ABC Song

The ABC song is one of the best known French/English alphabet songs, known under many different names. It's popular in the US and Canada and many other countries.

The song is set to the melody of the French song "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman". The melody is used for many famous nursery rhymes such as Twinkle, twinkle, little star. And as you may know, Mozart used the melody for his piano variations for "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman".

In 1835 Charles Bradlee, a Boston-based music publisher first copyrighted the song.

The song is used to learn the names of the letters of the alphabet. This is the reason why in the Netherlands, the Dutch version of the song is no longer used for teaching the alphabet at school. Instead of learning the names of the letters, the sounds of the letters are taught.

In 2019 an adapted version of the song caused some discussion. The song was slowed down, because the fast "l,m,n,o,p" confused many young learners. Some even thought "elemenopee" was its own letter. The change was not appreciated, as many grownups said the fast part was the highlight of the song.