School assembly songs? (Nostalgia)

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  • parsleyisfunparsleyisfun Posts: 4,164
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    I had completely forgotten about this one. Only after reading the lyrics to the tune of the Skye Boat Song did it come back to me! Another one for my list, thanks! :)


    The thread hasn’t been replied to in over two years! There are probably teenagers on here who are nostalgic about this thread from their “childhood”! :D

    Present and accounted for :D

    Whaaat, we don't do hymns in secondary school, and I'm feeling nostalgic about those primary school days - especially seeing as I'm leaving secondary school for college in September :cry:
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    We didnt do hymns in secondary school either.

    But reading some posts here I remember "Everybody's Building" (can't remember the tune though?) "Court of King Keractacus" (sp?) - you can't beat a bit of Rolf! :D And definitely "Found a Peanut" :o I always knew the lyric as "Found a peanut just now" but our school would sing "Over there" :o

    Anyone know the proper words to "When a Knight Won his Spurs"? I know the parody "Headmasters' Hymn" so well I've forgotten them! ;)
  • marc822marc822 Posts: 3,118
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    We used to sing

    Nowhere Man
    Yesterday
    From the tiny ant - Year above did the echo part
    mamas taking us to the zoo tomorrow song

    Then a few of those ones you mentioned in the first post.
  • mimicolemimicole Posts: 50,911
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    I remember
    I Can Sing A Rainbow
    Kum Ba Yah
    Puff The Magic Dragon

    I loved assembly, despite not being religious, I love(d) singing. :D:o
  • Grand DizzyGrand Dizzy Posts: 7,369
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    My list so far of songs I used to sing:

    Christian:
    • All Things Bright And Beautiful
    • Morning Has Broken
    • We Plough The Fields And Scatter
    • Lord of the Dance
    • He's Got the Whole World In His Hands
    • Give Me Joy in My Heart (Oil in my Lamp) (Sing Hosanna)
    • Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
    • Make Me a Channel/Instrument of Your Peace
    • Kum Ba Yah
    • Think of A World Without Any Flowers
    • He Gave Me Eyes So I Could See (I've Got To Tell It To The World: He Made Me)
    • The Animals Went In Two By Two Hurrah!
    • Who Built The Ark?
    • Rise and Shine And Give God His/The Glory (Children of the Lord)
    • This Little Light of Mine
    • The Magic Penny (Love is something if you give it away)
    • Amazing Grace
    • When a knight won his spurs
    • This Train Is Bound For Glory
    • We Shall Overcome
    • Michael Row the Boat Ashore
    • Keep Me Travelling Along With You
    • Love Is Flowing Like A River
    • This Is The Day
    • O Lord all the world belongs to you
    • Everybody's Building (Day By Day)
    • When I Needed A Neighbour (Were you there?)
    • The Family of Man
    • Praise Him, Praise Him, All The Little Children
    • Stand Up, Clap Hands, Shout "Thank You Lord"
    • The Journey of Life (Will You Ride, Ride, Ride)
    • Hand Me Down (That Silver Trumpet Gabriel)
    • Spirit Of God (tune of the Skye Boat Song)

    Non Christian:
    • I Can Sing A Rainbow
    • A Little Peace (by Nicole)
    • He's Football Crazy, He's Football Mad
    • My Grandfather's Clock
    • Puff the Magic Dragon
    • The Ink Is Black The Page is White
    • Little Boxes
    • Apusskidu
    • The Streets of London
    • When I'm 64
    • She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes
    • Any Dream Will Do

    Anyone remember a song that ends in the words “living God” (or something similar to that) said quite slowly?
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    I wasnt/am not religious but I remember a lot of the Christian songs there.
    The Family of Man
    Lord of the Dance (doesnt that hymn only date back to the 1960's?)
    We Plough The Fields and Scatter
    Sing Hosana
    Who Built the Ark?
    The Animals Went In Two By Two (Hurrah Hurrah)
    Keep Me Travelling Along With You
    When a Knight Won his Spurs

    I also remember in Autumn we used to sing:
    It's Harvest Time ("The farmer gathers his hay today...")
    Autumn Days (We used to "chant" the "win for my home team" part).

    I sang Puff The Magic Dragin and I Can Sing a Rainbow as well. I vaguely remember Little Boxes.

