Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing

DESCRIPTION: "Grandma (Gruff/Grunt) said a curious thing, Boys can whistle but girls must sing." Various people confirm this observation: "[Papa] said to me, 'It's the usual thing For boys to whistles and girls to sing.'" Whistling girls will reportedly meet a bad end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 145, "Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 145, "Whisting Girls and Crowing Hens" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 144, "Grandma Gruff" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 73, "Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 51-52, "Grandma Grunts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7012
NOTES [48 words]: The first place I saw this was in the Prairie Home Companion book, and the Brown and Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection collections prove that it is a genuine folksong. Sadly, the Prairie Home Companion book does not document sources, so we do not know where this song survives. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PHCFS073

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