"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" is a traditional children's song from Canada. The song consists of one verse repeated over and over again while increasing in volume for each iteration. There are other ways of singing this song such as increasing (accelerando) or decreasing (ritardando) in tempo after each repetition. The lyrics of the song depend on who is singing.
Contents
Lyrics and melody
There are various lyrics to the song; for example, the following is one version, which is repeated several times while altering the tempo or pitch:
Origin
While the origins of the song are obscure, some evidence places its roots with vaudeville and theatre acts of the late 19th century and early 20th century popular in immigrant communities. Some vaudeville acts during the era, such as the work of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, often gave voice to shared frustrations of German-American immigrants and heavily leaned on malapropisms and difficulties with the English language as a vehicle for its humor. Further, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" shares many characteristics with "My Name is Jan Jansen", a song that can trace its origin to Swedish vaudeville in the late 19th century.
By the mid-20th century, the song appears to have already become widely known. In 1931, the Elmira Star Gazette, a newspaper in upstate New York, reported that at a Boy Scout gathering at Seneca Lake, as scouts entered the mess hall "Troop 18 soon burst into the first camp song, 'John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith.'" A 1941 Milwaukee Journal article also refers to the song, with the same uncommon alternate spelling of "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith."
The song can be sung in an infinite loop, like "The Song That Never Ends", "My Name is Jan Jansen", "Michael Finnegan", "99 Bottles of Beer", or "High Hopes".
Versions of this song also appear in other languages, such as the Spanish rendition; "Juan Paco Pedro de la Mar".