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![]() In more recent music culture, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince sampled this song in their hip-hop album Code Red (released in 1993) in a song called "Twinkle, Twinkle (I'm Not a Star)." The most famous Country interpretation of the song is probably " Someone Else's Star," recorded by Bryan White in 1995. In another adaptation, "Little Star" by The Elegants reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958. It makes an appearance in the music of Louis Armstrong's " What A Wonderful World," where a large portion of the melody is quoted in his vocal line, transformed by the use of swing rhythms rather than the conventional straight-eights. But "Twinkle, Twinkle" has also seeped into popular music culture throughout the years. ![]() "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" shares its tune with two other nursery rhymes, namely "The Alphabet Song," and a variation of it in "Baa, baa, black sheep," as well as a variety of Christmas songs from various places in Europe including Germany, Hungary, Spain and The Netherlands. That's right, Led Zeppelin weren't the only ones accused of masking the words of the Devil. It has also been argued that "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are," when played backwards, sounds like "I wish there was no Allah," and in this way the poem has led to widespread atheism among children. With the widespread educational use of this song in the present day western world, this may be one of the first descriptive analogies children come across in their formative years, freeing many children's imaginations in relation to language for the first time. Jane Taylor is very rarely credited with the poetry of this song, which many assume to be a traditional.Īlthough fairly literal, the lyrics of "The Star" contain the simile "like a diamond in the sky." This was possibly intended by the author to facilitate a child's development of imaginative association. The poem was first published with the music in The Singing Master: First Class Tune Book in 1838. This poem was first published in a book called Rhymes for the Nursery, which was written and compiled by Jane and her sister Ann Taylor. W.The traditional song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was based on a poem called "The Star," written in 1806 by the English poet and novelist Jane Taylor, one of the lesser-known poets of the Romantic era. The Annotated Alice (The Definitive Edition). While keeping to the spirit of the poem, cannot easily be sung to the associated tune. For example, this version in obfuscated English (author unknown): The famous first verse has been translated into various languages, with varying results regarding meter and melody. It seems safe to say that this is not the same Taylor, but it's a nice coincidence. The poem and the music probably came together in 1838, in " The Singing Master: First Class Tune-Book" another source places the date as 1881, in " The Franklin Square Song collection".Īn interesting aside is that a recent (1998) children's book based loosely on the poem claims a Jane Taylor as illustrator. (K265/300e) The original author, however, remains unknown. ![]() Many composers wrote variations on this theme, most notably Mozart, who used them as keyboard exercises. (Another source claims the title was " Les amours de Silvandre"). Bouin, " Ah! Vous Dirai-Je Maman", in " Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy" in 1761. The music it is set to is a piece first published by M. It was written by Ann and Jane Taylor (sources differ on whether one or the other wrote it, or if they wrote it together most say it was just Jane) for their book, " Rhymes of the Nursery." The poem, titled " The Star", first saw publication in 1806. The poem known to most is actually just the first verse of a longer poem much like The Star Spangled Banner, most people only know the first verse, and most of those don't realize there are more.
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