"The Song That Doesn't End" is a

self-referential Self-reference is a concept that involves referring to oneself or one's own attributes, characteristics, or actions. It can occur in language, logic, mathematics, philosophy, and other fields. In natural language, natural or formal languages, ...

and

infinitely Infinity is something which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is denoted by \infty, called the infinity symbol. From the time of the ancient Greeks, the philosophical nature of infinity has been the subject of man ...

iterative Iteration is the repetition of a process in order to generate a (possibly unbounded) sequence of outcomes. Each repetition of the process is a single iteration, and the outcome of each iteration is then the starting point of the next iteration. ...

children's song A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studie ...

. The song appears in an album by puppeteer

Shari Lewis Shari Lewis (born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was a Peabody awards, Peabody-winning American Ventriloquism, ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, television show host, dancer, singer, actress, author, a ...

titled ''

Lamb Chop's Sing-Along, Play-Along Lamb Chop's Sing-Along, Play-Along is an album by Shari Lewis released on September 22, 1992. It was released on home video in 1988 by Fries Home Video. Songs were written by Norman Martin copyright ©1988 and produced by Glenn Jordan. All song ...

'', released through a 1988 home video. It is a single- verse-long song, written in an infinite-loop motif in a

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

style, such that it naturally flows in a cyclical fashion, repeating the same verse over and over. It is still a very popular tune, typically sung during long car rides. The song was written by Shari Lewis' long time producer Norman Martin.

Lyrics

(The song repeats endlessly.)

Variations

Alternative versions of the song use "never ends", and use the plural "friends". Other minor discrepancies in the lyrics may be due to the song being passed in the oral tradition from kid-to-kid. Such differences include "It just goes on and on..." (line 2), "And we’ll continue" (line 4), " and they continued" (line 4), “this is the song that killed my friends” (line 2), and "and they'll keep on" (line 4). A method that is sometimes used to end the song is to repeat "doesn't end doesn't end doesn't end" (line 1) as if the singer is a skipping record player.

Notable appearances and recordings

The first official record was the release of a home video in 1988, distributed by Fries Home Video, a subdivision of Fries Entertainment, Inc. A version of the song was used as the closing

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

of ''

Lamb Chop's Play-Along ''Lamb Chop's Play-Along!'' is a half-hour children's television series aimed at toddlers that was shown on PBS in the United States from January 13, 1992, until September 22, 1995, with reruns airing on PBS until January 4, 1998, and on KTV FA ...

'', a 1992

televised Television (TV) is a telecommunications, telecommunication media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of signal transmission, ...

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

show on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. At the end of each episode, the puppets and children sang the verses of the song while hostess

would try in vain to stop them. They would eventually leave on her urging, even while beginning a sixth verse (which eventually fades away). Finally, at the end of the end credits, the puppet character Charlie Horse would return and try to get to sing the song again, until Shari successfully stops him a final time by covering his mouth. She orders him to "go away" (and not bring the song back in her sight ''ever'' again). As he obediently gets out of her sight, he slams the door (before she could tell him ''not'' to). A short rendition of the song appeared in a skit on the animated TV series ''

Cartoon Planet ''Cartoon Planet'' is an American television programming block that originally ran from 1995 to 1998 and 2012 to 2014 on Cartoon Network. A spin-off of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', the series centered on Space Ghost recruiting his imprisoned ...

'' (the skit is also featured on the companion album, ''Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que''). Brak sings the song until he is asked to stop by

Zorak ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' is an American live-action/adult animated hybrid television series created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and first broadcast in 1994. It takes the form of a surreal parody of talk shows, hosted by a reimagine ...

, who finds it annoying. Brak explains that he is unable to because it's the "song that doesn't end." He attempts to continue until Zorak loses his temper, causing Brak to cease, remarking, "I guess it just ended." The song has been adopted as an unofficial

anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

by disparate groups. The Discordian organization (or ''dis''organization) known as POEE has listed the song in their material with claims that it was written by a member, while fans of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the moth ...

adopted a variation, "The Tour That Never Ends", to describe Styx's 400-plus date tour in the late 1990s in support of their album ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hier ...

''. A series of Canadian Motrin pain reliever ads featured kids singing the song in the back of a car, during a traffic jam, while eating

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

-covered

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

beans. In the ''

Annoying Orange ''Annoying Orange'' is an American comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer (known online as DaneBoe). Set in a world of anthropomorphic food, the series follows its titular protagonist, Orange, who always annoys others by telling c ...

'' it appeared in episode "Monster Burger 2", Orange singing it at the beginning, but it's suddenly rips of as he sees the burger. Also, in the ''

'' it appeared episode "A Loud Place", Orange and his friends are singing the song at the beginning of the episode while in a band rehearsing. In season 2 episode 10 of '' Good Girls'', Annie Marks sings the version of the song with the lyrics "This is the song that never ends". In an episode of ''

Smart Guy ''Smart Guy'' is an American sitcom television series centering on the exploits of child prodigy T.J. Henderson ( Tahj Mowry), who moves from being an elementary school student in the fourth grade to a high school student in the tenth grade, at ...

'', Yvette and Moe sing a version of this song to annoy a man while trying to win a car in a competition to see who can stay in the car the longest.

Jordan Raskopoulos Jordan Nicola Bridget Raskopoulos is an Australian comedian, singer, and television personality. She wrote and performed the Network Ten sketch comedy show ''The Ronnie Johns Half Hour'', and was lead singer for comedy rock group the Axis of Aw ...

(formerly of Axis of Awesome) sang a 5 hour 31 minute version (viewable on YouTube) and raised "a bunch of cash" for LGBTQIA+ youth organisation Twenty10. A version of this song is sung in the episode "Puppet Bride" of My Life as a Teenage Robot in an attempt to torment Norma Wakeman. She is rescued by X-J9, prompting her response "Well, what do you know, the song DOES end."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Song That Doesn't End, The Children's songs Playground songs 1988 songs

Lyrics

Variations

Notable appearances and recordings

See also

References