ABC Song Variants

Published under Mango Paper, Oct 31, 2019

Jason Kottke's post on the alternate ABC song got my attention:

An alternate version of the ABC song that slows down the LMNOP part is currently going viral because of a tweet by Noah Garfinkel: “They changed the ABC song to clarify the LMNOP part, and it is life ruining.”

My first reaction was: thank you! I always find the ABC song I'm hearing from my daughter's toys are strange and hard to follow. So I completely agree with them:

About the slow l,m,n,o,p: I teach young learners of English as a foreign language, and have found this way the most effective for teaching the letters.

Here is the original video by Matt Richelson:

However, this is not the one I learned either. The version I learned slowed down the same LMN part, but it also has a different grouping: OPQ, RST, UVW, XYZ, plus a different ending. I find it even easier for non native speakers. Here is a video of this version:

I couldn't find out where this version original comes from. The subtitle of the above videos says it's French music. But searched the French version of ABC song, it's the same as the one in the U.S. It's not U.K. either.