Bye Baby Bunting/One For Sorrow (Medley) - The Nursery Rhyme Collections

The Nursery Rhymes Collections 1-4 contain a total of 277 children's songs. Each double CD album showcases the highest quality children's music ever recorded with a total playing time in excess of 10 hours!

Bye Baby Bunting/One For Sorrow (Medley) (Audio Sample and Lyrics)

Bye, baby bunting
Daddy's gone a hunting
To get a little rabbit skin
To wrap his baby bunting in

Bye, baby bunting
Daddy's gone a hunting
To get a little lambie skin
To wrap his baby bunting in

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
And four for a boy
Five for silver
And six for gold
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told
Eight for a letter over the sea
Nine for a lover as true as can be

Bye, baby bunting
Daddy's gone a hunting
A rosy wisp of cloud to win
To wrap his baby bunting in
Bye, baby bunting
Mummy's gone a-milking,
Sister's gone a-silking,
Brother's gone to buy a skin

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
And four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told
Eight for a letter over the sea
Nine for a lover as true as can be

Bye, baby bunting
Daddy's gone a hunting
To fetch a little rabbit skin
To wrap his baby bunting in

Words: Traditional
Music: Ian J Watts

Origin and background

For this song arranger Ian Watts put together 2 different rhymes: Bye Baby Bunting and One For Sorrow. Let's start with the first one.'Bye Baby Bunting' was already mentioned in the 17th century. The meaning of the word "bunting" is not completely clear. According to The Oxford Dictionary Of Nursery Rhymes it derives from an old form of endearment which means something like "short" and "thick". According to another theory it refers to the swinging of a cradle. Nowadays the idea of using a rabbit skin in order to wrap one's baby in sounds a bit weird but 4 centuries ago that seemed to be quite a good idea.

The second song 'One For Sorrow' deals with some superstition that was quite popular around the same time. According to popular believe magpies were considered birds of bad omen. So depending on the amount of times you saw a magpie various things were supposed to happen. The lyrics of the song suggest a complete list of events.

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