"Pop! Goes the Weasel" is a nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249. LyricsThere are many different versions of the lyrics to the song. In England, most share the basic verse:

Half a pound of tuppenny rice, Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes, Pop! goes the weasel.
Often a second verse is added:

Every night when I get home The monkey's on the table,
Take a stick and knock it off, Pop! goes the weasel.

Origins - The song is mentioned in November, 1855 in England in the Thirtieth Annual Report Of The National Society For Promoting The Education Of The Poor,[2] including alternative, more wholesome lyrics. A music sheet acquired by the British Library in 1853 described a dance, 'Pop! Goes the Weasel', which was, according to the music sheet, 'An Old English Dance, as performed at Her Majesty's & The Nobilities Balls, with the Original Music'. It had a tune very similar to that used today and only the words "Pop! Goes the Weasel". There is evidence that several people tried to add lyrics to the popular tune. The following verse had been written by 1856 when it was quoted in a performance at the Theatre Royal:

Up and down the City Road In and out the Eagle
That's the way the money goes Pop! goes the weasel.

American versionsThe song seems to have crossed the Atlantic in the 1850s where US newspapers soon afterwards call it "the latest English dance", and the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel" soon took hold. The following lyrics were printed in Boston in 1858:

All around the cobbler's house, The monkey chased the people.
And after them in double haste, Pop! goes the weasel.

In 1901 in New York the opening lyric was:

All around the chicken coop, The possum chased the weasel.

The most common recent version was not recorded until 1914. In addition to the three verses above, American versions often include some of the following:

All around the Mulberry Bush, The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, (or The monkey stopped to pull out his glock or The monkey stopped to scratch his nose)
Pop! goes the weasel.
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Contemporary verses in the United States include these:

All around the mulberry bush (or cobbler's bench)
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun, (or "'twas all in good sport") (or "that it was a joke")
Pop! goes the weasel.
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle—
That's the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Jimmy's got the whooping cough
And Timmy's got the measles
That's the way the story goes
Pop! goes the weasel.

There are numerous American versions[5] as printed in Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume III, pp. 368-369. Randolph's #556, the A text. Collected 1926 from Mrs. Marie Wilbur of Pineville, Missouri.

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