This song was, first recorded by ‘Lead Belly’ in 1933. Though I have sung this song at many an all-ages singalong, the Leadbelly lyrics are really not family friendly. So, I’m going to use the lyrics written by Raffi in the 1970’s that make this more of a children’s lullaby. In Rise Up Singing, this is in the key of E, using the chords E, E7, B and A. E is great on guitar – harder on ukulele, so I’ll use the chords from Daily Ukulele in the key of F.
As part of the 100 Days Ukulele challenge (#100DaysUke2025) I am working on videos of sing along songs that appear in the book Rise Up Singing (many also appear in Daily Ukulele). You can find the whole collection in this playlist, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsMLXfBPSxoEVIE5mAh8V8cFymJVeeqcn, or at https://gooddayswithkids.com/2025/03/03/singalong-songs-on-ukulele/
0:00 Intro
0:55 Chords
1:35 Strum Options
4:53 Melody
5:49 Play-Through
8:10 Alternate Ending