    Isnt "The Ink Is Black, The Page is White" from Black and White by Greyhound?
  • birdonawirebirdonawire Posts: 1,028
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    I wonder if any one can help me. I have been trying to find a song for about 3 years, that I remember from my childhood, it would have been in the 1950’s. I was born in 1952.
    I am not sure if it is a Christian song or not, but I am pretty sure it came from America. I think I used to sing it at Sunday school. I can not be sure I have the right lyrics but here goes, probably not in the right order though.

    I think the chorus is

    I’ll take a hand full of sunshine and lock it in my heart,
    Lock it in my heart,
    To scare away the ducks
    I’ll buy some smiles to give away,
    But I will never part
    With that hand full of sunshine in my heart.

    Jonny was a little boy who spent his time in bed
    When asked what he would like to do
    This is what he said
    Lets play this room is but a store
    Where folks come in to buy…….(forgotten the rest)
    Chorus again (think)

    Worth a try, I have exhausted my searches on the internet, think I am obsessed with finding it though.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 68,508
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    My list so far of songs I used to sing:

    I helped to write one of those...:o
  • tellytart1tellytart1 Posts: 3,684
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    Adding to the list we used to sing:

    Guide Me O Though Great Redeemer
    If I Had A Hammer
    Onward Christian Soldiers
  • TinpotTinpot Posts: 2,731
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    There is a green hill far away without a city wall.

    I can't Google it. That's the only line I remember. I only remember it because it used to creep me out. It was very sombre and eerie.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    We had a good few in Primary School and Secondary, our Primary was more Anglican so we had better hymns than my current secondary (Catholic) which has pretty rubbishy assembly songs.

    Some of my favourites:

    Primary
    - Give God the Glory
    - All Things Bright and Beautiful
    - Calon Lan
    - World in Union
    - Shine Jesus Shine
    - Sing Hosanna
    - Love Shine a Light

    Secondary
    - We are One in the Spirit

    There was also a Welsh one I liked, and it would go on and you'd sing it quickly, something like oh mor dda you ein ddewm something like that. :D
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    Love Shine a Light?! You don't mean the UK Eurovsion winner from 1997?
    That's actually superb, one of the best Eurovision songs ever IMO :o
  • Speak-SoftlySpeak-Softly Posts: 24,737
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    Tinpot wrote: »
    There is a green hill far away without a city wall.

    I can't Google it. That's the only line I remember. I only remember it because it used to creep me out. It was very sombre and eerie.

    There is a green hill far away,
    Without a city wall,
    Where our dear lord was cruxified,
    He died to save us all.

    We do not know, we cannot tell
    What pains he had to bear,
    But all we know it was for us,
    He died and suffered there.

    There's a lot more verses but I rarely remember them because I was in the orchestra from about age 6 so we only ever saw the words of the first verse printed under the score.

    Good tune this one and I liked the slightly macabre feeling behind it, it certainly revels in spelling out the story.:o
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,139
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    We had this great one with a really dark beginning which we used to properly over-dramatise, it went:

    WHEN is he coming, when oh WHEN is he coming?
    The redeeeeeeeeeee.......MER!
    WHEN is he coming, when oh WHEN is he coming?
    The redeeeeeeeeeee.......MER!

    Then there was a real tone change for like the chorus, which we still used to really ham up, it was all joyous and emotional and daft:

    Come oh come from your kingdom up there!
    From your kingdom up high above!
    Come oh come to your people on Earth!
    To your people on Earth, bring lo...ove!

    Emmanuel! (Emmanuel!)
    Emmanuel! (Emmanue-eh-eh-eh-el)
    Eee-mah-ah-ah...new-oo-oo-el!

    Oh I loved that one. :D

    There was this quite nice one as well:

    There lived a man,
    Who walked by Galilee,
    There lived a man,
    Who longed for harmony,
    And the things he said were beautiful
    And the things he did were wonderful
    And they wanted us to follow in his ways.

    The heavens rang with his cry,
    High on Calvary Hill,
    And though they left him to die,
    He lives still. (Nice high note there.)

    There lived a man,
    Who lived for you and me,
    There live a man,
    Who knew his destiny
    And the things he said were beautiful
    And the things he did were wonderful
    And he wanted us to follow in his name.

    That one was lovely. :)

    Then there was Sing a New song, although we cut the title out for some reason:

    Sing, sing, unto the Lord
    May your song be sung,
    From mountains high!
    Sing, sing, unto the lord,
    Singing Alleluia!

    Yahweh's children dance for joy,
    O come before the Lord,
    And play your song on glad tambourines,
    Let your trumpet sound!

