Origin of the Song “Little Green Frog”

I learned this song from one of my kid’s babysitters. The version I know goes like this:

Little Green Frog (composer unknown)

Mmm mmm went the little green frog one day
Mmm mmm went the little green frog
Mmm mmm went the little green frog one day
And they all went mmm mmm ahhh!!

We all know frogs go ladedadeda
ladedadeda ladedadeda
We all know frogs go ladedadeda
ladedadeda ladedadeda
They don’t go mmm mmm ahh.

I have also heard this text:

Little Green Frog (composer unknown)

Gang Goon went the little green frog one day
Gang Goon went the little green frog
Gang Goon went the little green frog one day
And they all went (not sure here)!!

We all know frogs go ladedadeda
ladedadeda ladedadeda
We all know frogs go ladedadeda
ladedadeda ladedadeda

They don’t go Gang Gang Goon.

It seems all the young children in my neck of the woods now know this song. This song was not around when I was a kid. Who wrote is?

Where did it come from ? Did some anonymous daycare writer come up with it and never claim it as their own?
It is a great song and would love to know where it came from.

The song itself actually makes no sense at all as I have never heard of a frog going “ladi dadi da”. For some reason the actions that go with the second half of the song (clapping hands and waving them like a Al Jolson) reminds me of a loony tunes cartoon I saw as a kid with a man who had a from who would sing a song that went “hello my baby, hello my darlin’, hello my ragtime, ragtime girl” when nobody was looking and would do nothing bur croak when around other people.

Anyway I would love it if you guys would leave your versions or stories about this song in the comments:

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Childrens' Music, Music, Song Origins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

36 Responses to “Origin of the Song “Little Green Frog””

1. On May 2, 2007 at 9:21 am cara wrote:

Where I live (in Aus) we sing
GALUMPH went the little green frog one day
GALUMPH…etc etc.

but I don’t think it changes the deep underlying message of the piece too much

2. On May 2, 2007 at 12:38 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Yes I agree. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your variant.

Where did you learn it?

Any idea where it came from?

3. On May 15, 2007 at 5:50 pm Khadeem wrote:

its from “Boom Boom aint it great to be crazy”

A horse and a flea and three blind mice
Sat on a curbstone shooting dice
The horse he slipped and fell on the flea
“Whoops,” said the flea, “There’s a horse on me!”

Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?
Giddy and foolish the whole day through
Boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy?

Way down South where bananas grow
A flea stepped on an elephant’s toe
The elephant cried, with tears in his eyes
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

Way up North where there’s ice and snow
There lived a penguin and his name was Joe
He got so tired of black and white
He wore pink slacks to the dance last night!

Eli, Eli had some socks
A dollar a pair and a nickel a box
The more you wear ‘em the better they get
And you put ‘em in the water and they don’t get wet!

Called myself on the telephone
Just to hear that golden tone
Asked myself out for a date
Said be ready ’bout half-past eight!

Took myself to the picture show
Sat myself on the very last row
Wrapped my arms around my waist
Got so fresh I slapped my face!

4. On May 15, 2007 at 5:52 pm Khadeem wrote:

5. On May 15, 2007 at 6:00 pm Khadeem wrote:

also, a more popular version than both of those

“Gung, gung,” went the
little green frog one day,
“Gung, gung,” went the
little green frog.
“Gung, gung,” went the
little green frog one day,
And his eyes went,
“Aah, aah, gung.”

u can find the complete song with all the different lyrics on itunes -”Little Green Frog” by the countdown kids

6. On May 15, 2007 at 6:02 pm Khadeem wrote:

or the ladeladelada version is also on itunes -by “daniel cook”

anyway, little green frog is a variant from “Boom Boom Ain’t it Great to be Crazy”

7. On May 15, 2007 at 6:05 pm Khadeem wrote:

actually i just figured out out the “Mmm mmm went the little green frog one day” part is from “Boom Boom Ain’t it Great to be Crazy” (tunewise) and then the “We all know frogs go ladedadeda” is from the tune of “THe old grey mare just aint what she used to be”

8. On May 15, 2007 at 7:14 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Khadeem

Thanks for your version. I have heard people sing that one.

Where do you live?

Thanks for the tune references too!! I knew the “Old grey mule” connection but had not figured out where the first half came from.
I will have to look into where “Ain’t it Great to be Crazy” came from.

9. On May 21, 2007 at 1:56 pm Khadeem wrote:

west la

no prob

peace

10. On May 21, 2007 at 1:56 pm Khadeem wrote:

(cali, usa)

11. On May 21, 2007 at 8:22 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Now that I look at it the melody from “Boom Boom” is a bit different than the frog song. At leas how I sing it but is surely could be derived from it. Far as I can tell the author of either song is not known.

12. On June 9, 2007 at 12:03 am folkylist wrote:

I heard it in camp sang by my teenage friends (long ago!). Babies seem to love it and they smile at the mmm mmm part. I also sing a second verse - sss sss went the little green snake one day…..and they all went sss sss ah. But we all know snakes go shoobidoobidoo shoobidoobidoo….

13. On June 9, 2007 at 4:30 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Hi there folkylist,

When is long ago for you? I’d love to know when people started singing this song.

