S-M-I-L-E

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it isn't any trouble just to S-M-I-L-E (x2), So smile when you're in trouble, It will vanish like a bubble If you'll only take the trouble just to S-M-I-L-E." Similarly, one may G-R-I-N, grin, or L-A-U-G-H, or say Ha ha ha ha ha
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #420, p. 103, "It Isn't Any Trouble" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123, "A Laugh Provoker" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 1, "S-M-I-L-E" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 39, "Smile Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 168, 263, 517, "It Isn't Any Trouble Just To S-M-I-L-E" (notes only)
Roud #27100
NOTES [92 words]: I find it hard to believe that this is truly traditional; it's one of those things that someone wrote, then various people recorded (Ed McCurdy being the one I remember it from; apparently Barney the Dinosaur did it decades later), and then it got into camps. But Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs found it to be quite common, and no one seems to know who wrote it (camp songbooks being amazingly lax about authorship), so here it is.
Harbin lists the tune as "John Brown's Body." The way I learned it is similar to, but not quite the same as, that melody. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF125S

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