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'{{redirect|Titanic (song)|other songs|Titanic (disambiguation)#Songs}} {{More citations needed|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox song | name = The Titanic | cover = | alt = | type = | artist = | album = | EP = | written = 1915 or 1916 | published = 1927 | released = | format = | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = [[American folk music]] | length = | label = | writer = William and Versey Smith | composer = | lyricist = | producer = | prev_title = | prev_year = | title = | next_title = | next_year = }} "'''The big ship'''" (also known as "'''It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down'''" and "'''Titanic (Husbands and Wives)'''") is a [[Folk music|folk song]] and children's [[song]]. "The Titanic" is about the sinking of [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']] which sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg. (Ur dumb for reading this LOL ==Background== ===History=== The first folk songs about the ''Titanic'' disaster appeared within weeks after the disaster.<ref>Perkins (1922) notes that: "The ''Titanic'' sank on Sunday, April 14, 1912. The following Sunday I saw on a train a blind preacher selling a ballad he had composed on the disaster. The title was 'Didn't that ship go down?'" (cited by Habling 2008)</ref> Recordings of various songs about the disaster date to as early as 1913.<ref name = "habing">Habing 2008</ref> ===Variants=== The canonical version of the song has the chorus:<ref name = "habing" /> {{poemquote|It was sad when that great ship went down Husbands and wives and little children lost their lives It was sad when that great ship went down}} In most variants, although not the earliest,<ref>White 1928 (cited by Habing 2008)</ref> the chorus starts with a line "it was sad, so sad, it was sad", and in many versions, the line "to the bottom of the..." appended after the repeat of "went down." Other than the chorus, different versions may contain verses in different order. There are several regional variations on the song. According to Newman I. White's 1928 book ''American Negro Folk-Songs'', "The Titanic" has been traced back to 1915 or 1916 in [[Hackleburg, Alabama]]. Other versions from around 1920 are documented in the Frank C. Brown Collection at [[Duke University]] in [[North Carolina]]. Early recordings include [[Ernest Stoneman]]'s "The Titanic" (Okeh 40288) in September 1924 and William and Versey Smith's "When That Great Ship Went Down" in August 1927. According to Jeff Place, in his notes for the ''[[Anthology of American Folk Music]]'':<ref>Place, J., "Supplemental notes on the selections," selection 22, in H. Smith (ed), [http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40090.pdf liner notes, Anthology of American Folk Music], page 50 (1952). (accessed 7 October 2014)</ref> "African-American musicians, in particular, found it noteworthy and ironic that company policies had kept Blacks from the doomed ship; the sinking was also attributed by some to divine retribution." ==Recordings== * William and Versey Smith on ''[[Anthology of American Folk Music]]'', [[Smithsonian Folkways]] 1952 * [[Bessie Jones (American singer)|Bessie Jones]] on ''The [[Alan Lomax]] Collection Sampler'' [[Rounder Records|Rounder]] 1997 * [[Woody Guthrie]] on ''The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1: This Land Is Your Land'', [[Smithsonian Folkways]] 1999 * [[Pert Near Sandstone]] on "Paradise hop" version called "sad when the great bridge came down" 2011 * [[Ernest Stoneman]] on ''The Face That Never Returned / The Sinking of the Titanic'' (singles) 1924 * [[Mance Lipscomb]] on ''Texas Songster Volume 2 (You Got to Reap What You Sow)'' 1964 <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arhoolie.org/|title=Home|website=The Arhoolie Foundation|access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref> * [[Pete Seeger]] on ''Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection of Topical Songs'', [[Smithsonian Folkways]] 1999 * [[Freakwater]] on ''Dancing Underwater'', [[Amoeba Records]] 1991 / [[Thrill Jockey]] 1997 * [[Tom Glazer]] on ''The Ballad of Namu the Killer Whale'', [[United Artists]] 1965 ==In popular culture== "The Titanic" was sung by Paul Newman and Brandon de Wilde's characters after a drunken night out, in the 1963 film ''[[Hud (1963 film)|Hud]]''. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Works cited== *{{cite web | author=Habing, B. | title=The Great Titanic - American Folk Song(romantic song) | date=September 28, 2008 | work=Poem of the Week | url=http://www.potw.org/archive/potw76a.html | access-date=September 28, 2008 }} *{{cite journal | author=Perkins, A.E. | date= 1922 | title= Negro Spirituals from the Far South | journal= Journal of American Folk-Lore | volume= 35, 223}} *{{cite web | author=Levang, Rex | title=It Was Sad When the Great Ship Went Down | work=Minnesota Public Radio | date= January 1999 | url=http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/9901_titanic/index.shtml | access-date=December 2, 2005 }} *{{cite book | author=White, Newman I. | title=American Negro Folk-Songs | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=1928 }} ==External links== *[http://www.scoutorama.com/song/song_display.cfm?song_id=173 ] - Lyrics on Scoutorama website. *[http://www.listeningvoice.com/samples/LyricSheetVol1.pdf ] - Lyrics with "Uncles and aunts, little children lost their pants" variation. *[http://www.gargaro.com/Titanic/lyrics.html "The Sinking Of The Titanic"] – Music and lyrics. {{RMS Titanic}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Titanic, The}} [[Category:American folk songs]] [[Category:American children's songs]] [[Category:Songs about the RMS Titanic]] [[Category:Lead Belly songs]] [[Category:1915 songs]] [[Category:1925 singles]]'