“Rock-a-Bye Baby” published a hundred years ago

Rock-a-Bye Baby Effie I. Canning (music/words)

Writer(s): Effie I. Canning (music/words) (see lyrics here) Released: -- First Charted: -- Peak: -- (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 676.48 video, 240.93 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Rock-a-Bye Baby” may be the best known lullaby ever written. It is believed to have been published by John Newbery as early as 1765 in Mother Goose’s Melody WK with the original opening line being “hush-a-bye baby.” There are some who believe the words may have been written by Bertrada II of Laon, the mother of Charlemagne. LC The pairing of the original words with the tune we know today is generally credited to Effie I. Crockett. In 1872, the fifteen-year-old was babysitting and struggling to get the baby to sleep. She improvised a tune for the “Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top” line from the Mother Goose poem and “Rock-a-Bye Baby” was born. WS She took the song to he banjo teacher who connected he with a publisher in Boston. One account suggests she published under the last name Canning, taken from her grandmother’s name, because her father wouldn’t have approved. LC That doesn’t quite ring true, however, considering the song wasn’t published until 1884 when Effie would have been nearly thirty years old. It has also been suggested that Charles Dupee Blake (1847-1903), a prolific composer of popular music, may be the author of the song. WK He published it in 1886 after arranging for it to be used in the play The Old Homestead by Denman Thompson. Sheet music sales reached around $20,000 within a few months. LC Regarding the music, there has been speculation by the scholars Iona and Peter Opie that the tune is a variant of “Lillibulleo,” a 1686 ballroom dance number by Henry Purcell. However, the Opies additionally offered multiple thoughts on the inspiration for the lyrics without any sources to back them up. WK However the song originated it has become “fondly…appreciated by anyone who has struggled with the daily routine of bedtime.” WSSecondHandSongs.com reports the song has been recorded at least 36 times by artists such as Judy Collins, Olivia Newton-John, Lawrence Welk, and the Wiggles. SH Resources: FU James J. Fuld (1966). The Book of World Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk. Crown Publishers, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 468-9. LC Library of Congress SH SecondHandSongs.com WS William Studwell (1997). The American Song Reader. The Haworth Press, Inc.: Binghampton, NY. Page 136. WK Wikipedia First posted 12/6/2025.

Jethro Tull released Aqualung: March 19, 1971

Originally posted March 19, 2012.

“In the mid-seventies, during the wholesale slaughter of rock’s ‘dinosaurs,’ Tull provided an easy target. Everything they stood for was passé – extended solos, complex time signatures, jazz-styled improvisations” ^PR served up by “hairy prog-rock philosophers…[who managed] to incorporate flute solos” ^RS500 into FM-radio hits with “riff-heavy songs.” ^AMG However, in dismissing “dinosaur rock,” many critics overlooked the quality of the music.

In the case of Jethro Tull, they hit their peak with Aqualung, “an accomplished, intelligent, skillfully structured and eloquent collection of tunes.” ^PR The album was their “magnum opus and defining epic.” ^JD “The record was extremely profound…one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners.” ^AMG As one reviewer said of “captivating pied piper Ian Anderson” ^ZS and his “dour musings on faith and religion,” ^AMG, “He wants to make us think!” ^CRS

“Anderson insists to this day that it is not a concept album,” ^JD but each half seems devoted to one prevalent theme. “The first half is largely devoted to portraying the faces from the urban underground that most people never see: homeless men, prostitutes, assorted freaks and geeks. The flip side (these still being the days of vinyl albums) is a bitter, angry, and sustained attack on the hypocrisy of the Church of England, which gives such people false hope.” ^JD Specifically, the second half offered commentary on “how organized religion had restricted man’s relationship with God.” ^AMG

“Released at a time when a lot of bands were embracing pop-Christianity (à la Jesus Christ Superstar), Aqualung was a bold statement for a rock group, a pro-God antichurch tract that probably got lots of teenagers wrestling with these ideas for the first time in their lives.” ^AMG

Aqualung

“The title track (and arguably the vibe of the whole album) was inspired by Anderson’s first wife, Jennie, a photographer who’d been shooting images of destitute men living on the streets of London.” ^JD “The ‘poor old sod’ of the title cut is so-named because his labored breathing sounds like a scuba diver sucking from an oxygen tank (‘You snatch your rattling last breaths, with deep-sea-diver sounds/ And the flowers bloom like madness in the spring’).” ^JR “This one track encapsulates all of Jethro Tull’s musical variety and complexity in one handy package, intertwining three distinct parts: the nasty, hard-rock intro and exit powered by that monstrous, indelible guitar riff; the quiet, sympathetic acoustic interlude marked by Anderson’s distant, treated vocals, and the majestic, pseudo-orchestral build-up that links the other sections.” ^JD

“Like Led Zeppelin, …Jethro Tull had mastered the art of dramatic contrasts and swelling dynamics, shifting with seeming effortlessness from thunderous grandeur to quiet, folky introspection…The rollicking, undeniable classic-rock-radio staple Locomotive Breath, the vituperative Hymn 43, and the viciously grooving Cross-Eyed Mary are as close to heavy metal as Tull ever got (the band’s infamous 1988 Grammy for Crest of a Knave to the contrary).” ^JD

Locomotive Breath

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Awards:

• one of the top 1000 albums of all time
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  
• Top 100 Classic Rock Albums
  
• one of the top 50 prog-rock albums of all time
  
• one of the top 100 albums of the 1970s
  

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Resources and Related Links:

• DMDB page for Aqualung
  
• DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry for Jethro Tull
  
• ^AMG All Music Guide review by Bruce Eder
  
• ^JD Jim DeRogatis, The Great Albums (11/18/01)
  
• ^CRS Tim Morse (1998). Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Rock Songs of All Time. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin.
  
• ^PR Paul Roland (2001). CD Guide to Pop & Rock. B.T. Batsford LTD: London. Page 141.
  
• ^RS500 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
  
• ^ZS Zagat Survey (2003). Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY.
  

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