of that singing game.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composer of this singing game and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to all those who published these examples on YouTube.
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The two line rhyming verses (couplets) that are found in singing games such as "All Around The Kitchen" are similar to the rhyming patter of square dance callers. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/square-dance-caller-researcher-phil.html for Part I of a two part series on the African influence on American square dance.

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INFORMATION ABOUT AND LYRICS FOR THE SINGING GAME "ALL AROUND THE KITCHEN"
This is an amended version of a comment that I wrote in 2007 on the Mudcat folk music forum in response to a query about the singing game "All Around The Kitchen". I've added some additional verses to the ones that I shared in 2007 and have also added and reformatted the performance direction comments.

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=104001 Lyr Add:: all around the kitchen cock-a-doodle [Lyr=Lyrics; Add=Additions]

"Oh!! I like that song! I sang this song with my children when they were litte, and they loved it. And I've used it as part of my repertoire of children's songs at the Alafia Children's Ensemble after-school groups that I facilitated for children 5-12 years old. In addition, I've included it in my repertoire of movement songs for children at summer camps, I encouraged the teen camp aides and adults camp counselors {leaders of specific groups whose roles are somewhat like teachers} to join in the performance of this song. And many of them enjoyed do so.

"All Around The Kitchen" is a call & response song which is improvisational and open ended, so you can use any rhyming couplets that you want which give movement directions.

Here's the words that I usually use for this singing game:

ALL AROUND THE KITCHEN

Chorus:
Leader: All around the kitchen
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do

Leader: All around the kitchen
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do

Verse 1
Leader: Now you stop right still
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: Put your hands on your hips
Everyone: Cock-a-doodle doodle do
Leader: And let your right foot slip
Everyone: Cock-a-doodle doodle do

Chorus

Verse 2
Leader: Now you stop right still
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: And you turn around
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: Then you touch the ground
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do

Chorus

Verse 3:
Leader: Now you stop right still
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
And you touch your toes
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Then you touch your nose
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do

Chorus

Verse 4
Leader: Now you stop right still
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: Put your hand on your ear.
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: And leave it right there
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do

Verse 5
Leader: Now you stop right still
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: Put your hands in the sky
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
Leader: And wave them up high
Everyone: Cock-a-doddle doodle do
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The leader can repeat any verse that she (or he) chooses to whenever she (or he) wants to.

DIRECTIONS:
Participants stand in a vertical line with a designated leader in front. That person leads the group in strutting in an often zig zag motion around the room or the designated play area while she (or he) and the rest of the group sings the chorus.

On the words "cock-a-doodle-do" the entire group imitates a rooster by acting like they have wings (put their right hand and their left hand in their arm pits and move them up and down to the beat).

When the leader sings "Now you stop right till", everyone stops in place.

The leader sing the rhyming command, and demonstrates how to do that command. The rest of the group then copies the leader's "motion".

The leader starts moving around the room again and everyone in the line follows her (or him).

Everyone sings "cock-a-doodle do" and moves their arms up and down like a rooster.

This pattern continues until the leader ends the singing game.

Additional notes:
"Let your right foot slip" is found in versions of "Little Sally Walker"("Little Sally Waters") and some other African American originated singing games.

Here's how I taught this motion
Stand still and then (on the beat)
1.extend your right foot out in front of you & touch the ground with your right toe
2. remain facing forward but point your toe right in back of you
3. moving your right foot back to its original position next to the left foot.
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In another comment on that same discussion thread, I wrote that
"Given its call & response, improvisational, and open-ended format, I think [that "All Around The Kitchen"] is of African American origin.

The use of that "let your right foot slip" verse also leads me to believe that All Around the Kitchen is of African American origin-or we took adopted it from elsewhere and made it our own."
-snip-
I also noted in that discussion that the after school children's group that I founded and the special programming sessions where I performed (in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area) were predominately attended by African Americans. However, no one knew this song or this "let your right foot slip" movement command.
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I learned "All The Kitchen" when I was a child from Mrs. Janie Owens, a Vacation Bible School teacher who shared this singing game (and the "In The River On The Bank" movement game) with the children who attended that church summer program. Mrs. Owens said that she learned these games when she was a child in the South (if I recall correctly, I think she said that she was from Georgia.)

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Here are three other comments from that Mudcat discussion thread:

Subject: RE: Folklore: all around the kitchen cock-a-doodle
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 08:54 AM

"Hi all ... here's a little background for the song as far as I know it.

"All Around In the Kitchen" was its title when this ring game song was recorded in 1940 by John A. and Ruby T. Lomax in the countryside near York, Alabama. I believe that is its first appearance, I don't know of any earlier version.

Ruth Crawford Seeger published it in American Folk Songs for Children in 1948, and it got into a lot of school music curriculums because that book was widely circulated among educators. She dropped the word "In" from the title for whatever reason.

