On Top Of Spaghetti

On Top Of Spaghetti

Written (made up to be more accurate) by Davie Elementary School Kids 1957?

The history of On Top Of Spaghetti.

Tom Glazer who died at the age of 88 on February 21, 2003 is remembered as a true American Folk Song Singer and composer. One of the songs he popularized was the kid's song "On top of Spaghetti". He recorded this song along with other songs for kids on an album in 1963. Many Internet sites also credit him with writing this song.

Tom Glazer may have added verses to On Top Of Spaghetti, however it is very likely a group of kids attending a summer arts and craft camp in 1957 actually made up the original verses, 6 years before Tom Glazer recorded It.

The town of Davie is in Broward County Florida. Just a few miles west of Fort Lauderdale. In fact, today you can not easily see where Ft. Lauderdale ends and Davie begins. That was certainly not true in 1957.

In 1957 Davie was considered to be a small remote and backwards cow and horse town. Indeed there actually were more cows and horses than people. The only attractions in Davie were a few Orange Groves. Tourist would come and sample freshly squeezed Orange Juice, and take tours through the groves.

Every grove had a gift shop full of citrus nick knack's and post cards of scantly clad young women standing outstretched on ladders picking oranges from the orange trees. I lived their from 1951 until 1967. I even worked in the groves as a teenager, but I never saw a girl in tight shorts standing on top of a ladder picking oranges. Oh well...

At that time Davie had 2 gas stations. A Pure Oil gas station and a Sinclair gas station. There was 1 general store owned by the Anderson family. Anderson's General Store was the meeting place for everyone in town. For a while my mother worked there as a cashier. Almost all the teen age boys in Davie worked there bagging groceries at one time or another.

There was also a Western Auto store. For those of you who think Western Auto has something to do with car parts, it does not. Western Auto was a very small odds and ends store, they had items from Toasters to Bikes, Flash lights to vacuum cleaners and all in a store about 500 square feet. That store was run by a nice old man named Jack Cook.

There were 2 hardware stores. One of them was Osbornes Hardware. Osbornes stayed in business until 2007. The photos they collected and placed on the walls over the years was a photo history of old Davie. I was sad when I drove thorough Davie in Feb. 2008 and saw the store had closed. I hope the photos were donated to someone whom can keep them on display It

Other corner stones of old Davie were Toms Bar and the Davie Rodeo Grounds. The Rodeo Grounds have been rebuilt and still host annual Rodeos, but the new facilities lack the personality and aroma of the old arena. For example, as a small boy remember being quite impressed with the manliness of the men's urinal. Just an old metal barrel cut in half laying on its side in a partially walled area under the grand stands. There was a pipe at one end that just sort of drained out on the ground. As a kid I thought that really added a cowboy ambiance to the whole rodeo experience. I have no idea what the ladies used.

Davie also had a Soda shop, with red leather top chrome plated soda stools that spun around and a few "Happy Days" style booths . There was also a Volunteer Fire station that burned down one night ( It was a later rebuilt). There was a Milk Diary where you could buy warm milk fresh from the cow, 3 feed stores. 1 Methodist Church, a barber shop, a TV repair shop. a veterinarian. The Woman's club and 1 Doctor. Dr. John Gaul actually made house calls. Like all small towns we had a couple families that seemed to do better than the rest of us. In Davie it was the Gill family, the Sterling family and the Griffin family.

In 1957 Davie Elementary was the only school in town. After graduating from the 6th grade, Davie students had to be bused to Junior and Senior High Schools in Ft. Lauderdale or Hollywood.

In the summer of 1957 I attended a 1 week arts and craft camp at Davie Elementary. It was a fun week. One of the projects I liked the most was when took flat pieces of tin and placed them over a wood block with the center hollowed out. Then we took a ball-peen hammer and hit the tin until it took on the shape of the hollowed wood. The resulting product was an ashtray to take home. Since almost all parents smoked, this was a useful present for them. We also made some hand made pot holders by weaving them on small looms.

In addition to making crafts we played games and on one rainy day we made up a goofy song about a plate of Spaghetti and the fate of it's meatballs. A song that endures until this day.

This is how it happened. Do to a steady rain, we could not go out and play. So the teacher had us sing songs. One song she taught us that day was "On Top Of Old Smoky"

On top of Old Smoky,
All covered with snow,
I lost my true lover,
For courting too slow.

For courting's a pleasure,
But parting is grief,
And a false-hearted lover,
Is worse than a thief. Etc.

On sunny days we would take our brown bag lunch eat outside picnic style. On this rainy day we had to eat inside. The Old Smoky song was song fresh in our minds. As we were eating and goofing around. That is when one of the kids sneezed all over his Baloney sandwich. In response another kid paraphrased the song and blurted out "On Top Of Baloney All Covered with Snot" everyone laughed. I remember this because for years after that, I associated Baloney with snot. A mom in the classroom got upset and said that was vulgar, she told us not to say it again.

