Do Your Ears Hang Low?

This goofy favorite has a much older tune underneath it than you'd guess--it borrows its melody from “Turkey in the Straw,” which goes back to the 1800s. The words about floppy ears actually started out as a much less polite soldiers' song sung in the trenches of World War I! By the time it got cleaned up and handed off to Scout troops and elementary school music classes, it had become the silly, harmless singalong we all know today. Kids have been enjoying acting out those flapping, tying, and knotting motions for a hundred years now.