Pete Seeger recorded it in the early 1950s on a Folkways album for children, also as "All Around the Kitchen." This gave it even more circulation. That's where I learned it. Hooray for LP records. :)

Bob"

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Subject: RE: Folklore: all around the kitchen cock-a-doodle
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 08:58 AM

"And Azizi, I should add that the song was sung by a group of African-American children, which confirms your opinion. Bob"

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Subject: RE: Folklore: all around the kitchen cock-a-doodle
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 09:28 AM

"Bob Coltman wrote:
"Ruth Crawford Seeger published it in American Folk Songs for Children in 1948, and it got into a lot of school music curriculums because that book was widely circulated among educators."

Mike & Peggy Seeger have recorded an album (now a 2XCD set) of the songs in this book, including "All Around The Kitchen".

This is certainly one of my favourite albums - it got us through so many long-distance car journeys with our son, who now has his own band. I wonder how many of these songs will eventually crop up in punky-ska versions?

Norman"

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1: All Around The Kitchen



David Nicholson, Uploaded on May 2, 2009

Willow Creek Elemenatry, Centennial Colorado. 1st Graders Spring Music Program. April 30, 2009.

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Example #2 Dan Zanes and Friends- All Around the Kitchen



Dan Zanes, Uploaded on Jun 1, 2010

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Example #3: All Around the Kitchen



dpcinva, Published on Jun 10, 2014

MPTS Kindergarten Program - June 2014

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Example #4: Pete Seeger-All Around the Kitchen



UltimateSerge, Published on Mar 13, 2013

On American Folk, Game and Activity Songs for Children. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED

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ADDENDUM: All Around the Kitchen Singalong Storybook Trailer



Music Together, Published on Nov 4, 2013

Dance "All Around the Kitchen" with a singing rooster, pots and pans, potatoes and pancakes�and see peanut butter and jelly fall in love!

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Categories: African American influence on square dancing African American singing games Alafia Children's Ensemble let your right foot slip

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Book Excerpt About The Evolution From Group Dancing To Couples Dancing In The United States (from the book "Jazz Dance: The Story Of American Vernacular Dances" )

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides an excerpt from the book Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns (first edition published in 1968; second edition published in 1994).

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the memory of early African American dance inventors, dancers, song composers, and singers. Thanks also to Thomas W. Talley for his collection of African American folk songs and dances, and thanks to Marshall and Jean Stearns for their research and writing. And thanks to all others who are quoted in this post.

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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/10/la-pas-ma-la-songs-dance.html for an earlier pancocojams post on the "Pas Ma La" dance.

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/square-dance-caller-researcher-phil.html for Part I of a two part series on the African influence on American square dance.

Additional pancocojams posts that are related to this post on early African American dancing can be found by clicking the tags that are given below.

Pancocojams Editor's note:
Some of the song lyrics that are found in this post are written in dialect and contain the referent that is commonly referred to as "the n word". As per the policy of this blog, that word isn't fully spelled out in this post.

Also, note that the 1968 Jazz Dance book uses either the referent "Afro-American" or "Negro" for the population now referred to as "African American". Neither "Afro-American" nor "Negro" are currently used as referents for this population.

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Pancocojams Editor:
The Jazz Dance chapter that is partially quoted in this pancocojams post refers to the song "Jonah's Band" which is featured in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes. Here's that song (given "as is" except for an abbreviation for the "n word")

JONAH'S BAND SONG

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!

"Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right!
We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!

"Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat Mobile Buck in de eye."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!

"Stan' up, flat foot, Jump dem Bars!
Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!

�Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int;
Dat Ni**er don't know how to Coonjaint."


From https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27195/27195-h/27195-h.htm Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise and Otherwise, by Thomas W. Talley (1922), Page 1

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BOOK EXCERPT: JAZZ DANCE: THE STORY OF AMERICAN VERNACULAR DANCES
by Marshall Stearns & Jean Stearns
From Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0306805537; Chapter Title: The Tin Pan Alley And Song Lyrics

Page 99

"At an early date lyrics were created to go with dances. �The Dance Rhyme was derived from the dance.� wrote Thomas W. Talley in 1922

Page 100

and-as in the similar example of the Juba discussed in Chapter 4- illustrates his point with a dance called Jonah�s Band.

"First of all be it known that there is a �step� in dancing, originated by some Negro somewhere called the �Jonah�s Band step��The dancers form a circle placing two or more of their skilled dancers in the middle of it�Some dance leaders, for example simple call out in simple prose- �Dance the �Mobile Buck�, others calling for another step would rhyme their call.�

The chorus of the song consists of the repetition of the line �Setch a kickin up san�. Jonah�s Ban�!� to a Charleston rhythm at which point all the dancers execute the same step.

