Added: 4 years ago
From: eshutdown
Views: 161,658
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (193)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Just listened to Mccartneys version, superb

    

  • McCartney has just done a lovely cover of this enchanting song!

  • a classic magical memory from my childhood. Thank you

  • This is great, but don't miss the Sesame Street version.

  • The tune (or rather, the strange melancholy harmony of the Inchworm song with the children's voices) is so beautiful, so brief and so perpetually haunting. I heard this as a child on an old, old LP and it's engraved deep down among the cradle songs.

  • The lyrics I know are " 2 &2 are 4, 4 & 4 r 8, that's all you have on your business like mind."

  • This makes me incredibly happy and sad at the same time...

  • Love this song. Though it should properly "2 and 2 IS 4," not "are."

  • @FortOrdRecUsers we are adding two numbers '2 and 2' plural 'are'.

  • 1952

  • What year did this come out?/.

    

  • Two and two are four, four and four are eight, eight and eight are sixteen.....didn´t we all go through class like this? And how I miss it....

  • my children all love this film ..my youngest is 4

  • One of my favorit songs! i grew up on it.... Still beautiful !

  • If anyone has a problem with this tune, then go

    else where!

  • Thank you.

  • Such an underrated talent, it breaks my heart that everybody in the world hasn't grown up with his films

  • @ecureuil85 Wow....we think the same, i even named my son Daniel because Danny Kaye was such an influence in my life <3

  • One of the best entertainers

  • this has always been one of my favorite movies, and this was my favorite song. ^_^. Thank you so much for this flash of my childhood.

  • Just lovely. Takes me back to simpler times, like childhood.... Awesome post!!!

  • Dedicated to RJ Diaz.

  • the teacher looks like cosmo kramer

  • What a great movie - Hans Christian Anderson - with SUCH beautiful music by Frank Loesser. This song seems especially touching to me - so simple and yet so melodically inviting. Just gorgeous. Just wish it was longer, but that is also part of it's beauty. Love this music. And Danny Kaye, whatever his other shortcomings, was perfect in this role.

  • @microdon2 It´s Andersen, If he were swedish it would be Anderson, but Andersen in danish

  • kiss me deeply as this plays. its all i dream

  • Excelente, ver e ouvir as obras de Hans Christian Andersen, faz-me pensar que sendo ele o primeiro criador de contos infantis...sem qualquer formação literária, e tendo ele passado pelos problemas sociais que passou!!! á mais de um céculo, com a perfeição que apresentava, e apresentam seus contos..chego á conclusão que falar, escrever, cantar, pintar, ensinar enfim, é para quem Deus deu o Don.

  • My gran used to sing me this song when I was 2 or 3 years old! Im 21 now and I've only just remembered it!

  • The part of the song where the kids keep singing "2 and 2 are 4 (etc.)" used to sound funny to me, but now I find it annoying.

  • @cbsteffen that's the point, it's monotonous and the beat falls on an off word, it signifies the boredom and discomfort of their schoolday.

  • What film is this from? Does anyone know??

  • @Undercovertheory Hans Christen Anderson, an old Musical

  • @xdarkfirex Is that the title of the Musical or is it called something else?

  • This song is beautiful and beautifully done but it's too short. Should have had more verses. Danny sings this beautifully. Makes me feel better and I love it so much.

  • I honestly remember learning this song to help me with math.

  • I love Danny Kaye Movies. I fell in love with this song when I was a child. I thought the song was longer tho!! lol But he had such an amazing voice and talent

  • I log on to watch this all the time. It's good for the soul hehe :)

  • Frank Loesser, who wrote this and all the truly wonderful songs in the movie Hans Christian Andersen, is quite simply one of the greatest songwriters of all time...unbelievable humanity in all he creates. To think he also wrote Baby It's Cold Outside, the scores to Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. I am in awe. Danny Kaye is a genius too. Did you know he was a gourmet chef and a pilot among all his other talents?

  • DId u know that David Bowie based a bunch of his songs off of this. For example, Ashes to Ashes.

  • DId u know that David Bowie based a bunch of his songs off of this.

  • He was my favourite when I was a child...with Gene Kelly

  • @OsjeckaJugoslavenka HECK YES! Gene Kelly & Danny Kaye FTW!

  • Lovely old song....Wouldn't work with centimetres though - would it?

  • This is a song in my head... It bring to me my memories of those times when I read books to children at the library..... So fun to dress up like Mother Goose and read to the children... Was surrounded by a sea of innocent faces, eager sailor listeneres on a voyage of imagination, ease smile so yet untouched by what a challenge the world really is.

