Apples And Bananas

History & Origin

Apples and Bananas is a deceptively clever children's song that disguises a phonics lesson as pure silliness. The premise is simple: "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas" — and then the same line is repeated, substituting each vowel sound in turn ("ay-ples and bay-nay-nays," "ee-ples and bee-nee-nees," and so on through the vowels).

The result is a song that becomes more absurd and more entertaining with each verse, while simultaneously giving children practice distinguishing and producing the five vowel sounds. It is the kind of educational activity so well disguised as play that children rarely notice they are learning anything at all.

The song's origin is uncertain — it circulated widely in North American oral tradition through the mid-20th century and appears in various forms in children's music collections from the 1960s onwards. It is closely related to a family of "substitution songs" used in early childhood education, and has become a classroom staple precisely because it works so well — children cannot help but join in, and cannot help but be delighted by how ridiculous it sounds.