There's A Hole In My Bucket

"There's a Hole in My Bucket" (or "...in the Bucket") is a humorous, classic children's folk song based on a protracted dialogue between two characters, Henry and Liza, about a leaky bucket. Various versions exist but they differ only slightly, all describing a "deadlock" situation essentially as follows: Henry's bucket leaks, so Liza tells him to repair it. To fix the leaky bucket, he needs straw. To cut the straw, he needs a knife. To use the knife, he needs to sharpen it. If the sharpening stone must be damp, he needs water. But to fetch water, he needs the bucket... which has a hole in it.

To commemorate the song, the National Day Calendar organization in Mandan, North Dakota, claims that May 30 every year is "Hole in My Bucket Day".

Melody and lyrics

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Origins and development

The earliest known archetype of this song seems to be in the German collection of songs ''Bergliederbüchlein'' (c 1700). It is set as a dialogue between a woman named ''Liese'', and an unnamed man.

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In later German sources the song is reproduced under the title of "" and credited as a folk song from Hesse. In the 19th century it was sung as a commercium song and printed in the 1858 '' Allgemeines Deutsches Kommersbuch''. The song collection '' Deutscher Liederhort'' (3 volumes, 1856–1894), edited by Ludwig Erk and Franz Magnus Böhme, includes the song, relating it to the Flemish song "Mooy Bernardyn – Wat doet gy in het groene veld?". The German song became even more widespread when it was included in the songbook in 1909.

In George Korson's ''Pennsylvania Songs and Legends'' (1949) there is a song with meter closer to the modern English version and beginning thus:

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This was collected in 1940, and is earlier than any known English-language version. This suggests that it might be a traditional "Pennsylvania Dutch" (i.e. German) song. Ed McCurdy recorded it in 1958 on "Children's Songs". Harry Belafonte recorded it with Odetta in 1960. It reached No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1961. In his book ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singer's Songs, Stories, Seeds, Robberies'' (1993), Pete Seeger refers to it as an originally German song, "Lieber Heinrich". ''Songs Along the Mahantongo: Pennsylvania Dutch Folksongs'' (1951), by Boyer, Buffington, & Yoder, has a version

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These versions all have Henry as the foolish questioner and Liza as the common-sense woman.

Further adaptations

An English version of the song existed by 1937, when it was quoted in the novel ''Starting Point'' by Cecil Day-Lewis.
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In 1953, Flanders and Swann wrote a parody named "There's a Hole in My Budget" satirising the British budget deficit, substituting the Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chancellor Rab Butler for Henry and Liza, respectively. They rerecorded it in 1974, updating the characters to Harold Wilson and Denis Healey.

A Hebrew version ( / "There is a hole in the bucket") was written by Israeli songwriter Dan Almagor and was recorded in 1961, sung by Yossi Banai and Yona Atari.

In a 1966 episode of ''The Dean Martin Show'', Dean Martin and George Gobel sang a version of the song on television. It was also performed by Jim Henson as Henry and Rita Moreno as Liza for a 1976 episode of ''Sesame Street''.

Czech lyrics were written by M. Bukovič, who stayed true to the English lyrics of the song and only translated it (using the names Lojza and Líza as his title) while keeping the rhyme. It was first sung by the band in 1977 by their front man Michal Tučný.

Chumbawamba included a version of one verse of this song titled "Knickers" in their 2000 album ''WYSIWYG''.

The first lines are sung by a Hybrid being in the science-fiction TV series ''Battlestar Galactica'', in the 2009 episode " Islanded in a Stream of Stars." It is a reference to an eternal, unresolvable cycle, an infinite loop, which is relevant to the show's themes.

In the lead up to the 2022 Australian federal election, a version of the song was used by the Liberal Party of Australia in an campaign ad to attack the Australian Labor Party over their alleged deficits and paying for them with new taxes while in government. The advertisement was widely ridiculed as ineffective.

See also

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References

Notes

Citations

External links

Folk Music Index – His to Hol
ingeb.org
*, Harry Belafonte and Odetta on ''Tonight with Belafonte'' (1959)]

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Traditional children's songs
American folk songs
German folk songs
English folk songs
English children's songs
German children's songs
Comedy songs
Male–female vocal duets