Bye, baby Bunting
| "Bye, baby Bunting" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song | |
| Language | English |
| Written | England |
| Published | 1784 |
| Songwriter(s) | Traditional |
'Bye, baby Bunting' is a popular English language nursery rhyme and lullaby. ⓘ It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11018.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:
- Bye, baby Bunting,
- Daddy’s gone a-hunting,
- Gone to get a rabbit skin
- To wrap the baby Bunting in.[1]
Origins
The term bunting is a term of endearment that may also imply 'plump'.[1] The earliest published version was published in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus in England in 1784.[1] A version in Songs for the Nursery 1805 had the longer lyrics:
- Bye, baby Bunting,
- Father's gone a-hunting,
- Mother's gone a-milking,
- Sister's gone a-silking,
- Brother's gone to buy a skin
- To wrap the baby Bunting in.[1]
In popular culture
- The rhyme was illustrated by the British artist, Randolph Caldecott (1846–86).
- The dystopian novel Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley contains the adapted reference 'Bye baby Banting, soon you'll need decanting'.
- In "Further Tales of the City" (1982) by Armistead Maupin, Jim Jones sings 'Bye, Baby Bunting' to DeDe's half-Chinese twins, Edgar and Anna. The song is a major leitmotif in both the book and the tv adaptation of 2001.
- A mysterious man summoned during an incantation gone awry in the urban fantasy novel The Magicians (2009) by Lev Grossman recites the rhyme shortly before vanishing again.
- "Each Peach, Pear, Plum" by Janet & Allan Ahlberg includes Baby Bunting as one of the characters "I spy".
- In "The Good, The Bad and the Queen" project, Damon Albarn sings "Bye, baby bunting" in "The Bunting Song".
- A variation of the song appeared frequently in the Dark Tower books by Stephen King.
- It was featured on The Walking Dead. The song was arranged by Bear McCreary and performed by Raya Yarbrough.[2]
- it was featured in the book "Daddy's Gone A-Hunting" by Mary Higgins Clark.
- it was featured in Phantom 2040 in the episode "Ghost in the machine".
- it is also featured in the independent Canadian horror classic Black Christmas (1974), as sung by the killer living in the attic of an all-girl sorority house.
- In Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre episode Rumpelstiltskin the queen played by Duvall is singing the song while rocking her child.