One of our goals this year (2019) is to grow as musicians by writing three songs. We collaborated with a friend on one song to submit to a company for a particular use, so successfully wrote one song. This, though it is a parody (so we didn’t write the melody), I feel counts toward song number two! It really challenged me with lyric writing, plus motivated us to try out video as well as audio recording, and helped us to start our YouTube Channel.
The original song Sweet Violets was originally recorded in 1951 by Dinah Shore and was written by Charles Grean & Cy Coben. This song was from my grandparents’ era. Since my family is rather musical, I grew up with the song and always admired it’s non-rhymes. I actually thought that rewriting the lyrics to that song would make a great gender reveal song when we were coming up with ideas for our first in 2017, but the timing just didn’t work out. I thought that the anticipated rhymes would be a great concept to incorporate as a tease, for instance, leading the reader/listener to think the line would end in boy or girl, and then intentionally not using it.
According to Wikipedia, Sweet Violets is a classic example of a censored rhyme, teasing rhyme, or mind rhyme. Other terms I’ve found in relation to this concept are subverted rhyme and anticipated rhyme. Basically, the lines of the poem lead up to a rhyme that the reader can anticipate, but then a different word is used instead. Here’s some of the lyrics to the original Sweet Violets song:
There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs,
And told her that she has such beautiful
Manners that suited a girl of her charms,
A girl that he’d like for to take in his
Washing and ironing, and then if she did,
They could get married and raise lots of
Sweet violets, sweeter than the roses,
Covered all over from head to toe,
Covered all over with sweet violets.
Rewriting these lyrics was a fun challenge. After finding out our baby’s gender, it took about 2-3 weeks of contemplating words and rhymes until the lyrics were actually complete, then a day to record and another day to edit (we kind of rushed it, since everyone really wanted to know, haha). Please enjoy our video and these [genius] lyrics of our Gender Reveal Song.
Gender Reveal Song Lyrics © Alicia Roland 2019:
A boy met a beautiful girl who he charmed,
She walked down the aisle straight into his
Life, an adventurous ride that’s so wild,
And soon they discovered that they’d have a
Pile of laundry that only grew large,
And her stomach soon grew to the size of a
Cute little melon, a bundle of joy
They had a baby, and it was a
Baby so cute Cuter than all the others
With Mommy’s eyes and Daddy’s grin
A bundle of joy, it’s a baby so cute
Well life kept on going and that child grew
And not too long later they’d have number
Crunching to do with their money was tight
They knew they would forfeit their sleep through the
Weeks turned to months and she started to show
The wife radiated that pregnancy
Sickness that always made her stomach hurl
They went to the doctor who said, “It’s a”
Baby so cute
Cuter than all the others
With Mommy’s eyes and Daddy’s grin
A bundle of joy, it’s a baby so cute
They had to make room for all of the toys
Especially since they were having a
Newborn who’ll cry a lot, eat, poop, and stink
Their kid will go home in the color
Yellow and green as the parents enjoy
The wonders and love of their new little
peanut, a cherished and valuable pearl
How precious it is that they’re having a
Baby so cute
Cuter than all the others
With Mommy’s eyes and Daddy’s grin
A bundle of joy, it’s a baby so cute
(© Alicia Roland 2019)