Thanks for the second verse.

14. On July 19, 2007 at 5:32 am Nancy wrote:

I haven’t been able to find the rest of the lyrics to Boom Boom, ain’t it great to be crazy. One of the verses I remember was this: One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight, A deaf policeman heard the noise, And came and killed those two dead boys.

I went to the YWCA summer camp in about 1947…. that’s where we sang and learned this song.

15. On July 24, 2007 at 8:31 pm sandy wrote:

Hey everyone. This song was my favorite growing up as a child my mother would sing it to me. It has stuck in mind all those years and i now sing it to my child! so its safe to say its been around since 1978!!!!!!! and what a great tune it is!

16. On July 25, 2007 at 9:01 am Mike Whitla wrote:

Sandy

Thanks, for the date on the “Little green Frog” always helps to get a time period when tracking down the origins of a song.

Where did you grow up if you don’t mind me asking?

17. On August 14, 2007 at 7:29 pm Lindsay wrote:

When I was growing up my dad taught this song to me with a few different phrases my version went

Boom boom ain’t it great to be crazy,
Boom boom ain’t it great to be nuts like us!?!?
Silly and foolish all day long boom boom ain’t it great to be crazy!?!?!?

A horse and flea and three blind mice, where out in the barn yard shooting dice when the horsey slipped and he fell on a flea,
The flea yelled out “there’s a horse on me!”

coca cola had the flu, pepsi cola had it too,
Dr. Pepper fixed them up,
Now their drinking seven up.

Papa mosses shot a skunk, mama mosses cooked it up,
Baby mosses ate the skunk, HOLY mosses how he stunk!

oh the childhood memories!!!!

18. On August 15, 2007 at 9:32 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Lindsay

Thanks for your words. Your dad had some good ones.

19. On September 14, 2007 at 11:54 pm Ross wrote:

so… i think it’s something like this…

one bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys went out to fight, they turned around, and faced eachother.. pulled out their knives and shot eachother, a deaf policeman heard the noise, and then he killed those two dead boys…

something like that…

personal fav:

ladels, and gentle spoons, i come before you to stand behind you to tell you something i know nothing about: there will be a mother’s meeting for fathers only next teusday, which is good friday to discuss what color to whitewash the church, the meeting is free, so pay at the door, pull up a chair.. then sit on the floor!

20. On October 25, 2007 at 9:28 pm Kimberly wrote:

One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other drew their swords and shot each other. The deaf policeman heard the noise and came and killed the two dead boys. If you don’t believe this lie is true, just ask the blind man he saw it too!

21. On February 6, 2008 at 4:01 pm Nicola wrote:

Hi there,

I took my 3 month old son to baby bounce today where i heard this song but coudn’t remember the words so i googled it and your blog came up.

Only we did sing boom boom or gung gung we sang …

blur blur went the little green frog. Funny how so many different versions go around. Thank you for your blog i can now carry on singing to my son

22. On April 5, 2008 at 5:17 am Nigel wrote:

Does anyone have the guitar chords for this song? I’d like to play it at our next camp fire (cub scouts).

thanks.

PS: I’ve only heard the galumph version (from Australia)

23. On April 21, 2008 at 6:21 am Kate wrote:

arn’t there more verse to this version with different sounds?

24. On April 21, 2008 at 9:24 am Bec wrote:

I’ve had the little green frog stuck in my head all day but like the previous commenter I couldn’t remember all the words (which makes it even more irritating). Where I live we (Brisbane Australia) we sing “da-glump went the little green frog”. I myself have never heard a frog go “da-glump” or clap and sing “lar-dee da-dee dah”, but as of tonight I have seen a frog wave (”Life in cold blood”)

25. On May 26, 2008 at 3:31 pm Bonnie wrote:

I’m a teenager and when i was younger i used to sing this song too, i had just been happing to look it up, because i was going to teach the kids i babysit some little rymes and songs i liked when i was little!

but when we did it about 10 years ago, i would be around 5 there was another verse at the end it went kinda like this…

BEEP BEEP when a little red car one day,
Squish squash went the litle green frog
BEEP BEEP went the little red car one day,
now he don’t go mmm mmmm ahhhh!

thats like how it went and you end the song with him dying… but its kinda cool thats everyone knows a different version…

26. On June 2, 2008 at 12:38 pm SueBee wrote:

This is the version of the froggy song I’ve always know:

MM-AH WENT THE LITTLE GREEN FROG ONE DAY
MM-AH WENT THE LITTLE GREEN FROG
MM-AH WENT THE LITTLE GREEN FROG ONE DAY
AND HIS EYES WENT GOOGLY-GOO

BUT WE KNOW FROGS GO LA-DI-DA-DI-DA, LA-DI-DA-DI-DA, LA-DI-DA-DI-DA
WE KNOW FORGS GO LA-DI-DA-DI-DA
THEY DON’T GO MM-MM-AH

(SING AGAIN WITH DIFFERENT FROGGY NOISES, LIKE “GALUMPH” AND SO ON)

When you make the froggy noises you also stick out your tongue
When “his eyes went googly-goo” you wiggle your fingers
Clap and wave your hands on the “la-di-da-di-da” parts

27. On June 10, 2008 at 5:29 pm aknan wrote:

“eeh luh” went the little green frog one day
“eeh luh” went the little green frog
honk honk went the big bad truck one day
squish squash went the little green frog.

and his eyes didn’t go “eeh luh” any more,
cause he got all eaten by a dog.
barf barf went the big bad dog one day
out out came the little green frog
and his eyes went “eeh luh eeh”once again
cause he got barfed up by the dog!

