"The Titanic" (also known as "It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down" and "Titanic (Husbands and Wives)") is a

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

and children's

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

. "The Titanic" is about the sinking of RMS ''Titanic'' which sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg.

Background

History

The first folk songs about the ''Titanic'' disaster appeared within weeks after the disaster. Recordings of various songs about the disaster date to as early as 1913.Habing 2008

Variants

The canonical version of the song has the chorus: In most variants, although not the earliest, the chorus starts with a line "it was sad, so sad, it was sad", and in many versions, the line "to the bottom of the..." appended after the repeat of "went down." Other than the chorus, different versions may contain verses in different order. There are several regional variations on the song. According to Newman I. White's 1928 book ''American Negro Folk-Songs'', "The Titanic" has been traced back to 1915 or 1916 in

Hackleburg, Alabama Hackleburg is a town in Marion County, Alabama, United States. It incorporated on August 23, 1909.Christopher Maloney,Hackleburg" ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'', 16 July 2018. At the 2020 census, its population was 1,425, down from 1,516 at the 2010 ...

. Other versions from around 1920 are documented in the Frank C. Brown Collection at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jame ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and S ...

. Early recordings include Ernest Stoneman's "The Titanic" (Okeh 40288) in September 1924 and William and Versey Smith's "When That Great Ship Went Down" in August 1927. According to Jeff Place, in his notes for the '' Anthology of American Folk Music'': "African-American musicians, in particular, found it noteworthy and ironic that company policies had kept Blacks from the doomed ship; the sinking was also attributed by some to divine retribution."

Recordings

* William and Versey Smith on '' Anthology of American Folk Music'',

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

1952 * Bessie Jones on ''The

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

Collection Sampler'' Rounder 1997 *

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, American socialism and anti-fascism. He ...

on ''The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1: This Land Is Your Land'',

1999 * Pert Near Sandstone on "Paradise hop" version called "sad when the great bridge came down" 2011 * Ernest Stoneman on ''The Face That Never Returned / The Sinking of the Titanic'' (singles) 1924 *

Mance Lipscomb Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songster. He was born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas. As a youth he took the name Mance (short for ''emancipation'') from a friend of hi ...

on ''Texas Songster Volume 2 (You Got to Reap What You Sow)'' 1964 *

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

on ''Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection of Topical Songs'',

1999 * Freakwater on ''Dancing Underwater'',

Amoeba Records Amoeba Music is an American independent music store chain with locations in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1990 in Berkeley, California, and remains in operation, having survived the decline ...

1991 /

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

1997 *

Tom Glazer Thomas Zachariah Glazer (September 2, 1914 – February 21, 2003) was an American folk singer and songwriter known primarily as a composer of ballads, including: "Because All Men Are Brothers", recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and M ...

on ''The Ballad of Namu the Killer Whale'',

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio ...

1965

In popular culture

"The Titanic" was sung by Paul Newman and Brandon de Wilde's characters after a drunken night out, in the 1963 film '' Hud''.

References

Works cited

* * * *

External links

- Lyrics on Scoutorama website.

- Lyrics with "Uncles and aunts, little children lost their pants" variation.

– Music and lyrics. {{DEFAULTSORT:Titanic, The American folk songs American children's songs Songs about the RMS Titanic Lead Belly songs 1915 songs 1925 singles