Chester (Have You Heard About Harry) lyrics & videos

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases examples of children's song "Chester" (Have You Heard About Harry").

The content of this post are presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks also to all those featured in these examples. And thanks to the sound file and video producers and publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES AND LYRICS

Example 1:
From http://www.songsforscouts.com/Songs/Chester/
Lyrics
Chester, have you heard about Harry? (pat chest, point, tug earlobe, pat head)

He just got back from the Army. (thumb back, pat back, pat arm, pat chest)

I hear he knows how to wear a rose, (point to eye, tug earlobe, thumb back, touch nose, tuck an imaginary rose in your lapel)

Hip, hip! Hooray for the Army! (slap left hip, slap right hip, raise fist to the sky, pat arm, pat chest)
-snip-
A number of examples of this song indicate that it is sung to the tune "Yankee Doodle". Some examples indicate that the song gets faster each time you sing it. I've read one example of this song that indicates that instead of doing each of the movements when you sing the entire song, you sing the first verse without any movements, and add one movement each time you sing it. Others you do each indicated body movement for the word that is sung like it.

My children learned this song from their summer camp in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the early 1980s. They also performed the same motions. They did the same motions but said "wear clothes" instead of "wear a rose". I don't remember the renditions getting faster.

Some examples of this song indicate that the song is sung over and over again with one motion added each time. However, I think that the attendees at my children's camp did all of the motions with each rendition of the song. Also, the tune that they learned at camp wasn't as "Yankee Doodle". The tune they used was considerably slower and was somewhat like the tune for "Playmate" (come out and play with me).

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Example #2: Chester



nannakelzee, Uploaded on Oct 5, 2010

Oh, Chester have you heard about Harry
Just got back from the army
I heard he knows how to wear his clothes
Hip, hip hurray for the army.
-snip-
Here's another example from this video's discussion forum:

BrookeRiverStream, 2012
There's another part Chester have u heard about Harry just got back from the army he needs to learn to face defeat hip hip horrah for the army...
-snip-
Here's another example of that same version:
From http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/troop43/Songs.html Girl Scout Songs

Chester
(Touch each body part named in the song)

Oh, Chester, have you heard about Harry?
He just got back from the army.
You need not know he faced defeat.
Hip, hip hooray for the army.

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Example #3: Eva singing



carjogo, Uploaded on May 12, 2010

Chester, have you heard about Harry? He just got back from the army...
Cute song Eva learned at pre-school.
-snip-
Lyrics:

Chester have you heard about Harry
He just got back from the army
He says he knows how to wear his clothes
Hip, hip hurray for the army.
Another example:

chester have u heard about harry
chest* got back from the army
i hear he knows how to touch his toes
hip hip hooray for the army

*Vernacular pronunciation of the word “just”

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Example #4: Harry Chester Army Song



l61flynn Published on Jun 26, 2013
-snip-
Lyrics:

Howdy Chester have u heard about harry
He just got back from the army
i hear he knows how to wear his clothes
hip hip hooray for the army


A fun song to sing with your students.
Sung by Leslie Bertram at Core Academy 2013.

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RELATED LINK
Visit this page of my cocojams cultural website to find more examples of children's camp songs:
http://www.cocojams.com/content/childrens-camp-songs

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