Wikifacts

I have to admit that one of my great pleasures is idly browsing through the pages of Wikipedia. However, on occasion I find “facts” listed on the encyclopaedia’s pages  which I have to take with a pinch of salt. I came across one of them when I was looking up pages for my Without The Beatles blog entry and it relates to John Lennon’s song, My Mummy's Dead.

The fact in question stated that the song was based upon the tune of Three Blind Mice. Maybe it was but it really doesn’t sound like it to me. I always assumed that it was based on the old German lullaby, Schlaf Kindlein Schlaf. However, I can’t see any definitive reference to Lennon using either tune as the basis. I suppose it would make sense for a British musician to use Three Blind Mice but it is entirely possible that he was familiar with the German tune either from living in Hamburg in the early 60s or via his bass-player in the Plastic Ono Band, Klaus Voormann. Lennon’s tune doesn’t exactly match either so I suspect he simply jammed over some suitably soothing notes but judge for yourself: