In Alfalfa's first episode, "Beginner's Luck", he did a rendition of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain", with his brother Harold accompanying on banjo. This number was derived from a so-called Negro spiritual song called "When the Chariot Comes", and would virtually become the anthem of Alfalfa's early Rascals career: He would sing parts of this tune in four of his first eight episodes.

Alfalfa's performance of "Object of My Affection" in "Our Gang Follies of 1936" garnered the first really widespread critical notice from contemporary film commentators and columnists. This was the first time that Alfalfa sang about matters of the heart, and these romance-themed songs would be among the most fondly-remembered singing performances of his entire body of work.

Curiously, the Hal Roach writers seemed to enjoy inflicting some sort of distraction or discomfort upon Alfalfa while he was singing. The first instance of this tendency was in "The Lucky Corner", when he drank a glass of lemonade made of starch rather than sugar, and could only rasp out an aborted encore of "Little Brown Jug". Thereafter, the following distractions were suffered by Alfalfa during his singing:

•During "I'm In the Mood For Love", a microphone slid down the length of its stand until it wound up at floor level
•He swallowed a balloon prior to "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms", resulting in a loud wheezing noise at every inhaled breath
•An ornery rooster crowed during "I'm Through With Love"
•Soap bubbles emanating from his belly disrupted "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
•A stowaway frog, having climbed into his shirt, ribbetted at every opportunity during "Just An Echo In the Valley"
•He was pelted with rotting fruits and vegetables during his attempts at high opera, "The Barber of Seville".
•Firecrackers went off in his back pocket while he was trying to recite the poem "Charge of the Light Brigade"


Contemporary sheet music for
"Just An Echo In the Valley"

Beginning around the time of his performance of "Just An Echo" in "Framing Youth", Alfalfa's off-key singing had become a veritable cottage industry within the Rascals series. This, coupled with the proliferating self-awareness of the growing youngster, resulted in an increasing self-parodying quality to his songs later in his Little Rascals career. Ironically, the final time he would sing during the Hal Roach era, "Many Happy Returns of the Day", saw one of his more restrained and accomplished performances (although it was not without its requisite off-key bars here and there). But as soon as the MGM era commenced, all pretense of restraint were dropped and his singing became so intentionally bad as to be almost absurd.

Surprisingly, he sang in only a handful of his post-Rascals films, the most noteworthy performance probably being "All My Love", in a Jane Withers propaganda vehicle called Johnny Doughboy (1942). He also turned in a particularly screeching version of "The Last Rose of Summer" in 1940's "Reg'lar Fellers". The final time he sang on-screen— at least within the films available to us as of this writing— was in a 1950 film called "Redwood Forest Trail", when he did a brief snippet of "America the Beautiful", of all things.


Two post-Rascals singing performances: Left, "All My Love"
from 1942's "Johnny Doughboy"; and right, "The Last Rose
of Summer", from the 1940 film "Reg'lar Fellers". These images
typify the over-the-top quality of most of Alfalfa's later
on-screen singing.


Within a few weeks of 4alfalfa.com's launch, we will be rounding out this section with additional information on, primarily, the songs sung by Alfalfa during the Hal Roach era: song lyrics, info on the songs' composers and lyricists, sheet music images, and other data. Further along, we will include coverage of all known singing performances in Alfalfa's career, including audio clips of any and all of his non-Rascals singing performances whose rights are within the public domain, or for which permission can be obtained.

In the meantime, below is a list of all Alfalfa's singing performances during his thirty-four Hal Roach Little Rascals episodes:

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
"Beginner's Luck"

The "Ha Ha" Song (Song X) (so named because 4alfalfa has not yet been able to identify the title or lyrics of this tune)
"Teacher's Beau"

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
"Sprucin' Up"

Little Brown Jug
"The Lucky Corner"

Go To Sleep, My Baby
"Little Papa"

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
The Object of My Affection
"Our Gang Follies of 1936"

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
"Divot Diggers"

On the Road to Californy (in four different guises)
I'm In the Mood For Love
"Pinch Singer"

Oh, Susanna (with Spanky and Grandma)
"Second Childhood"

Trees (and introductory preamble "Behold the Little Woodsman's Shout")
"Arbor Day"

Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
"Bored of Education"

Charge of the Light Brigade (recitation)
"Two Too Young"

I'm Through With Love
"Reunion in Rhythm"

Let Me Call You Sweetheart
"Hearts are Thumps"

Just An Echo In the Valley
"Framing Youth"

Excerpt from The Barber of Seville
Learn To Croon
"Our Gang Follies of 1938"

Many Happy Returns of the Day
"Feed 'em and Weep"

4alfalfa.com will notify our friends and visitors via our "News/Updates" section when "Alfalfa's Greatest Hits" is complete.

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