Kids being kids we began throwing out alternatives to the "vulgar" Baloney and Snot lyric. In a flurry of childish outburst; someone said the now famous line "On top Of Spaghetti" instead of Baloney. We then tried replacing snot with a variety of less offensive toppings like sauce, catsup and some gross things like worms.

There was no organization to the process. Kids interrupted each other and yelled out lines. Finally in an attempt to gain control; a parent joined in. She wrote down some of our suggestions, then we shouted our approval or disapproval for ideas until we finally had these 4 lines.

At the end of the week, the teacher sent home a mimeograph recap of what we did during camp. It listed the crafts we made, games we played and the silly lyrics to a song we made up "On top of Spaghetti". Sung to the tune of On top Of Old Smoky. I forgot all about this camp report until I found it in a box of memorabilia after my father passed away in the early 1980s.

In 1957, South Florida was not developed. The sign going into Ft. Lauderdale said "Welcome To The Village of Fort Lauderdale". Local newspapers were "Small Town" by today's standards. For example they were happy to accept and print lost dog and cat ads for free.

Someone sent a letter to one of the papers, reporting on the Davie Elementary Craft Camp. They included the lyrics to our song On Top Of Spaghetti, explaining you sing it to the tune of On Top Of Old Smoky. I remember being embarrassed when a friend's mom told us it had been in the paper. After all, the lyrics are lame.

It is hard to picture now, but back then there was no local morning television news shows. Instead; early morning TV shows were made for kids to watch before they went to school. Then there were similar shows in the afternoons and of course on Saturday mornings. South Florida kids show's included: The Coral G Rangers, Popeye's Playhouse and a number of other locally produced shows. Chuck Zinc and Charlie Baxter were the two most watched local kids show host. These shows needed new skits and content everyday. The bar for good material was set pretty low. Somehow the Spaghetti song became a recurring standard on some local kids shows of the late 1950's. When it was sung on TV my mom would say "there is your song".

Since Ft. Lauderdale and Miami were major tourist locations, it is easy to see how visitors would hear the song on local kids shows, then take it back home with them, across the country.

This is July 2007. It has been exactly a half-century since we made up the song. Last night I was watching the local news and there was a story about a group of inner city camp kids in Miami making up a song "Police, They're Alright" (See story below).

My name is Marina Weisert. I work in the residence halls at the University of New Mexico. I am in charge of planning/executing social and education events for residents. I had a fun idea in which we discuss the origins of children's songs and nursery rhymes. We will be serving spaghetti and of course be discussing "On Top of Spaghetti" Upon performing some research I came across your posting. I am interested to see if any camp-mates tracked you down or you found any way to prove to the world that your group in fact were the originators of the song?

Dear Marina

Thank you for writing. So far I have not heard from anyone from the camp. I have also not had anyone write to oppose the possibility we made the song up. Goggle is a wonderful thing. My hope is, in time the right person or persons will find http://www.ontopofspaghetti.org and conclusively prove or disprove my recollection for the origin of the song. It would be great if there is someone else with the mimeograph recap of the camps events. Moms sometimes hold on to things like this. There may be another copy stuffed away in a forgotten scrap book.

Unless you object I am going to post your letter on the site. As I said Google is a wonderful thing. Something in your letter may trigger more Google hits.

Not to be overly critical, when you typed versus, that is one opponent ie. a boxer , challenging another. I believe you meant verses.
I have to tell you, reading your story on that song, really enlightened me. I was 15 going on 16 when that song came out.
Now I'm going through the 60's again. Only this time, the drugs are prescribed. LOL
Have a good life and thanks for the info,

Thank you for correcting my incorrect use of versus rather than verses. I only put this site up as a lark. I have been surprised at the number of people whom have read it and sent in comments. I did not intend to to extent the site after the domain came up for renewal. But seeing as how it is getting some attention , I will leave it up another year. Maybe someone familiar with Tom Glazer will write and tell us how he came to record the song. There is no doubt he recorded it and made it a children's classic. It would be interesting to know if anyone remembers how he acquired the song. The lyrics seem more likely to have been written by kids than an adult.

Hi my name is Bill Wilder. I am 63 and live in Denver, CO. My grand daughter who is 6 did not believe me when I told her On Top Of Spaghetti was a real song. We searched and found your site. I can picture a group of kids doing exactly what you said. It is more likely than a grown musician writing it. Good Luck it was fun reading.

Thank you for writing. I am pleased we are all having fun with this song 51 years after we began having fun with it..