While Shepherds Washed Their Socks

DESCRIPTION: "While shepherds washed their socks by night All seated round the tub,
A bar of Sunlight soap came down, And they began to scrub." Or, "While shepherds... While watching MTV The Angel of the Lord came down And switched to BBC."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous | soap television
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 38, 158, "While Shepherds Washed Their Socks" (2 texts, tune referenced)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 226, "(While Shepherds Washed Their Socks)" (1 short text, from user librorumamans, posted October 16, 2025); post 227 (1 mention, from John5918, posted October 16); post 240 (1 mention, from TimSharrock, posted October 18)
Roud #936
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (tune)
NOTES [113 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with the original, "While Shepherds Watched their Flocks." I separate them, because this is clearly a derivative, but I haven't tried to separate all the various gag verses. The Pankakes had two, the "Sunshine Soap" and MTV versions. Users on LibraryThing knew both. John5918 and librorumamans had the "Sunshine soap" verse, essentially verbatim. TimSharrock had the "MTV" verse, but comments, "I know that one as "While watching ITV" - and I think from before MTV was launched in 1981." Which seems much more likely than the Pankake version, as well as probably being older; it's easy to see why an American song would refer to MTV, but why the BBC? - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: PPPH038

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