This song is known in Scotland and the north country (in England)...
Dance tae yer daddy,
Ma bonnie laddie,
Dance tae yer daddy, ma bonnie lamb!
An ye'll get a fishie
In a little dishie,
Ye'll get a fishie, whan the boat comes hame.
Dance tae yer daddy,
Ma bonnie laddie,
Dance tae yer daddy, ma bonnie lamb!
An ye'll get a coatie,
An a pair o' breekies,
Ye'll get a whippie, an a soople Tam.
Dance to your daddy,
My dear little boy,
Dance to your daddy, my dear lamb!
And you'll get a fish
In a little dish,
You'll get a fish, when the boat comes home.
Dance to your daddy,
My dear little boy,
Dance to your daddy, my dear lamb!
And you'll get a coat
And a pair of breeches,
You'll get a whip and a top.
Notes
hame = home
breekies = breeches
soople Tam = top
Comments
Jim Linwood wrote me, "Dance To Yer Daddy is generally believed to be a song from Northumberland in England and was the theme tune of the classic BBC series When The Boat Comes In."
Bonny Newman wrote, "As a music teacher in the UK, I can tell you that it is originally English. It comes from the area around North East England, around Northumberland where there was and still is a fishing industry. Hence, 'You shall have a fishie on a little dishie!' and the word 'boat' in Northumberland dialect would sound more like 'boot'."
Derek Paice wrote, "I notice you have filed 'Dance to Your Daddy' under Scotland. I was always under the impression that it was English. The song is usually associated with the north-east (i.e. Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and Geordie culture."
Ernestine Shargool was kind enough to clear this up for us...
"RE: 'Dance tae your Daddy':
It's in the Montgomerie collection of traditional Scottish nursery rhymes;
I've just checked in the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes by the Opies:
pg: 140:
'A dandling song known particularly in Scotland and the north country, sometimes (as in 1842) with the additional verse
And ye'll get a coatie
And a pair of breekies
Ye'll get a whippie and a supple Tam!
The last line has also been heard as:
An' a whirligiggie an' a supple Tam.
In Fordyce's 'Newcastle Song Book' it is given, to a delightful tune, as the refrain of a five-verse ditty 'The Little Fishy' by William Watson.'
So looks like both places can claim it."
I found another version of Dance to Your Daddy that I believe comes from North England. (You can click the link to get to that version.) -Mama Lisa
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Ernestine Shargool for contributing this song and Monique Palomares for translating it. Thank you all for your enlightening comments! - Mama Lisa
The illustration comes from Harry's Ladder to Learning (1850).
Thanks so much!