    I loved singing that one, I really hammed it up again. I was one hammy child, to be honest. There was also:

    Let there be love shared among us,
    Let there be love in our eyes,
    May now your love sweep this nation,
    Cause us o Lord, to arise!
    Give us a fresh understanding,
    Brotherly love that is real,
    Let there be love shared among us,
    Let there be love.

    Let there be peace shared among us,
    Let there be peace in our eyes,
    May now your peace sweep this nation,
    Cause us o Lord, to arise!
    Give us a fresh understanding,
    Brotherly love that is real,
    Let there be peace shared among us,
    Let there be peace.

    Let there be joy shared among us...

    That one had nice chords too. :) Oh and this one, it was very solemn:

    Take me, Lord, use my life in the way you wish to do.
    Fill me Lord. Touch my heart till it always thinks of you.
    Take me now, as I am. This is all I can offer.
    Here today, I the clay will be moulded by my Lord.

    Lord, I pray that each day I will listen to your will.
    Many times I have failed but I know you love me still.
    Teach me now, guide me Lord. Keep me close to you always.
    Here today, I the clay will be moulded by my Lord.

    I am weak. Fill me now with your strength and set me free.
    Make me whole. Fashion me so that you will live in me.
    Hold me now in your hands. Form me now with your Spirit.
    Here today, I the clay will be moulded by my Lord.

    We sang the Fuzzy Wuzzy bear song too. You had to do the actions for the elephants trunk, the wiggly worm, and the fuzzy wuzzy bear (by rumpling your hair up something awful). We also had the jolly little songs like "Jesus went a-walking by the sea-shore" and "Peter and James and John in a sailboat" and such-like.

    Also, in as high a key as you can humanly manage:

    Gloria
    In excelsis deo
    In excelsis de-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ey-ee-o...

    And peace on earth...
    Towards...all...men!

    *exhales...passes out*

    I'm trying to find just about every hymn we did in primary school. I'm really starting to miss it. :D:o
  • Kat1966Kat1966 Posts: 2,553
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    We used to do the really old fashioned ones at Junior School, such as To be a Pilgrim using old blue covered hymn books that were about 20 years old then (Mid '70's).

    The one I always remember singing was during the assembly we had on the very last day of Junior School when we sang I vow to thee my country, I remember this especially because the headmaster had made a little speech about us leavers before we sang it and it was just really touching, realising that this was the last day there and in September we would be at a different school.

    The hymn books we had had songs for all the year round, and we used to love to get to Christmas and sing While shepherds washed their socks by night ~ and wait to see which teacher realised what we were singing first!! Happy days!!
  • Speak-SoftlySpeak-Softly Posts: 24,737
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    Kat1966 wrote: »
    We used to do the really old fashioned ones at Junior School, such as To be a Pilgrim using old blue covered hymn books that were about 20 years old then (Mid '70's).

    The one I always remember singing was during the assembly we had on the very last day of Junior School when we sang I vow to thee my country, I remember this especially because the headmaster had made a little speech about us leavers before we sang it and it was just really touching, realising that this was the last day there and in September we would be at a different school.

    The hymn books we had had songs for all the year round, and we used to love to get to Christmas and sing While shepherds washed their socks by night ~ and wait to see which teacher realised what we were singing first!! Happy days!!

    Sounds like the ones we had.

    Holy, Holy, Holy
    All People That On Earth Do Dwell
    For All The Saints
    He Who Would Valiant Be
    We Plough The Fields And Scatter

    Plus the sections for Easter and Christmas. And to show my age, it was "a bar of sunlight soap came down and they began to scrub".:D
  • Grand DizzyGrand Dizzy Posts: 7,369
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    Enjoying reading all these. Even the ones I don’t remember. It’s interesting, and takes me back.

    Funny, some of those lyrics seem strange and hard to comprehend to me now as an adult, so I don’t know how children were expected to understand some of it!
    I helped to write one of those...:o
    Wow! Really? Which one? (PM me if you don’t want to say publicly.)

    I’m guilty myself. A few years ago I wrote my own hymn for the kids to sing in our church youth group (as well as playing it on the keyboard). I think they enjoyed it. I put a couple of silly bits in where they could get “carried away”, which I always loved to do. It gives me a little bit of satisfaction to think one day they may have fond memories of the song.
    grimtales1 wrote: »
    Love Shine a Light?! You don't mean the UK Eurovsion winner from 1997?
    That's actually superb, one of the best Eurovision songs ever IMO :o
    The chorus always reminded me of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”. Just me? :D
    CABLEDUDE wrote: »
    There was also a Welsh one I liked, and it would go on and you'd sing it quickly, something like oh mor dda you ein ddewm something like that. :D
    Oh, I sang loads of Welsh ones, growing up in Wales. Trouble is, I can’t speak a word of it so I have no idea what I was singing.

