Mary Had A Little Lamb

Words & Music:

Sarah Josepha Hale (1830), Tune Unknown

 

Stevie Ray Vaughan has a great blues cover of this on his album Texas Flood.  That version is fully transcribed in the November 2006 issue of Guitar One.  Mary was a real person - one Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, born in 1812 - and her birthplace survived in Sterling, MA until 2008, when it was torched by a couple of dink boys.  History lost forever...

 

C                       G7           C

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.

C                           F          G7       C

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

 

Everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went,

Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

 

It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day.

It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules.

 

It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play.

It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school.

 

And so the teacher turned it out, turned it out, turned it out,

And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near

 

And waited patiently about, patiently about, patiently about,

And waited patiently about 'til Mary did appear.

 

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?  Love Mary so? Love Mary so?"

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?", the eager children cry.

 

"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."

"Loves the lamb, you know, loves the lamb, you know"

"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.", the teacher did reply.

 

The provenance of the attached easy arrangement is unknown.  It is part of a collection that people gave me over the years.  Please inform me if correctly attribute it.