Lyrics to
One Was Johnny

This version of One Was Johnny was released by Carole King in 1975.

Our About Carole King page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for One Was Johnny from 1975 as well as all of the other lyrics from Carole King that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Carole King or about the 1970s in general.

(One was Johnny)

1 was Johnny who lived by himself
2 was a rat who jumped on his shelf
3 was a cat who chased the rat
4 was a dog who came in and sat
5 was a turtle who bit the dog’s tail
6 was a monkey who brought in the mail
7 a blackbird pecked poor Johnny’s nose

(One was Johnny)

8 was a tiger out selling old clothes
9 was a robber who took an old shoe
10 was a puzzle – what should Johnny do

(One was Johnny)

He stood on a chair and said,
Here’s what I’ll do – I’ll start to
Count backwards
And when I am through
If this house isn’t empty, I’ll eat
All of you!

9 was the robber who left looking pale
8 was the tiger who chased him to jail
7 was the blackbird flew off to Havana
6 was the monkey who stole the banana
5 was the turtle who crawled off to bed
4 was the dog who slid home on a sled

(One was Johnny)

3 was the cat who pounced on the rat
2 was the rat who left with the cat

(One was Johnny, one was Johnny,
One was Johnny)

1 was Johnny who lived by himself
And liked it like that!

(One was Johnny, one was Johnny)

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Want more lyrics and songs by Carole King?

Carole King has released many songs over the years besides One Was Johnny. Carole King released songs from 1968 to 2005 spanning across albums like Now That Everything's Been Said, Writer, Tapestry, Music, Rhymes & Reasons, Fantasy, Wrap Around Joy, Really Rosie, Thoroughbred, Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch The Sky, Pearls: Songs Of Goffin And King, One To One, Speeding Time, City Streets, Colour Of Your Dreams, Love Makes The World, and The Living Room Tour. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Carole King.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1975 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and One Was Johnny by Carole King

The lyrics to One Was Johnny are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Carole King used when the song was created in 1975. The lyrics to One Was Johnny have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Carole King and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to One Was Johnny by Carole King. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to One Was Johnny" means the words set to the music of One Was Johnny, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Carole King. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to One Was Johnny and the lyrics to One Was Johnny are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Carole King who came here looking just for the lyrics to One Was Johnny, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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