Marvelous Toy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was just a wee little lad full of health and joy My father homeward came one night and gave to me a toy" which went "zip when it moved and bop when it stopped." He has given it to his son; "Neither one of us knows just what it is, but he loves it"
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (copyrighted 1961)
KEYWORDS: technology campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "The Marvelous Toy" (notes only)
DT, MARVTOY*
NOTES [409 words]: This was Tom Paxton's first song (or, at least, the first one he kept): he reports that, while in the army in the late 1950s, he was assigned to a typing class. But he already knew how to type, so he had nothing to do. Having no choice but to sit with the typewriter, he wrote this song, and the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded it in 1963, then Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969; The Irish Rovers and John Denver also covered it. Thus Paxton's earliest song is among his most popular, if not his most popular of all.
The only book I know of about the Chad Mitchell Trio is by Mike Murphy. Its title? We Never Knew Just What It Was: The Story of the Chad Mitchell Trio (Acorn Publishing; 2021; it gives credit to Chad Mitchell and Mike Kobluk of the Trio for helping with the book).
Paxton wrote the foreword to the Murphy book, and says on pp. vii-viii that, after original member Mike Pugh quit; Paxton temporarily got the job as his replacement. In his brief time with the group, Paxton had played them "The Marvelous Toy." After about a week, Milt Okun concluded that Paxton's voice just didn't blend well with Mitchell's and Kobluk's, so the job went to Joe Frazier instead. But Okun softened the blow by telling Paxton that he wanted "The Marvelous Toy" for his new company Cherry Lane Music (named after Okun's own address), so the song became the first major property of one of the most important Sixties Folk publishers. The Trio recording was the one that put the song out there for the world.
Paxton's conclusion: "In recent years we [i.e. Paxton and the Trio] have done many shows together and I'm usually included in their encores. I like to think that I fill out the Chad Mitchell Quartet very nicely, indeed."
A similar description of the event is in Paxton's own book, Tom Paxton (edited by Milton Okun), The Honor of Your Company, Cherry Lane Music, 2000, p. 22. It shows a cover of the sheet music print, published by the Teena Music Corp.; it has a photo of the Trio on the cover.
The song was also turned into a children's book with illustrations by Steve Cox.
I find it interesting that Tom Paxton has, as of this writing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF540M

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography