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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man?
Do you know the muffin man
Who sells his muffins on the street?
Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin, muffin, muffin man?
Do you know the muffin man?
His wares are such a treat.
Oh yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man.
Yes, I know the muffin man,
He lives in Drury Lane.
We all know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man.
We all know the muffin man,
His wares are such a treat.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"The Muffin Man" was first printed in 1820 and refers to the muffin sellers who were a familiar sight on the streets of eighteenth and nineteenth-century London. English muffins — flat, yeast-leavened breads — were sold hot from a tray carried on the head, the sellers ringing a bell as they walked to announce their presence. The muffin man was as recognisable a figure in the urban soundscape as the knife-grinder or the rag-and-bone man.
Drury Lane is a real street in the London Borough of Westminster, associated with the theatre world (the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, has stood there in various incarnations since 1663). A muffin man on Drury Lane would have had a ready market in the theatre crowds and the workers of the neighbourhood.
The rhyme was originally used as a singing game in which one child asks the question and another identifies the muffin man by name, then more children join in until "we all know the muffin man." This cumulative structure — starting with one and expanding to all — gives the game its social dimension. By the end, the muffin man is known to everyone, which is all a street seller could hope for.
Our arrangement gives the muffin man the enthusiastic recognition he deserves.
