On Top of Spaghetti
| "On Top of Spaghetti" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Sharon and the Lollipops | |
| Published | 1962 |
| Composer(s) | music from "On Top of Old Smoky" |
| Lyricist(s) | Sharon Ruth, Philip Anders |
"On Top of Spaghetti" is a ballad and children's song with the best-known performance by folk singer Tom Glazer with the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus in 1963. The song is sung to the tune of "On Top of Old Smoky". It is the tale of a meatball that was lost when "somebody sneezed". The song discusses what happened to the meatball after it fell off of a pile of spaghetti and rolled away.
In 1961, to the same tune, Dick Biondi, The 9-Midnight DJ on WLS Chicago (1960–63), had recorded on IRC[1] "The Pizza Song". In 1962[2] Sharon and the Lollipops recorded "On Top of Spaghetti" with a lyric credit to Sharon Ruth.[3] It was released in June 1962 and reviewed by Billboard in its Limited Sales Potential column in June 23 of that year.[4] A version in Swedish was released in 1962 by Snopporna.[5]
Tom Glazer with the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus, extended version was released on Kapp in 1963 with a contradictory lyric credit to Tom Glazer, but no publishing references were noted on the release labels.[6] That version reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.[7]
References
- ^ "On Top of a Pizza". 45cat. 1961. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ "On Top of Spaghetti". 45cat. 1962. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ 1:36 version on Versatile 112, published by Luristan Music Inc., registered through ASCAP
- ^ "Billboard 23 June 1962 Page 38". Billboard. 1962. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ "Ta Hit Spettekagan". 45cat. 1962. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ "On Top of Spaghetti". 45cat. 1963. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ https://top40weekly.com/1963-all-charts/
Further reading
- Archive of CNN.com article discussing Glazer and this song at the Wayback Machine (archived June 11, 2008)
- Rise Up Singing, page 175