Yellow Bird

Yellow Bird is a song by The Wiggles, which first appeared on their Let's Eat! album and DVD in 2010. It was originally written as Choucoune.

Choucoune
One of Oswald Durand's most famous works, the 1883 Choucoune is a lyrical poem that praises the beauty of a Haitian woman of that nickname. Michel Mauléart Monton, an American-born pianist with a Haitian father and American mother composed music for the poem in 1893, appropriating some French and Caribbean fragments to create his tune. The song Choucoune was first performed in Port-au-Prince on 14 May 14, 1893. It became a popular méringue lente (slow méringue) in Haiti, and was played prominently during the bicentennial celebrations in Port-au-Prince in 1949. Choucoune was recorded by "Katherine Dunham and her Ensemble" for the Decca album "Afro-Caribbean Songs and Rhythms" released in 1946 (with the title spelled as Choucounne), and was first recorded in Haiti by Emerante (Emy) de Pradines for her "Voodoo - Authentic Music of Haiti" album (Remington R-199-151) released in the USA in 1953.

The song also appeared in the 1957 Calypso-exploitation film Calypso Heat Wave, performed by The Tarriers, sung by the group's lead singer, Alan Arkin.

Song Credits

 * Music: Michel Mauléart Monton
 * Lyrics: Oswald Durand
 * Arrangement: Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, Sam Moran
 * Publisher: Walton Music Corporation

Musicians

 * Vocals: Jeff Fatt, Sam Moran
 * Backing Vocals: John Field, Steve Pace, Simon Pryce
 * Bass: Alex Keller
 * Electric Guitar: Murray Cook
 * Acoustic Guitar: John Field
 * Piano: Jeff Fatt
 * Drums: Steve Pace
 * Steel Drum: Alex Keller

Song Lyrics
Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.

Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.

Did your lady friend leave the nest again?

That is very sad, make me feel so bad.

You can fly away, in the sky away.

You more lucky than me!

I also have a pretty gal,

She not with me today.

They all the same, the pretty gal,

Make them the nest, then they fly away.

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.

Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.

Better fly away in the sky away.

Picker coming soon, pick from night to noon.

Black and yellow you, like banana too.

They might pick you some day!

Wish that I was a yellow bird,

I fly away with you.

But I am not a yellow bird,

So here I sit, nothing else to do.