With a song about a dog and lots of clapping, what’s not to like? Perhaps this is the secret of the BINGO Song’s popularity as it’s been around for more than two centuries in one form or another. There is nothing really much to the song, but its fun repetitions and the fact it misses a letter out which needs to be filled in with silence beat or clapping has meant it still endures as a firm children’s favorite today.
The very first version was recorded in London in 1785 on a collection of children’s songs, “The Humming Bird”. This song was very similar but had no clapping, and it was called “A Farmer’s Dog Leapt O’er the Stile”.
The modern version of the song most frequently used today helps to teach letters, and gradually replaces letters of the word “BINGO” with clapping or stomping, or sometimes just a beat of silence.
BINGO Song Lyrics
There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.
There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
(clap)-I-N-G-O
(clap)-I-N-G-O
(clap)-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.
There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
(clap)-(clap)-N-G-O
(clap)-(clap)-N-G-O
(clap)-(clap)-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.
BINGO Song Music Sheet
