School Days (1907 song)
|("When We Were a Couple of Kids")|
Cover, sheet music, 1907
|Written by||Gus Edwards/Will D. Cobb|
"School Days", also known as "School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)", is an American popular song written in 1907 by Will Cobb and Gus Edwards. Its subject is of a mature couple looking back sentimentally on their childhood together in primary school.
The best known part of the song is its chorus:
- School days, school days
- Dear old Golden Rule days
- 'Reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic
- Taught to the tune of the hick'ry stick
- You were my queen in calico
- I was your bashful, barefoot beau
- And you wrote on my slate, "I Love You, Joe"
- When we were a couple o' kids
"School Days" has been recorded many times over the years. Byron G. Harlan was an early recording star who made it a hit. Billy Murray and Ada Jones also sang it as memorable duet, referenced decades later by Tiny Tim on one of his albums, in which he sang both parts, invoking his famous falsetto voice.
Louis Jordan recorded a jump blues version of "School Days" in 1949 under the title "School Days (When We Were Kids)". Although it credited the original songwriters, Jordan's record had little in common with earlier versions of the song other than the words of the chorus. The original melody was replaced with a twelve bar blues and the lyrics of most of the verses were replaced with nursery rhymes.
- "School Days", Byron G. Harlan (Edison Gold Moulded 9562, 1907)—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
- "School Days" (Sheet music)"—The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Johns Hopkins University.
- "School Days" lyrics
- Lyrics to the Louis Jordan version
- Parody lyrics written by Harry H. Montgomery
- Original 1907 Edition