  • @aprilangel916 May God bless you for it.

  • David Bowie's favorite song..

  • its about the sifting sands of time.. its beautiful.

  • It always had a meloncholy melody, its true, but was beautiful nevertheless I agree with RayfeldA...its a little deeper than a worm and math...a true classic song and performer...loved it then and still do now...I'm 58.

  • I love This. movie It was soooooo sad, and this song also made me frikin depressed. WAaaaahhhhh! Poor, HCA, POOR danny kay, why were people so CRUEL to him? Waaaahha, lol.

  • we're singing this song for choir

  • I love this movie!*^^* I'm so sad the the VHS we have of it skipps and stuff.T_T Danny Kaye is the best.*^^*

    every time someone hits the dislike button, a merigold dies.-_-

  • I is a loving an tender song, delivered by a wonderful actor, Danny Kaye (in spite of that insipid kid who cannot act his way out of a paper bag.)

  • wow danny Kaye is in this , what is the movie called ? 

  • @Niff4me It's called Hans Christian Anderson .. one of his greatest movies to me.

  • I was watching this movie on a local TV network (many years ago...pre-video days) with anticipation of hearing this beautiful song. Just when Danny began singing, the TV station cut to a commerical! The entire song was deleted from viewing. I was sorely disappointed, and frankly more than miffed!

  • @jsbach15 Argh! I feel your pain!

  • Connie Francis performed this song beautifully with a children's choir on her 1961 television special "Connie Francis: Kicking Sound Around."

  • what's this? The americans made a movie about HC? WAY TO GO! *HAPPINESS*

  • Straight up quote from Wikipedia .. " In recent times some literary studies have speculated about the homoerotic camouflage in Andersen's works".

    Michael Jackson's favorite movie.

    Yup - buy it and teach your kids to accept pedophiles advances.

  • @FreewheelinPhrank Andersen had a great style, yes I know it's translated into English. Some of his stories were very sad and some were very scary for me as a kid, like the Little Match Girl and the Snow Queen. But when he was at his best, his writing is amazing and he is one of the greats. He had a lot of issues from childhood abuse, but his heart was big and I do not believe he was anything but good to children.

  • @Harlequin1998 As a matter of fact, when his stories first were published, they were said to be "harmful to children". But now, almost every danish kid has a book with some of his fairytales, and we learn about him in school. He's a "national treasure", so to say. 

  • boring looking for more crying

  • you got that right, creaturebotman...that letter is my a treasure to me. Danny Kaye was the best.

  • Mary Hopkin, a folksinger from Wales I think, has a beautiful version of this on her album called "Postcard", which is available on CD. It is issued on the Beatles' Apple record label.

  • Math makes everyone cry.

  • @pbrown LOL!!! 2b or not 2b...What was the question?

  • I''am an Inventor/Engineer ... I use to use this song all the time when trying to read binary numbers from a computer. All my Brother and Sister nerds know what I'm talken Bout. ;-)

  • YEAH!

    And how bout that Puff that Magic Dragon song?

    That's another one!

    I don't even really know what the song is about but...

    .

    There's just something that t gets me about a Dragon living by the sea frolicking in the Autumn mist. Then on top of that its got a cute name like PUFF!

    Then...

    I think he dies or something...Hey ...I was about 7 years old when I heard this song. Yeah this one really gets me going... I mean MAN! WTF!

  • WOW! It has been YEARS since i've heard this song! I used to sing this song long long ago.

  • That boy looks like Peter Pan...

  • creaturebotman ~ Your comment made me smile. I'm 52 now, and I just came in from watching the tiniest inchworm I ever remember seeing. I loved playing with them when I was a kid! I don't think there's anything wrong with you at all. (=

    I had to look up the song because I couldn't remember the words (merigolds to be exact.)

  • I remember them playing this on the radio when they announced his death. Im a dude.. and I teared up when I heard this. Something magical with people like Danny Kaye that I miss in the present world today.

  • :-)

  • you can't compare this to lil wayne xd

  • The math chanting part of this song popped into my head randomly earlier...i just had to hear it. Glad i was able to find it here. This is a good movie!

  • I didn't knew you made a movie about H.C. Andersen. I've seen a couple of danish movies about him but never this one. He does deserve respect. He was one great man!

  • @1994Andersen

    awesome story teller

    they are translated into English and told to all children around the world..(probably all other languages too)

    he is celebrated worldwide.

    my absolute favorite is great caus little claus...

    better than Grim brothers.