    I remember ones about Sion Corn (Father Christmas) at Christmas.
    goonst wrote: »
    We sang the Fuzzy Wuzzy bear song too.
    Funny, that sort of reminds me of a storybook we had in primary school. I can barely remember it, but it had something to do with space, and astronauts, and aliens that were fuzzy, or something like that. Maybe a little boy built a rocket and went to space, or something? (Ring any bells to anyone?)
  • lilhunni_Jolilhunni_Jo Posts: 13,563
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    grimtales1 wrote: »
    Love Shine a Light?! You don't mean the UK Eurovsion winner from 1997?
    That's actually superb, one of the best Eurovision songs ever IMO :o

    ahh I remember doing that one in assembly in primary school. :D hadn't realised it was a eurovision song!

    We had such cool songs in primary, it's all just hymns now...nice tunes, but I do get bored of them. :o
  • GiraffeGirlGiraffeGirl Posts: 13,619
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    goonst wrote: »
    We had this great one with a really dark beginning which we used to properly over-dramatise, it went:

    WHEN is he coming, when oh WHEN is he coming?
    The redeeeeeeeeeee.......MER!
    WHEN is he coming, when oh WHEN is he coming?
    The redeeeeeeeeeee.......MER!

    Then there was a real tone change for like the chorus, which we still used to really ham up, it was all joyous and emotional and daft:

    Come oh come from your kingdom up there!
    From your kingdom up high above!
    Come oh come to your people on Earth!
    To your people on Earth, bring lo...ove!

    Emmanuel! (Emmanuel!)
    Emmanuel! (Emmanue-eh-eh-eh-el)
    Eee-mah-ah-ah...new-oo-oo-el!

    Oh I loved that one. :D

    We do this one at school now - love it :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,143
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    I was cold, I was naked, were you there? were you there? :p - Always got a smile from kids.
    No I musn't forget.
    Sing Hosanna.
    Whole world in his hands.

    I HATED 'Row Row Row Your Boat' in music lessons. I was reminded of it on the BBC adverts for the boatrace not long ago. The teacher would get one line of kids to sing a bit, then the next line would start, then the next (wouldn't be surprised if all schools did this).. Even at that age I wanted to tell the teacher it sounded s***. It wasn't clever and it was just dirge.
  • xmel05xmel05 Posts: 8,079
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    this thread brings back so many memories, i remember the assemblys before certain holidays such as christmas and half term we sung these songs.

    Johnny's lost his marbles
    Swimming in the Swimming Pool

    But my personal favourite was

    How did Moses cross the red sea

    How did Moses cross the Red Sea?
    How did Moses cross the Red Sea?
    How did Moses cross the Red Sea?
    How did he get across?

    Did he swim? No, No
    Did he sail? No, No
    Did he fly? No, No No, No
    Did he run? No, No
    Did he row? No, No
    How did he get across?

    God blew with His wind,
    puff, puff,puff,puff,
    He blew just enough,
    nough,nough,nough,nough,
    And through the sea, He made a path,
    thatís how he got across
  • tauran_shammytauran_shammy Posts: 5,847
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    whats the one about having a knapsack on my back, its got lots of" foldereeee" and "folderaaaaaa"s in it?
  • Speak-SoftlySpeak-Softly Posts: 24,737
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    whats the one about having a knapsack on my back, its got lots of" foldereeee" and "folderaaaaaa"s in it?

    The Happy Wanderer.

    http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/happywanderer.html

    Were you a scout by any chance?:D
  • tauran_shammytauran_shammy Posts: 5,847
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    The Happy Wanderer.

    http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/happywanderer.html

    Were you a scout by any chance?:D

    Oh awesome, well done ty. Yep certainly was a scout. I used to love going on night hikes and building rafts to race.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 514
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    Kat1966 wrote: »
    We used to do the really old fashioned ones at Junior School, such as To be a Pilgrim using old blue covered hymn books that were about 20 years old then (Mid '70's).
    The Come and Praise book?

    http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object/1844/64/n2210712759_30107.jpg

    We had those too. So many songs that people mention here that I remember but not many of them seem to be sung in our school any more.
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