thread of chronicling songs kids sing on the school bus

I chaperone my daughter's school field trips as often as I can. Sometimes one or more kids will spontaneously break into song. Starting with this school year's trips, I'm just going to use this thread as a log of the songs I hear on the bus.

October 21, 2022 - zoo - Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)

November 18, 2022 - art museum - no singing

February 9, 2023 - natural history museum - Low by Flo Rida ft. T-Pain (2007)

And of course, if you also chaperone your kids' school trips or are a school bus driver or something, please feel free to join in.

That is one heck of a lot of field trips in a single school year(!)

October 21, 2022 - zoo - Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)

February 9, 2023 - natural history museum - Low by Flo Rida ft. T-Pain (2007)

need to know if the singing was on the way to the zoo/natural history museum or on the way back (or both)

Good point! Both songs were on the way back to the school.

As far as frequency, my kid is part of the STEM magnet program. They have an increased number of field trips.

I have been on a fair number of field trips with my children but I haven't observed any singing. My eldest sings show tunes, but not on the bus.

Tangent: The song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" makes no sense. Who keeps bottles of beer on the wall? How are they even attached?

Also, if you have 99 bottles, there's no need to take one down and pass it around. Just give everyone their own bottle. Much more hygienic and more efficient.

Like, who wants to be the fourth or fifth person to drink out of a bottle of beer? And while it's being passed around, you're just, like waiting. It's stupid. There is plenty of beer.

glad the kids chose that T-Pain song and not "I'm In Luv with a Stripper"

singing 99 bottles of beer on the bus is about at the level of "doing the wave" at a sporting event for me. take that as you will.

xxp The bottles are on a shelf! And "pass it around" does mean give everyone their own bottle; you're passing each new one thru the packed room. (Not sure why a crowd would want to drink warm beer...)

i went to an assembly at my kids middle school bc my son was getting a science fair prize. i got there a little early and they were playing a game where they were playing songs over the speakers, and when they paused, teams would have to buzz in to try and sing the next line of the song. most of the songs were pretty standard modern pop songs (justin beiber, taylor swift, olivia rodrigo), but the last song was "never gonna give you up" by rick astley, and when it came on the kids LOST. THEIR. SHIT. it was pandemonium in the gymnasium.

Yeah, it's a whole thing. The other day, my kid was doing a Fun Run at his school – and at one point, the dad acting as DJ/hypeman "Rick-rolled" everyone

(and, to be clear, the kids know what that means... it wasn't just his private dad joke)

“waterfalls” (just the chorus) summer of 95 (? whatever year they played it on the radio every 20 minutes)

Circa ‘95 a Jazzer friend was volunteering in the neighborhood school, playing piano for the chorus. One day the director was sick so he was in charge and let the kids choose what they wanted to sing. He found himself backing a whole room of middle schoolers in a rousing rendition of “Ill Make Love to You”.

the only song I can remember kids singing on the bus during my own schooldays is Boom Boom Boom by the Outhere Brothers (numerous occasions circa 1997-8, so a couple of years after it was a hit), I don't know if this thread is supposed to be exclusively for documenting what songs kids of the 2020s are singing on school buses though

I only rode the school bus one year, I think it was 3rd grade but it might have been 4th, so roughly 1993-94. I know it's not what this thread is for but here's the song we sang every day on the bus:

Three cheers for the bus driver, the bus driver, bus driver
Three cheers for the bus driver, he is the best.
He chokes and he smokes and he tells dirty jokes,
Three cheers for the bus driver, he is the best.
His eyebrows are mushy, his tushy is squishy,
Three cheers for the bus driver, he is the best.

I think there was another song or 2 in a similar vein that we tried a few times but never caught on.

Simpsons did a version of that song

He drinks and he cussed, he stinks up the buses

He steps on the clutch and the toilet goes flush

*cusses

To the tune of Oh Du Lieber Augustin/ The More We Get Together, tbc

February 21, 2023 - Roller Rink

Someone brought a bluetooth speaker onto the bus today, which led to more sing-alongs.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (2010)
Katy Perry - California Gurls (2010)
Nicki Minaj - Super Bass (2010)
Luke Bryan - Country Girl (Shake It For Me) (2011)
Morgan Wallen - Cowgirls (2023)
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten (2004)

There was also what i think was a Drake song and something that started off sounding like Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, but wasn't.

February 21, 2024, that is

I've been to a lot of pre-school/elementary school festivals with my son, and there is a definite canon of songs the DJs play. A bunch of Taylor Swift and Katie Perry, "Super Bass", Justin Timberlake, "Uptown Funk", Black Eyed Peas, "Dance Monkey."

Not on a bus, but I took part in an impromptu singalong of 'I Want it That Way' with a Y8 class today. Some kids were quietly humming it, so I figured why not? Stuck it on YouTube and joined in.

something that started off sounding like Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, but wasn't

this might be "lover" by taylor swift, lol

So kids are still doing this? The last few years before I retired, it seemed to have gone away, replaced by (big surprise) devices of various sorts. I liked that the devices kept them quiet, but the singalongs were sometimes great.

I recently played the "Clean" version of "Super Bass" for my kid, and... well, it wasn't exactly "clean" (except in a pure "no curse words" technicality sense)

I once played a CD with a "clean" version of Azealia Banks' "212" at a school assembly. Another teacher who knew it got a horrified look on her face as soon as it started--had to practically run over to her to stop her from taking it off. I remember it was very hard to guess the missing words.

I've been to a lot of pre-school/elementary school festivals with my son, and there is a definite canon of songs the DJs play. A bunch of Taylor Swift and Katie Perry, "Super Bass", Justin Timberlake, "Uptown Funk", Black Eyed Peas, "Dance Monkey."

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Wednesday, February 21, 2024 2:13 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Can confirm most of these.

I literally played "Lover" last night at my local open mic. Normally I do "All Too Well."

this might be "lover" by taylor swift, lol

― dyl, Wednesday, February 21, 2024 3:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, this was it! My knowledge of Taylor Swift after 2014 is pretty limited.

Also, just going to use this space to note that some of the kids a few rows back from us were playing some sort of "Guess the Celebrity" game on their phone. Overheard one young fella observing that "Julia Roberts is hot!"

It's interesting that these kids are singing songs that are 10-12 years old, or even older. It must say something about pop listening patterns and how they've changed.

I've been to a lot of pre-school/elementary school festivals with my son, and there is a definite canon of songs the DJs play. A bunch of Taylor Swift and Katie Perry, "Super Bass", Justin Timberlake, "Uptown Funk", Black Eyed Peas, "Dance Monkey."

I work in K-8 education and, for the remainder of my career, I don't think I'll ever attend an assembly or school event where I don't hear "Can't Stop the Feeling"

Intheblanks, that is because of "Trolls."

Which (to its credit) also repopularized "True Colors."

Other songs one hears often if you're around children are "YMCA" and "Happy."

oh i know where it's from. I was actually surprised by how quickly it supplanted "Happy" as THE dominant school assembly song.

Not saying I don't hear "Happy," but from 2014-16 it was by a WIDE margin the song I heard the most

Gotcha. I am not a teacher but my grandmother and mother, father, and sister were/are. My family collectively runs a dance school, and there have been exactly zero years in which I did not hear "YMCA," 1978-present.

In the mid 90s I remember a school trip where Fools Garden “lemon tree” and Hombres G “devuelveme a mi chica” got chanted over and over to the point of torture.

November 18, 2022 - art museum - no singing

read that as a song by Art Museums called "No Singing" and started to think how there's a lot of great school bus music on Slumberland