  • @homersparents Yes! Great Claus, Little Claus! I loved that story! He told many stories with sadness, many with dark elements...that was one of my favorites, too.

  • <3 love love love love love :) this song were singing it in our concert :D XD thanks for the vid. clip :0

  • I used to have this on a cassette tape (oh memories) when I was little and I remember being SOOOO excited when we were told we were going to perform it in a school concert because I already knew the song :D

    Ahh to be six years old again...

  • lovely song , the children's choir sounds mysterious somehow ...

    i love Andersen !^^

  • I distinctly remember having scarlet fever and watching this film when i was 5. I just now read that it was David Bowie's favorite song as a child of 5, so I came to come relive some memories. Well worth it.

  • 16 an16 is 36 anyway, my teacher says so.

  • No, the song is right. Do the math, or use a calculator.

  • No, your teacher's an idiot- it's 32- they're adding....

  • Your teacher must be from my generation. Check out Tom Lehrer's song "New Math." Then you'll understand.

  • Danny Kaye is my favorite of all time. I even wrote him a letter when I was four, and got a letter back from him! This is so sweet...

  • @HeidiSue60 sweet man... <3

  • @HeidiSue60 ~~~~

    Umm... 4 years old?

    We all used to write letters like that at that age.

    Mainly to Santa.

    He replied too.

    Dad helped me because I was too small to reach the mailbox

    (Wink)

    I'm just saying...

  • @creaturebotman Except I wrote (I dictated; my mom wrote the words) to Santa and never got a reply. The letter is legit. Danny Kaye wrote back.

  • @HeidiSue60 Then you got the most precious letter any child could want.

    A reply back from Danny Kaye is way better than a letter from Santa.

  • @HeidiSue60 Hate to break it to you, but Danny Kaye was notoriously mean spirited. Check out biographies about him.

  • @TabletopBarbies

    That raises an interesting contrast, that between the amiable public persona of a celebrity and their private personality. What to make of it?

  • I loved this movie when I was little. Isn't Danny Kaye great in this part? So many great stories and songs within this movie. What a beautiful melodic voice he had.

  • Beautiful song with a beautiful and strong message.

  • @Geminii27

    Now say that 3 times fast lol.

  • all i can think about is

    2 and 2 is 4

    4 and 4 is 8

    8 and 8 is 16

    16 and 16 is 32

    :|

  • I had a tape with this song for all my childhood, I used to listen to it every night. I never knew where the songs came from, but I'm glad I do now. This is making me misty eyed already.

  • NO

    WAY

    ME TOO!! I loved Danny Kaye when i was little, couldn't get to sleep without it!

  • This was my lullaby for seven years, i still listen to it help calm me. Great song, thx for putting it up!

  • same for me! i just found this today and was shocked to tears lol

  • When I can't sleep, I play this song. I'm getting sleepy listening to it right now as I'm typing this.

  • I get to sing this in choir 2moz!!! yay!!! beaut song

  • I first heard this song on a public radio station and was struck by how peaceful and beautiul it is.

  • This is possibly one of the briefest yet most sensitive moments of the entire movie! but it's also telling that in this instant gratification age where everything is immediate and faster, it's difficult for younger ppl to appreciate movies in this era. I grew up in the 80s on alot of DK movies. immensely sad when he died.

  • ijst had to sing this for a play i did and i was the lead and singin this alone is kinda scary cux of al da high nots

  • I don't know why but this song always used to make me CRY when I herd it as a kid.

    I am 52 now and I still tear up when I hear it.

    Its just about a freakin worm and math!

    WTF's wrong with me!

  • Brilliant song cause of contrast tween cold rationality drilled into kids vs imagination & 'carpe diem' message of Hans. Poignant w/ tone of nostalgia & loss and relentless progression of numbers, representing passage of childhood: what adds up are years...& they add up quickly. Hans' lyrics see kids from distance, but kids themselves (like inchworms) may miss how wonderful are the years they measure out (marigolds). School focused on "going far," but Hans focused on not missing childhood.

  • It's the quiet, sad, reflective juxtaposition of one person's personal appreciation of nature against the regimented, impersonal mass education framework.

    Although nothing can be done to change the latter, the simple existence of the former is classic pathos.

  • Why do you think nothing can be done to change regimented, impersonal mass education?

  • Agreed all the way, except I'm 41. :P

  • @creaturebotman

    that's too funny.  childhood memories are so strong. I cry every time I listen to Beethoven's 6th symphony, because one of the melodies was a lullaby sung to me when I was little.

