Recorded 1939 | ||
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"It's Raining, It's Pouring" is an English language nursery rhyme and children's song. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 16814.
Contents
Lyrics
Common, modern versions include:
It's raining; it's pouring. The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head, And didn't wake up the next morning. It's raining; it's pouring. The old woman is snoring. She went to bed and bumped her head, And she couldn't get up in the morning. It's raining; it's pouring. The old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head, And he couldn't get up in the morning. It's raining; it's pouring. The old woman is snoring. She went to bed and bumped her head, And she couldn't get up in the morning. It's raining; it's pouring. The children are snoring. They went to bed and bumped their heads, And they couldn't get up in the morning.Origins and interpretation
The first two lines of this rhyme can be found in The Little Mother Goose, published in the US in 1912. The melody most often associated with it is the same as "A Tisket, A Tasket", which is in the public domain. The earliest known audio recording of the song was made in 1939 in New York by anthropologist and folklorist Herbert Halpert and is held in the Library of Congress. It was noted in 1939 in New York by Charles Ives (1874–1954) and a version of it was copyrighted in 1944 by Freda Selicoff.
It has been suggested that the verse is a "classic description" of a head injury ("bumped his head"), followed by a lucid interval and an inability to resume normal activity ("couldn't get up in the morning").