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"The Song That Doesn't End" (also referred to as "The Song That Never Ends") is a
self-referential Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...
and infinitely
iterative Iteration is the repetition of a process in order to generate a (possibly unbounded) sequence of outcomes. Each repetition of the process is a single iteration, and the outcome of each iteration is then the starting point of the next iteration. ...
children's song A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...
. The song appears in an album by puppeteer Shari Lewis titled '' Lamb Chop's Sing-Along, Play-Along'', released through a 1988 home video. It is a single- verse-long song, written in an infinite-loop motif in a
march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...
style, such that it naturally flows in a cyclical fashion, repeating the same verse over and over. It is still a very popular tune, typically sung during long car rides. The song was written by Shari Lewis' long time producer Bernard Rothman.


Lyrics

(The song repeats endlessly.)


Variations

Alternative versions of the song use "never ends". Other minor discrepancies in the lyrics may be due to the song being passed in the oral tradition from kid-to-kid. Such differences include "It just goes on and on..." (line 2), "And we’ll continue" (line 4) and " and they continued" (line 4)


Notable appearances and recordings

A version of the song was used as the closing theme of '' Lamb Chop's Play-Along'', a 1992
televised Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move ...
show on PBS. At the end of each episode, the puppets and children sang the verses of the song while hostess Shari Lewis would try in vain to stop them. They would eventually leave on her urging, even while beginning a sixth verse (which eventually fades away). Finally at the end of the end credits, the puppet character Charlie Horse would return and try to get to sing the song again, until Shari Lewis successfully stopped him for real by covering his mouth. Then, Lewis ordered him to "go away" (and not bring the song back in her sight again). As Charlie Horse obediently gets out of Lewis's sight, he slams the door (before Lewis could tell him not to). A short rendition of the song appeared in a skit on the animated TV series ''
Cartoon Planet ''Cartoon Planet'' is an American animated variety show that originally ran from 1995 to 1998 and 2012 to 2014 on Cartoon Network. A spin-off of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', the series centered on Space Ghost recruiting his imprisoned evil nem ...
'' (the skit is also featured on the companion album, ''Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que''). Brak sings the song until he is asked to stop by Zorak, who finds it annoying. Brak explains that he is unable to because it's the "song that doesn't end." He attempts to continue until Zorak loses his temper, causing Brak to cease, remarking, "I guess it just ended." The song has been adopted as an unofficial
anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short s ...
by disparate groups. The
Discordian Discordianism is a religion, philosophy, or paradigm centered on Eris, a.k.a. Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. Discordianism uses archetypes or ideals associated with her. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its "holy book," the ''Pri ...
organization (or ''dis''organization) known as POEE has listed the song in their material with claims that it was written by a member, while fans of the rock band
Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, ...
adopted a variation, "The Tour That Never Ends", to describe Styx's 400-plus date tour in the late 1990s in support of their album ''
Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...
''. A series of Canadian Motrin pain reliever ads featured kids singing the song in the back of a car, during a traffic jam, while eating
chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...
-covered
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...
beans. In the ''
Annoying Orange ''Annoying Orange'' is an American live-action/ animated comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer (known online as DaneBoe). The series follows an anthropomorphic orange who annoys fruits, vegetables, and various other objects by tell ...
'' episode "A Loud Place", Orange and his friends are singing the song at the beginning of the episode while in a band rehearsing. In season 2 episode 10 of '' Good Girls'', Annie Marks sings the version of the song with the lyrics "This is the song that never ends". In an episode of ''
Smart Guy ''Smart Guy'' is an American sitcom television series centering on the exploits of child prodigy T.J. Henderson (Tahj Mowry), who moves from being an elementary school student in the fourth grade to a high school student in the tenth grade, atte ...
'', Yvette and Moe sing a version of this song to annoy a man while trying to win a car in a competition to see who can stay in the car the longest. Jordan Raskopoulos (formerly of
Axis of Awesome An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis *Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
) sang a 5 hour 31 minute version (viewable on YouTube) and raised "a bunch of cash" for LGBTQIA+ youth organisation Twenty10.


See also

* "
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" is a traditional children's song that originates from the United States and Canada. The song consists of one verse repeated (usually four times), each time increasing or decreasing in volume or tempo. Lyrics and m ...
" *
Michael Finnegan (song) "Michael Finnegan" (variant spellings include ''Michael Finnagen'' and ''Michael Vinnegan'') is an unboundedly long song. The origin of the words and music is unknown, but the tune bears similarity to " Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush". The e ...
* Campfire Song Song from SpongeBob's Greatest Hits


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Song That Doesn't End, The Children's songs Playground songs 1988 songs