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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Go in and out the window,
Go in and out the window,
Go in and out the window,
As we have done before.
Go up and down the staircase,
Go up and down the staircase,
Go up and down the staircase,
As we have done before.
Now stand and face your partner,
Now stand and face your partner,
Now stand and face your partner,
As we have done before.
Now follow me to London,
Now follow me to London,
Now follow me to London,
As we have done before.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"In and Out the Windows" is a traditional English singing game with roots deep in the folk music tradition. Like "In and Out the Dusty Bluebells", it is a circle game played with arches of raised arms representing the windows and staircases of a house. Children weave in and out beneath the arches during the first verse, then face their partners, and finally follow a leader in a chain.
The song is part of a broader family of European circle games in which the movements mirror the words: going in and out, climbing up and down, standing face to face. These games served both as entertainment and as informal social training — learning to read the movements of a group, to follow and to lead, to make and dissolve partnerships.
The phrase "as we have done before" is one of those folk music formulas that speaks of deep familiarity and long tradition. It suggests the game has always been played this way, that there is comfort and rightness in doing what has been done before, in following the same path through the same windows and up the same staircase.
The journey to London at the end — whether literal or imagined — gives the game a horizon, a destination beyond the circle itself. Our folk arrangement preserves the song's gentle, ceremonial quality.
