Yep--In my toddler years I learned to sing "Frosty the Snowman" from a cracked 45rpm--and would sing it all over the house, crack and all!

Well, my goodness.  I still have a landline (not the rotary phone though).  But before 8-Tracks and even cassette tapes, there were 45 rpms that had these inserts and when a record began to skip a penny or two (maybe even a nickle) would to make the record not stutter.  And there was the Western Flyer, the little red wagon, and red ball jets.

Well, for goodness sakes--what did y'all DO with your rotary phones???  Throw them away?

Lovely to have at least one older phone in the house that will still work when the electricity goes out and the cell phones die and can't be recharged!

I remember that you guys did that...don't think I ever saw or heard it though...as you say,not in the public domain.

Jan, Carrie Barnes and I wrote up some silly lyrics for Where O Where Are You Tonight, Hee Haw, song. That was

fun. Unfortunately the tune is not public domain but we still had a blast writing up crazy lyrics....at the expense of the Keanes, LOL. Remember that John? 

Ah, the Green Stamp book...How far we have come!

I've heard you can since any Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas:

THEY say that “time assuages”,—

  Time never did assuage;

An actual suffering strengthens,

  As sinews do, with age.

Time is a test of trouble,  

  But not a remedy.

If such it prove, it prove too

  There was no malady.

Now that's a cheerful little ditty. 

Belonged to a poetry site once that did a lot of parody contests. I did one on 'Windmills Of Your Mind' Titled 'Wind From Her Behind' ... I won ...

A few years ago I went to a Christmas show at Slim's (a club in San Francisco owned by Boz Scaggs) that featured El Vez, the Mexican Elvis impersonator.

For the first song, the band was playing a cover of the Stones's tune "Sympathy for the Devil," you know with the female backup singers doing the "woo woo," and El Vez coming out doing Mick Jagger gangly dance positions and stuff.  He then approached the microphone and everyone expected "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and fame," but instead, El Vez switched into Elvis impersonator mode and sang "Blue Christmas" while the band (including the back-up singers) kept playing "Sympathy for the Devil."

You can't find kitsch like that everyday! The band is called the Memphis Mariachis and the back-up singers are called the Lovely Elvettes. The first time I saw them, at a winery in Napa, the Elvettes wore sombreros over their breasts.

Here is a less elaborate version of what I'm talking about:

Jabberwockey was, I think, the first real poem I memorized, 'way back when...

I'd do you the full lyrics, but I fear the spellchecker already needs extensive therapy :)

That sounds really interesting john-p

"Jabberwockey" sung to he tune of Annan Waters.

You need to tweak the odd line by using the time honoured folk device of adding an '-o' to the end.

Twas brillig and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe - o

Of all the "Amazing Grace/House of the Rising Sun/I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing/Gilligan's Island/Goodnight Irene" mashups my favorite (so far) is Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

Anything goes in 4-line iambic tetrameter.  Personally, I like "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "Freebird" but I wouldn't inflict it on the general public.

Friend of mine has written Florida-specific lyrics to Winter Wonderland.  "Walkin' in a winter wonderland" has a whole new meaning on a beach in December

Jan, we did that for Christmas a couple of years ago and it turned out kinds neat. 

No, not mistakes (like when half the group starts playing "Soldiers' Joy" and the other half start on "Whiskey Before Breakfast")............I'm referring to mix-ups that are done on purpose.  Here are a few examples:

• Take a hymn or Christmas carol that everyone knows and pair the words with a folk tune.  People will listen more closely to the words and may get a new appreciation for the message.
• Take a poem or nursery rhyme and pair it will a well-known tune.  For instance, "Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill"  with "Pop Goes the Weasel"
• Take a simple well-known tune and write some new words for it.  These words might have special meaning for your club, family, church, etc.  I've done this with the "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" song.
• Take a short 4-line hymn or other song and write a new tune for it, following the AABA song structure where the third line is substantially different from lines 1,2, and 4.
• Many are familiar with a hymn like "Amazing Grace" being sung to a tune like "House of the Rising Sun" or "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle".  Some people, however, feel this is irreverent.  So mix things up a little more and take the words to "House of the Rising Sun" and sing them to the tune of "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" or some other silly song.

Have fun!