Ten Green Bottles
by Traditional

Album: Kid's Classics (1830)
Play Video
  • Ten green bottles standing on the wall
    Ten green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be nine green bottles standing on the wall

    Nine green bottles standing on the wall
    Nine green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be eight green bottles standing on the wall

    Eight green bottles standing on the wall
    Eight green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be seven green bottles standing on the wall

    Seven green bottles standing on the wall
    Seven green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be six green bottles standing on the wall

    Six green bottles standing on the wall
    Six green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be five green bottles standing on the wall

    Five green bottles standing on the wall
    Five green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be four green bottles standing on the wall

    Four green bottles standing on the wall
    Four green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be three green bottles standing on the wall

    Three green bottles standing on the wall
    Three green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be two green bottles standing on the wall

    Two green bottles standing on the wall
    Two green bottles standing on the wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be one green bottle standing on the wall

    One green bottle standing on a wall
    One green bottle standing on a wall
    And if one green bottle should accidentally fall
    There’ll be no green bottles standing on a wall Lyrics from a song in Public Domain

Comments: 2

  • Thomas Flanagan from Wigan LancsMy mother recounted this as a playground song used in skipping etc. However the "libretto" ran somewhat differently involving youngsters of non-white ethnicity.
    There were other such skipalong rhymes and ditties from the 1920s and 1930s including, as a tribute to Ghandi's visit to Lancashire at that time, one telling of his unfortunate mishap as a result of his sitting on a box of eggs; there are plenty more that I can recall, but modern sensitivities would be cruelly assaulted by the rare language.
    You can sanitise your bathroom, but bleach has no effect on phenomena of an abstract kind, such as the past.
  • Greg from EdinburghThe origin myth is from a spoof article: http://www.standingstones.com/greenbot.html
see more comments

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