  • @creaturebotman you and david bowie

  • @creaturebotman It's okay, I don't cry during the most depressing movies but then various Disney movies get me all choked up. Or things like the song "Puff the Magic Dragon". Haa.

  • Comment removed

  • @creaturebotman Just this week, this song came to me while I was driving to work, and started to "tear up" so much I had to wait to go into work. I don;t know why I thought of it. The song made me thing about life, daily toil, but not stopping to see how bearutiful the marigolds or "people" are in my life. Oh one more thing, I am 52.

  • @creaturebotman Well, my goodness you! It's because it's a lovely song and you have a heart. :)

  • @skinnyblinddude ~~~~~~ Sniff! AWW SUCKS! I listen to this song AND while reading your reply comment! Thanks! Now I'm really soaked in tears! ~~~~~~~ You said..  "....it's a lovely song and you have a heart" ~~~~~~~ OH GAWD! and Danny Kay...singing that song! Awww wwwaa waaa waaa TOO MUCH! :-)
  • @creaturebotman --- i feel the same way..... it's sooo sweet and yet sad... Glad I'm not the only one... lol

  • @creaturebotman Nothing is wrong with you or anybody who loves beautiful music. Certain musical combinations (sharps/flats) have been shown to produce an emotionally response when played in a particular pattern.

  • @creaturebotman I think it's more about how the children were all crammed up in the school and they weren't living out their happy childhoods in the outside. It's probably something deep like that because notice how as he sings he keeps looking back at the schoolhouse.

  • @creaturebotman well don't feel alone. everytime i watch this movie and hear the song i tear up as well ... it's a great moving song.

  • @creaturebotman We sang it in our school choir in 1967...the music teacher had a heck of a time teaching elementary school children with no music background to sing both of these parts together. I kept wanting to listen to the Sopranos sing their part.

    It is a beautiful song though.

  • @creaturebotman Is it really just about a worm and math? What this song says to Me is that so many of us go through life working so hard as the years fly by, worrying about things beyond our control that we to rarely take the time to stop and notice just how wonderful life is until were about to lose it. Thus it's a sad true thought that seems to ring through this melody. It seems somewhat subconscious maybe.

  • @RayfieldA ...

    Yeah I think you are right. This song also reminds me of the song "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles. It carrys a simular theme in the melody.

  • @RayfieldA Beautifully stated.

  • @RayfieldA The symbolism is so haunting..

  • @creaturebotman Wow,Im 56 now and when I was a kid it had same effect on me,& still does

  • @creaturebotman nothing u just have a good taste in beautiful music and it prob, made u cry bc its so beautiful i cry about it 2 :D

  • @creaturebotman The song does me the same way.I am 24 but watched this movie when I was little and now I show it to my son.The movie,let alone this song,has stuck woth me all through these years but none more so than this song :-)

  • @creaturebotman nothing is wrong with you!! :) you're just a 'tender heart' and that movie was so much about the loneliness of the odd man out.Danny Kaye portrayed it so well; the perfect 'happy-sad' face. Feelings etched into my heart. i watched that movie every chance they'd show it on tv when i was growing up and it still touches all those little pains i felt growing up. nothing like good song writer with a good movie and a good actor to ping the heart strings.

  • @creaturebotman... I can't believe so many people feel the same way I do.

    It warms my heart that here are a lot of people like me who are kid at heart.

    But then again Danny Kaye has that effect. I guess the best word is "Enchanting"

  • @creaturebotman Not a damn thing.

  • @creaturebotman...You are not alone! This song used to make me cry too.

  • @creaturebotman my guess would be, and this is me talking from my own 55 yr old perspective, is that it makes us cry because it is about both the tasking we are made to do to grow out of childhood, and the yearning as an adult for that time.

  • @SacMyk ...

    Well said...

    It kinds of make me feel the same way as the Beatle's "No Where man"

  • I had to sing this at Whitman Middle School around 1991. I never knew it was in this movie.

  • /watch?v=fFH0khjgA0U

  • I am singing this W-H-O-L-E WHOLE song in chorus and shut up with the rude comments!!!

  • i love this.. thanks for postin.. i used to sing it all the time

  • THANK YOU!!!!!!!! for uploading this the best lullaby in the world.

  • allways loved this movie when i was little

  • Ya'll talk a lot of shit about nothing but a little fluff of a song some guy thought up to help him with math. Its cute, and probably helped at least one person. Come up with one thing in your life thats probably helped as many people, then you have the right to be pedantic.

  • How lovely.

