Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2019 October 8

= October 8 =

Tune of "Lucy Locket" ("Yankee Doodle" vs. mi-so-la)
Until 1988, the rhyme Lucy Locket had the following melody:

B♭-B♭-C-D-B♭-B♭-A-F

B♭-B♭-C-D-B♭-A

B♭-B♭-C-D-E♭-D-C-B♭

A-F-G-A-B♭-B♭

In 1988, for some reason, the tune was changed to:

so-so-la-la-so-so-mi-mi

so-so-la-la-so-mi

so-so-la-la-so-so-mi-mi

so-so-la-la-so-mi

A Google image search on "Lucy Locket" music reveals different pieces of sheet music; some have the original tune and others have the tune of the 1988-present interval (but the latter kind appears to be more common.) Why did the tune change and do you know of other songs that change tunes for similar reasons?? Georgia guy (talk) 20:22, 8 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Has Yankee Doodle become more popular ? If so, then having two songs with the same tune would be less than optimal. Or, perhaps somebody wanted to copyright it, and setting it to a new tune would allow that. SinisterLefty (talk) 21:26, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
 * If your idea were true, then the same would apply to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Alphabet Song". Both songs still have the same tune. As for the "copyright it" idea, do you know of different songs whose tunes changed for reasons related to copyright?? Georgia guy (talk) 21:55, 8 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Well, there's the related case of the Good Morning Song and the Birthday Song ("Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear ____, happy birthday to you"). Since it used the same tune, and the Good Morning Song preceded it and was granted a copyright, this copyright was extended to the Happy Birthday Song. There were many complications with the copyright, but had it used a different tune, the copyright situation would have been quite different. SinisterLefty (talk) 23:53, 8 October 2019 (UTC)