Down by the Station

"Down by the Station"
Song
Written	1948
Writer(s)	Lee Ricks, Slim Gaillard

"Down by the Station" is a popular song written by Lee Ricks and Slim Gaillard in 1948, and most famously recorded by Tommy Dorsey. The song remains popular today as a children’s music standard. The opening lines of the song are: Down by the station, early in the morning, see the little pufferbellies all in a row. The song itself is much older than 1948; it has been seen in a 1931 Recreation magazine.

Whether deliberately copied or not, the tune is very closely related to the chorus of the French/Canadian folk song "Alouette". Although the first line is similar to Alouette, as one of the commenters on the talk page points out, it is more closely related to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," with the first two lines being similar. The third line of "Down by the Station" is higher in pitch than the second, and the fourth line returns to the pitch of the first line (except for a higher pitched or onomatopoetic "Toot! Toot!")

The Four Preps recorded a version of the song in 1959, featuring an entirely different set of lyrics by group members Bruce Belland and Glen Larson.

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Wikipedia