  • Oh, another anti-math song. Perhaps if Herr Andersen had memorized his multiplication tables he wouldn't be fixing smelly shoes for a living.

  • I couldn't agree more. There's always this slam against those of us conversent with science and mathematics that we cannot appreciate beauty.

    Bullshit! I know art better than you guys know science. It has always made me wonder why my engineering colleagues do in their spare time what the liberal arts guys do full time and complain about it.

    And, in college, I never saw anyone drop out of English and go into Engineering.

  • ah well, that's people for you. I'm not fond of math or engineering stuff like that at all but I know my brother is and he does have an eye for beauty so yeah its not fair to assume intelligence can't see beauty.

  • Yeah, it's like that episode of NORTHERN EXPOSURE where Maurice buys the antique German clock and expects it to be perfectly accurate. The clocksmith is angered by his insensitivity to the clock's beautiful mechanics and at the end of the episode we hear this song with a montage of everyone quietly ending their day.

  • ----Point----

    ---Your head--

    Cultural osmosis and a thirty second youTube clip does not enable you to critique a movie, I'm afraid. If you'd actually seen the movie in question, you'd be more than aware that it's not an "ant-math" song, but rather decrying the educational methods of the time, which focused on the rod and on rote methods, which allowed for no real understanding or appreciation of the subject matter in question.

  • One comment does not enable you to tell if I've seen the whole movie, obviously, since I *have* seen it. (I was angry when HCA was driven out of town, for instance) Perhaps if you'd tutored students in college algebra who have to take 20 hours to do their homework every week because their grade school teachers' ideology set them up to have to pick up a calculator every time they have to figure out 5 x 7, you'd appreciate that "rod and rote" methods do have their place in education.

  • we did this song at school

  • Dear Morgan you are a elf. You are so cute... I could just pinch your cheeks and hug you.

    hahaha...

    You big wiener.

    That's right I said wiener!

  • My daughter LOVES when I sing this song!!!! It makes her giggle...

  • i was hanging fresh mistletoe and an inchworm came out of it! i remembered this song from when i was little [i loved the movie, my brothers hated it!] so i looked it up to show my niece and nephew. at 15, i still love this movie.

  • That boy sure looks like Peter Pan. O_o And it's not even H.C.Andersen's story... There's just a boy who looks exactly like Peter Pan.

  • This is such a BEAUTIFUL video! Thank you so much for posting this! 5 Stars!....:) Karen

  • you can find this movie on TV alot around the Holidays inparticular Thanksgiving, amazon is a good place to look for it............

  • I am so glad I have this movie it's timeless, and so beautiful. Love Danny so much xxxxx

  • Our family loves him so much, too. We grew up with him...such a fine, decent lovely human being...married and in love with the same woman his whole life, never anything bad spoken of him, everyone who met him loved him, too. Wish he was still here.

  • Bless your heart, me too I wish he was still here, such a Magic Man, and so decent yes, for many years with the same woman and a heart of Gold, I miss him so much it hurts! I think about him all the time in fact when my father was younger he looked just like him, but with darker hair God Bless xxxxxx.

  • I like this song. My mother used to sing it to me when I was little.

  • so did mine :o)

  • Thank you eshutdown for this posting.

    In our new textbook, on number theory for p-5 teachers, is an illustration from Hans Christian Anderson and the lyrics for "Inchworm." I asked the class if anyone knew about this song. Only one young lady raised her hand. I asked her if she could sing it. To our surprise she gave us a very beautiful rendition. I told the class that the song must be somewhere on Youtube and to find it and listen.

    Thanks again.

    2 and 2 are 4. 4 and 4 are 8.....

  • this film is call just hans christian anderson but i have no clue where to find it .i have it on video but we have no video player any more lol

  • i wanna see this movie now too

  • what is the name of this movie and where can i get it/ rent it???

  • The name of this movie is Hans Christain Andersen and I'm sure you can get it where movies are sold.

  • well i don't want to buy it untill i see it - i was trying to find it at the library but they didn't have it --- thanks:)

  • trust me its a great movie! i grew up watching it. if you have kids (or know any) they will love it. guaranteed or your money back :-)

  • I never learned my times tables that way! It's so much easier isn't it, if you sing it! Oh and I just ADORE this movie! The scenery is so beautiful! It reminds me of when I used to live in England! One of my all-time favorite movies! :)

  • Pink Floyd were so cute ...

  • Mr.Kaye would perform this tune again many years

    later on"The Muppet Show"on tv to a "Muppet"inchworm.

  • Danny Kaye is brilliant!