"Found a Peanut" is a folk song, often considered a children's song, in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and Israel.[1][2][3] In Israel it is titled "I Swallowed a Peanut" (Balati Boten; בלעתי בוטן). It is popular to sing when travelling, as it has a very repetitive format that is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. It is sung to the tune of "Oh My Darling, Clementine". It may often be sung around a campfire.[4]
A basic version of the variable lyrics is:
Then it continues with the same rhythm:
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The simple repetitive structure of the song lends itself to near infinite variations. Sometimes "Just now" or "yesterday" is substituted for "last night". Sometimes the verse will not reference the preceding verse as in the first example above.
Versions current in Baltimore in 1955 weren't quite as heavenly focused, and ended in: "Shoveling coal, shoveling coal, shoveling coal just now ..."
Another common variation on "last night" is "yesterday". This is used by "This Morning With Richard Not Judy" by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
Other substitutions include:
The Hebrew version sometimes introduces the verse: "Now I'm dead" (Akhshav ani met, עכשיו אני מת) before "I ascended to heaven". Sometimes "God" (Elohim, אלוהים), rather than "Gabriel" is used. Finally, sometimes before the recap either the verse: "So I answered him" (Az aniti lo, אז עניתי לו) or a single line: "So I answered him thus:" (Az aniti lo she-, -אז עניתי לו ש) is added.
Some attribute the song to Jack Schafer of Detroit, MI in 1958, although the song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives. Those lyrics end at "Ate it anyway."
Other evidence, however, suggests that the song was widely known in the United States as early as the 1940s. A 1945 issue of the Florida Flambeau describes "Found a Peanut" as an "old song" from "high school days."[5] Likewise, the Norwalk Hour described a performance of the song in a school talent show in 1942.[6]
"Found a Peanut" is mentioned as a "famous Guide chant" in Dorothea Moore's 1934 book Judy, Patrol Leader.
The song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives.
The song appears in the film Tromeo and Juliet in a scene in which a family in a car sings a song before getting into an accident. In the following scene, the character Detective Scalus says, "They found a peanut, all right, a peanut of death!"
The song also appears at the opening of the opera The Abduction of Figaro by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach).
The song is the title of the play "Found a Peanut" by Donald Margulies. The character Jeffery Smolowitz sings the song.
The song appeared on This Morning with Richard Not Judy with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
In the 1994 American satirical comedy Serial Mom, Beverly Sutphin (played by Kathleen Turner) sings the song with her fellow prisoners as they ride on a bus en route to court.
Macabre, the self-proclaimed Murder-Metal band from Chicago, released a version on their 2002 Morbid Campfire Songs album.
A version appears on the 2009 album Dracula Boots by Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds.
A version with somewhat different lyrics was released by Thee Midniters in 1966.
The Kidsongs Kids and their camp counselors Eddie and Monica sing this song on A Day at Camp (1989) during their campfire medley.
Mentioned in Marc Maron's 2015 comedy special More Later.