List of patter songs

This is a list of some of the best known patter songs.

Pre-Gilbert and Sullivan

• Auber: Le domino noir – "Je suis sauvée enfin"
• Cornelius: The Barber of Baghdad – "Bin Akademiker, Doktor und Chemiker"
• Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore – "Udite, Udite, o rustici", middle section (Dulcamara)
• Donizetti: Don Pasquale – "Cheti, cheti, immantinente", final section (duet for Don Pasquale and Doctor Malatesta)
• Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila – Farlaf's Rondo «Близок уж час торжества моего» (Farlaf)
• Mozart: Marriage of Figaro – "La vendetta, oh, la vendetta", final section (Bartolo)
• Mozart: "Don Giovanni" – "Fin ch'han dal vino" (Don Giovanni)
• Mozart: "Clarice Cara Mia Sposa", aria for Tenor, K. 256
• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia – "Largo al factotum", final section (Figaro); "A un dottor de la mia sorte" (Bartolo)
• Rossini: La Cenerentola – "Sia qualunque delle figlie", final section (Don Magnifico)
• Rossini: "La Danza"
• Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims – "Medaglie incomparabili" (Don Profondo)
• Schubert: From Winterreise, "Rückblick"

Gilbert and Sullivan

• Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand: Cox and Box – "My Master Is Punctual" (Mr. Cox)
• Gilbert and Sullivan (referred to below as "Sullivan"): The Gondoliers – "In enterprise of martial kind" (Duke of Plaza-Toro)
• Sullivan: The Gondoliers – "Rising early in the morning" (Giuseppe)
• Sullivan: H.M.S. Pinafore – "When I Was a Lad" (Sir Joseph)
• Sullivan: Iolanthe – "When you're lying awake" (Lord Chancellor)(the "Nightmare song") (covered by Todd Rundgren on his 1973 album, "Todd".)
• Sullivan: The Mikado – "As Someday it May Happen" (Ko-Ko)
• Sullivan: Patience – "If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" (Colonel Calverley)
• Sullivan: Patience – "So go to him and say to him" (Bunthorne and Lady Jane)
• Sullivan: Patience – "When I go out of door" (Bunthorne and Grosvenor)
• Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance – "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" (Major-General Stanley)
• Sullivan: Princess Ida – "If you give me your attention, I will tell you what I am" (King Gama)
• Sullivan: Ruddigore – "My boy, you may take it from me" (Robin)
• Sullivan: Ruddigore – "Henceforth all the crimes that I find in the Times" (Robin)
• Sullivan: Ruddigore – "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation" (Robin, Despard, and Margaret). This song was adapted for use in the Broadway revivals of The Pirates of Penzance (Papp production, 1980) and Thoroughly Modern Millie as "The Speed Test".
• Sullivan: The Sorcerer – "My name is John Wellington Wells" (J. W. Wells)
• Sullivan: Trial by Jury – "When I, good friends, was called to the bar" (the Learned Judge)
• Sullivan: Utopia, Limited – "Henceforward of a verity" (King Paramount, Scaphio, Phantis and chorus)
• Sullivan: Utopia, Limited – "It's understood, I think, all round" (Scaphio, Phantis, Zara and Fitzbattleaxe)
• Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – "I've Jibe and Joke... I've wisdom from the East and from the West" (Jack Point)
• Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard – "Oh! A private buffoon is a light-hearted loon" (Jack Point)

After G&S: Selected popular and classical music and showtunes

• Animaniacs: "Yakko's World"
• Ashman & Menken: "Now (It's Just the Gas)" from Little Shop of Horrors
• Barenaked Ladies: "One Week" (1998) and "Pinch Me" (2000)
• Lionel Bart: "Reviewing the situation" from Oliver! (Fagin)
• Jason Robert Brown: "That's What He Said" from Parade
• Busta Rhymes: "Gimme Some More"
• Hoagy Carmichael: "I'm A Cranky Old Yank..." (1942; longest song title in Guinness Book of World Records)
• Cy Coleman: "Museum Song" from Barnum
• Noël Coward: "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"
• André van Duin: "Wonderkind" (1972 Dutch cover of "Furthermore" by Ray Stevens)"
• Bob Dylan: "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (1965 folk song)
• Shirley Ellis: "The Name Game" (1961 pop-rock song)
• Flanders and Swann: "Ill Wind" (set to the tune of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4)
• Gabriel Fauré: "Fêtes galantes" in his composition Masques et Bergamasques (1919)
• Boudewijn de Groot: "Strand" (1964 Dutch song)
• Rolf Harris: "The Court of King Caractacus"
• Rupert Holmes: "Both Sides of the Coin" from Drood
• INXS: "Mediate" (1987 rock song)
• Billy Joel: "We Didn't Start the Fire" from Storm Front (1989)
• Kander & Ebb: "The Money Song" from Cabaret and "We Both Reached for the Gun" from Chicago
• Danny Kaye: "The Maladjusted Jester" from The Court Jester
• Jonathan Larson: "Therapy" from Tick, Tick... Boom!
• Tom Lehrer: "The Elements" (set to the tune of the Major-General's Song)
• Lerner & Loewe: "My Mother's Wedding Day" from Brigadoon
• Lonzo and Oscar: "I'm My Own Grandpa" (1947)
• Lucky Starr: "I've Been Everywhere" (also covered by others)
• Tim Minchin: "The Smell of Rebellion" from Matilda the Musical
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Glass of Water"
• Carl Orff: "Estuans interius" and "In taberna quando sumus" from Carmina Burana.
• Cole Porter: "Let's Not Talk About Love" from Let's Face It!
• Phineas and Ferb: "History of the Tri-State Area", "I Really Don't Hate Christmas"
• Plastic Bertrand: "Ça Plane Pour Moi" (1977 pop song with nonsensical patter in French)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Magic Johnson" (1989)
• R.E.M.: "It's the End of the World As We Know It" (1987 pop-rock song)
• Reunion: "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" (1974 pop song)
• Savage Garden: "I Want You" (1996 pop-rock song)
• Scrubs: "The Rant Song" from the 2007 episode "My Musical"
• Shaiman and Wittman: "Strike That, Reverse It" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins (1964)
• Snow: "Informer" 1993. Also parodied by Jim Carrey as "Imposter".
• Stephen Sondheim: "Getting Married Today" from Company
• Ray Stevens: "Furthermore" (1962)
• They Might Be Giants: "Rhythm Section Want Ad" from their self-titled album (1986) and "Letterbox" from Flood (1990)
• Kurt Weill: "Tchaikovsky (and Other Russians)" from Lady in the Dark
• Meredith Willson: "Rock Island (opening sequence)" and "Ya Got Trouble", both from The Music Man
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: "Bob", done entirely in palindromes; and "Hardware Store", both from Poodle Hat (2003)
• Maury Yeston: "Folies Bergère" (the contrapuntal melody that begins with "The trouble with Contini") from Nine
• Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" from We're Only in It for the Money (1968)
• Neil Patrick Harris: "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
• Muppets Most Wanted: "Interrogation Song"

External links

• Jason Fortner's description of a number of patter songs
• Peter Schickele on the history of the patter song
• Description of Nelson Eddy recording of patter songs, listing them
• Description of Martyn Green recording of patter songs, listing them
• List of some classical patter songs

• Lyrics to "In enterprise of martial kind", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
• Shepherd, Marc. "Nelson Eddy: Patter Songs from Gilbert and Sullivan" at A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography
• Article and links about "The Judge's Song", The Victorian Web