Before each of three choruses other steps are introduced.

"Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right!
We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."

"Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat Mobile Buck in de eye."

"Stan' up, flat foot, [1]Jump dem Bars!
Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."

�Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int;
Dat Ni**er don't know how to Coonjaint."

The Karo and Jump Dem Bars seem to have disappeared without a trace, although the latter is self-explanatory, and a flat-footed bar-jump is typically Afro-American. Old-timers say that the Mobile Buck is an ancestor of the common Buck, which evolved into the Time Step, while the prolific Coonjaint-once a rhythmic shuffle performed by roustabouts loading riverboats and a dance observed in Congo Square-later became identified with the tune of a children�s play-party song (�I love coffee, I love tea...).

In its early folk form the dance song with instructions is a group dance performed in a circle with a few �experts� in the center-and the emphasis is on what they do. An apparently unlimited number of locally known steps are inserted and improvised upon by the experts. The entire performance is held together by the chorus of dancers forming the circle and executing the steps that gives the dance its title. The description of inserted dances is brief if it occurs at all (in the Juba, the inserted steps are merely named) and little editorializing as to its purported origin, nature, or popularity-gimmicks that became common later, when the dances were commercialized.

A transitional dance-song entitled �La Pas Ma La� (Isaac Goldberg says that phrase comes from the French pas mele*, or mixed step) was published in 1865-perhaps the dance introduced by Ernest Hogan and his Georgia Graduates as the Pasmala. As one of the early efforts to combine folk steps with topical dances of the time, the �Pas Ma La� describes its title step in the chorus

Hands on your head, let your mind roll far,

Page 101

Back, back, back, and look at the stars.
Stand up rightly, dance it brightly.
That�s the Pas Ma La.

Old-timers recall the step clearly. �It was a comedy dance,� says Walter Crumbley. �You walked forward and then hopped back three steps with your knees bent� as the directions �back, back, back� indicate. The hand on hand and mind-rolling appear to be optional variations.

The �Pas Ma La� was sometimes confused with an animal dance, which may have added to its survival, for by 1898 a song entitled �The Possum-a-la� was published, one of a series of dance-songs that popped up with titles such as �The Possum Trot� around 1910. �The Possum Trot� says Perry Bradford �was a dance which consisted of a series of fast, flat hops.� Here, the folk tradition which favored a flat-footed style, seems to have become stronger, while blending with the Tin Pan Alley version.

Again, other steps are introduced before each chorus in four verses of the �Pas Ma La�
Fus yo� say �My ni**ah get yo gun
Shoot-a dem ducks an away you run.
Now my little coon come-a and dance the shute
With the Saint-a Louis pass and Chicago Salute.

The literal direction in the first two lines in which the dancer acts out the shooting of a duck is typical of many vernacular dances and finds an analogue in a rock and roll dance of the early nineteen sixties: The Peter Gunn: emulating a fast-shooting private eye on television. The Saint Louis pass and Chicago Salute are apparently topical concoctions of Tin Pan Alley references to the World�s Fairs.

Another introductory quatrain contains references to three more dances which are better known:
Fus yo� say �My ni**ah, Bumbishay
Then turn �round and go the other way
To the World�s Fair and do the Turkey Trot
Do not dat coon tink he look very hot.

The various spellings of Bumbishay (mentioned along with the Eagle Rock, the Mooche, and Hootchy-Ma-Cootch-which is the Congo Grind- in pianist Jelly Roll Morton�s �Animule Ball�) was known in New Orleans, according to Paul Barbarin, as the �Fanny Bump�- which needs no explanation. Going to the World�s Fair was a strut (�you put both feet together and move forward on your toes� says Ida Forsyne), while the appearance of the Turkey Trot here, about fifteen years before it became a hit in New York, suggest that it came from the folk.

In spite of the atrocious dialect and Jim Crow sentiments, the lyrics of �Pas Ma La� reveal the nature of the changes taking place in the dance-

page 102
sing as it became commercialized. It is clearly no longer a group dance with improvised soloists, but rather a couple dance with fixed steps in definite order. Although the verse names new steps, and the chorus describes the main step, the aim is to sell the dance.

During the early teens and after, the dance-song with instructions multiplied rapidly, and a few, chiefly Negro composers, drew upon folk resources. These few became more influential than their numbers indicate, for although their popularity was limited at first to the Negro public, they gradually-as in the case of �Ballin The Jack�-reached a white audience. This led the way to the more enduring dances of the twenties and thirties that are often named and sometimes described in the earlier dance songs Tin Pan Alley was contributing indirectly to the surfacing of vernacular dance movements.
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*This French word was written with accent marks.

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Categories: African American influence on square dancing Juba Pas Ma La Thomas W Talley Negro Folk Rhymes Turkey Trot

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