"Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow" (often sung as "

Oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

s (and)

Bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

s (and) Barley Grow") is a traditional British and American

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

, 1380 in the

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

. The tune normally used goes by the name "Baltimore" and appears in Joshua Cushing's

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

"The Fifer's Companion" (1790). According to Alice Bertha Gomme's book "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland" (1894), this is a "play song", in which children perform actions with the song, standing in a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

. In "Notes and Queries" 7th series, number xii (c 1870) it is discussed, but the Columbia

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

University website claims that the earliest known version of the words is dated 1898 (Gomme).

Recordings

Tim Hart Tim Hart (9 January 1948 – 24 December 2009) was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of British folk rock band Steeleye Span. Early years Tim Hart was born in Lincoln, England, but moved to St ...

and

Maddy Prior Madelaine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police dr ...

on "Folk Songs of Olde England" Vol 2 (1968) *

Roberts and Barrand Roberts and Barrand was a musical group formed in 1969 by John Roberts (musician), John Roberts and Tony Barrand while they were graduate students in psychology at Cornell University. Much of their repertoire is traditional English music, although ...

on "Mellow With Ale From the Horn" (1975) as "Oats and Beans and Barley Grows" *

Raffi Raffi Cavoukian, ( hy, Րաֆֆի, born July 8, 1948), known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is a Canadian singer-lyricist and author of Armenian descent born in Egypt, best known for his children's music. He developed his career as a " ...

on ''

Baby Beluga ''Baby Beluga'' is a children's music album by Canadian children's entertainer Raffi, released in 1980. The lead song is about a young beluga whale that swims freely. The album begins with the sounds of beluga whales communicating and includes com ...

'' as "Oats and Beans and Barley" 1980 * Tony Bluto featuring Janet Palmer in the 1995 VHS tape ''Nursery Rhyme Time'', directed, produced and written by Allan Burr * The

Friends of Fiddler's Green Friends of Fiddler's Green is a Canadian folk music group based in Toronto founded in 1971 and still active as of 2018. The members of the group at the time of its first recording, 1981's ''This Side of the Ocean'', were Alistair Brown, Tam Kearne ...

''This Side of the Ocean'' as "Oats and Beans" 1981 and 1997. The highest note is D, and the lowest note is G. The dynamic is soft, The part in this song that gets higher is measure 5&6. * The Kidsongs Kids and the Biggles on ''Country Sing-Along'' (1994) as "Watch Our Oats and Barley Grow" * The Revels on "The Wild Mountain Thyme" (1994) * Broadside Band on "Old English Nursery Rhymes" (1996) * James Turner in the 1992 ''

Barney & Friends ''Barney & Friends'' is an American children's television series targeted at young children aged 2–7, created by Sheryl Leach. The series premiered on PBS on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorp ...

'' episode "Eat, Drink And Be Healthy" (season 1, episode 5) * David Holt featuring Sue-Elliott Nicholls,

Maria Darling Maria Darling is a British voice actress who has provided many character voices for children's television programmes in the United Kingdom and the United States. Television and film *Dr Otter - Some of the Rabbit Children, Mrs. Canny Body and a ...

and

Jimmy Hibbert James Christian Hibbert is an English actor and writer. He is best known for his voice work with the animation studio Cosgrove Hall Films. Early life James Christian Hibbert was born as the eldest of three children of author Christopher Hibbe ...

in the 2005 ''

Muffin The Mule Muffin the Mule is a puppet character in a British 1946-1955 television programme for children. The puppet had been made in 1933 for Hogarth Puppets. The original TV programmes featuring the animal character himself were presented by Annette M ...

'' episode "Muffin's Harvest Home" (series 1, episode 13)

Published versions

Lucy Broadwood Lucy Etheldred Broadwood (9 August 1858 – 22 August 1929) was an English folksong collector and researcher, and great-granddaughter of John Broadwood, founder of the piano manufacturers Broadwood and Sons. As one of the founder members of the Fo ...

''English County Songs'' * In

Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inne ...

7th series, number xii (c 1870) * In Northall, G. F. ''English Folk-Rhymes: A collection of traditional verses relating to places and persons, customs, superstitions, etc.'' (1892) pg. 370 * Hampshire Dance Tunes by Bob Shatwell & Paul Sartin (2007) * The very first edition of the Journal of the EFDSS had an article on this song.

References

Baltimore
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Music and lyrics
/s> This website (folkinfo.org forum) closed in December 2012

This website archives a copy of the closed folkinfo.org database
Lyrics

Audio recording of a variation of the song, Green Peas and Barley Grow, from 1961 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oats Peas Beans And Barley Grow American folk songs British folk songs Singing games Year of song unknown