28. On June 28, 2008 at 12:53 am Colleen wrote:

I’ve worked in childcare for about 15 years and my coworkers all seem to have a different version of this song. This is the version I originally learned…

Baloop went the little green frog one day
Baloop went the little green frog
Baloop went the little green frog one day
And his eyes went boink, boink, boink

And all the other frogs sang bo-bo-be-oh-dee-oh
Bo-bo-be-oh-dee-oh
Bo-bo-be-oh-dee-oh
And all the other frogs sang bo-bo-be-oh-dee-oh
But one little frog sang ooh-ah, ooh-ah, OOH-OOH-AH-AH

29. On July 15, 2008 at 7:05 pm pinecrest pres camp wrote:

mm-ah went a little green frog one day,
mm-ah went the little green frog,
mm-ah went the little green frog day,
and his eyes went mm-ah too.

all the other frogs go
to-di-odi-odi-o, to-di-odi-odi-o, to-di-odi-odi-o,

all the other frogs go
to-di-odi-odi-o, to-di-odi-odi-o, to-di-odi-odi-o

but this frog goes mm-ah, mm-ah, mm-ah-ah

honk, honk went a big bad truck one day,
squish, squish went the little green frog,
and his eyes didn’t go mm-ah anymore,
cuz he got licked up by a dog,
woof woof

30. On July 24, 2008 at 8:01 pm Kara Gibbins wrote:

My girlscouts today sang:

Umm-At went the little green frog one day
Umm-At went the little green frog

Umm-At went the little green frog one day
and his eyes went umm -at too.

but this frog goes umm-at, umm-at, umm-at at

honk, honk went a big bad truck one day,

split, splat went the little green frog,

and his eyes didn’t go umm- at anymore,
cuz he got licked up by a dog,
woof woof

31. On July 25, 2008 at 4:51 pm Deanna wrote:

My grandma sang this song to me all the time when I was little (I’m 20)
the version she sung was:

GALUMPH went the little green frog one day
GALUMPH went the little green frog
GALUMPH went the little green frog one day
and his eyes went BLUMP BLUMP BLUMP

on the galumphs she would roll the L
on the blumps she would start with her eyes closed and open them really wide (like exaggerated blinks)

32. On August 5, 2008 at 8:18 am Jill Fountain wrote:

Another version of
The Little Green Frog

(while saying aaahhh gooon u close ur eyes then open them wide)

aaahhh gooon went the little green frog one day
aaahhh gooon went the little green frog
aaahhh gooon went the little green frog one day
and his eyes went blah blah blah (while singing last line blug eyes open and stick out tounge)

(little kids love this silly version)

33. On August 5, 2008 at 8:25 am Jill Fountain wrote:

Baby Bumble Bee (and corresponding hand movements)

Im bringing home my baby bumble bee (clup hand together)
Wont my mommy be so proud of me
Im bringing home my baby bumble bee
Ouch! it stung me

Im squishing up my baby bumble bee (slide hands back and forth against each other like squahing a bug)
Wont my mommy be so proud of me
Im squishing up my baby bumble bee
Ewwww! what a mess

Im licking up my baby bumble bee (pretend u are licking ur hand right then left hand)
Wont my mommy be so proud of me
Im licking up my baby bumble bee
Ohhhhh! I dont feel so good

Im throwing up my baby bumble bee (make a hand movement like ur throwing up)
Wont my mommy be so proud of me
Im throwing up my baby bumble bee
Ewwww another mess

Im sweeping up my baby bumble bee (pretend ur sweeping)
Wont my mommy be so proud of me
Im sweeping up my baby bumble bee
Ouch!!!!! Mommy wanst too proud of me!!!

34. On September 16, 2008 at 12:59 am Jennifer wrote:

mm-aah went the little green frog one day
mm-aah went the little green FROG…
mm-aah went the little green frog one day
so we all went mm-mm-aah

we all know frogs go la-d-i-da-di-da
la-d-i-da-di-da
la-d-i-da-di-da
we all know frogs go la-d-i-da-di-da
and not mm-mm-ah

BEEP BEEP went the big bad truck one day
squish squash went the little green frog
we don’t have to worry ’bout the frog no more
’cause is got eaten by a dog.

*sluurp, sluurp, sluurp*
*arrrrrr, arrrrrr, aroooo* (like a howling dog)

35. On September 17, 2008 at 8:39 pm Mike Whitla wrote:

Jennifer

What can I say. Yuck!!!

Thanks for sharing.

36. On September 23, 2008 at 7:11 pm Rick wrote:

Does anyone have the actual music to this song so I can play it on the piano?

Cheers,

Rick

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