History of the 'clapping' song

The clapping song was an American song originally written by Lincoln Chase but the lyrics of the song date all the way back to the 1930's when they were borrowed from the song 'little rubber dolly'.
The lyrics were made to give instructions so that audience members could dance along to 'The clapping game. The clapping game is a group game which is generally played by two people and involves clapping to a song, whether this be a rhyme or other forms of song. Clapping games appeal to a global audience as it gets people involved with each other. Some clapping games like the one described in the lyrics of Icona pop's 'clap snap' have dance moves to accompany the songs. One of these being the clapping game 'rollercoaster'.

The clapping game has many different targeted audience members but since the song in itself is evolving dance, players and clapping to nursery rhymes it has even been dated back to children's programmes like Barney.

The original clapping song is performed by Shirley Ellis in this dated video.

A more updated and modern take on this game and the 'clapping song', which includes the use of the game in choreography but to a different song with different lyrics compared to our song. This is shown in this adapted version performed by Cher Lloyd on the programme 'x factor'.