As featured in the children’s song treasury All Aboard, alongside The Gnu Song, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, Sparky’s Magic Piano and many others. That’s why I sing the chorus with such delight.
Why on earth did they leave out the third verse, "Now more hippopotami began to convene on the bank of the river so wide. I wonder now what am I to say of the scene that ensued by the Shalimar side?"(beautiful alliteration) when the audience would know the words and let 'em rip? Was it perhaps sung as the encore?
No, they didn't. I've also got a Flanders and Swann CD with the reprise of the Hippopotamus song which tells of the hippopotamus being 'married and father of ten' (!) but I can't find that on RU-vid!
@@YAmateurP The amorous hippopotamus whose love song we know is now married and father of ten. He murmurs "God rot 'em" as he watches them grow, And he longs to be single again. He gambols no more on the banks of the Nile (Which Nasser is flooding next spring), With hip-po-po-ta-mas in silken pajamas, No more does he teach them to sing [CHORUS]
"Now more hippopotami began to convene On the banks or that river so wide. I wonder now what am I to say of the scene That ensued on the Shalimar side? They dived all at once with an ear-splitting SPLASH [dramatic fortissimo dominant minor piano chord] Then rose to the surface again: A regular army Of hippopotami, All singing this haunting refrain: [CHORUS accompanied by virtuosic improvisation at the piano]