Mary Mack

For other uses, see Mary Mack (disambiguation).

"Mary Mack", also known as "Miss Mary Mack", is a clapping game of unknown origin. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".^[1]

Melody Play^ⓘ

Description

In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands according to the rhyming song. In some places, the repeated notes are given a quarter note triplet rhythmic value or sounded early to syncopate the rhythm.

The same song is also used as a skipping-rope rhyme,^[2] although rarely so, according to one source.^[3]

History

An early version of a verse of "Mary Mack" collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania appears in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888).^[4]

Other early sources (1902, 1905) show variations of "She asked her mother for fifty cents to see the elephant jump the fence" with no mention of Mary Mack.^[5][6]

The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. One theory is that Miss Mary Mack was a performer in Ephraim Williams’s circus in the 1880s; the song may be reference to her and the elephants in the show.^{[7][failed verification]} According to another theory, Mary Mack originally referred to the USS Merrimack, an American warship of the mid-1800s named after the Merrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets.^{[citation needed]}

Rhyme

Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes:^[8]

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents, cents, cents

To see the elephants, elephants, elephants

Jump over the fence, fence, fence

They jumped so high, high, high

They reached the sky, sky, sky

And didn't come back, back, back

Till the 4th of July ly ly

Alternate versions use "15 cents", "never came down" and end with repeating "July, July, July".^[9]

An alternate version, sung in Canada and England, includes the words:^{[citation needed]}

She could not read, read, read

She could not write, write, write

But she could smoke, smoke, smoke

Her father’s pipe, pipe, pipe

An alternate version, sung in the American South:^{[citation needed]}

Mary Mack,

Dressed in black,

Silver buttons all down her back.

She combed her hair

And broke the comb

She's gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home

Gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home

The first three lines above are stated in one source to be a riddle with the answer "coffin".^[10]

Clap

A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows:

• Pat arms across chest: Arms across chest
• Pat thighs: Pat thighs
• Clap hands: Clap hands
• Clap right hands together: Clap right palms with partner
• Clap left hands together: Clap left palms with partner
• Clap both hand together
• Clap both palms with partner

See also

• "DemiRep" – a song from the punk rock band Bikini Kill that includes "Mary Mack"
• "Tobacco Origin Story" – a poem by Joy Harjo, which refers to the song
• "Walking the Dog" – 1963 single by Rufus Thomas with lyrics based on "Mary Mack"
• "Witchcraft" – 1989 single by Book of Love with a reference to "Mary Mack"
• "Figaro" – a song on the 2004 album Madvillainy that references "All black like Miss Mary Mack"