Thirty Days Hath September / Tinker Tailor
The classic month-memory rhyme paired with the Tinker Tailor fortune-telling song
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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which only has but twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
Tinker, tailor,
Soldier, sailor,
Rich man, poor man,
Beggar man and a thief,
What about a cowboy,
Policeman, jailer,
Engine driver?
Pirate chief or a ploughman
Or a keeper at the zoo?
What about a circus man
Who lets the people through?
Or the man who takes the pennies
On the roundabouts and swings?
Or the man who plays the organ
With the other man who sings?
And what about the rabbit man
With rabbits in his pockets?
Oh it's such a lot of things,
Things to be.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which only has but twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
This recording pairs two traditional children's rhymes into a single charming piece.
"Thirty Days Hath September" is a memory aid for the number of days in each month, with versions appearing in English as far back as the thirteenth century. The formula of the rhyme — naming the four short months and noting February's exception for leap years — has proved so durable that it remains in common use today. The version here preserves the traditional phrasing, which has changed remarkably little across eight centuries.
"Tinker, Tailor" is a traditional fortune-telling rhyme, originally used with fruit stones or button-counting to predict one's future occupation or social standing. The traditional list — tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief — is here extended with a cheerful inventory of further possibilities: cowboys, pirate chiefs, engine drivers, rabbit men with rabbits in their pockets. The additional verses by Ian Watts capture the spirit of the original wonderfully, turning a fortune-telling game into something closer to a child's wide-open imagining of what they might one day become.
The orchestral arrangement by Rick Benbow gives this pairing a warm, storybook quality.
