[Deathwatch] Tom Glazer, "On Top of Spaghetti" singer/writer, 88

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

'On Top of Spaghetti' singer Glazer dies
Thursday, February 27, 2003 Posted: 12:03 AM EST (0503 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/26/glazer.obit.ap/index.html

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Tom Glazer, a folk singer best known
for fanciful children's songs including one about a mountain of
spaghetti, died Friday at his home in Philadelphia. He was 88. 

A cause of death was not immediately given. 

Glazer was one of a group of folk singers, including Leadbelly, Woody
Guthrie, Josh White and Burl Ives, who helped popularize folk music in
the 1940s. 

Glazer's best-remembered song, though not his own favorite, was "On Top
of Spaghetti," a 1963 hit sung to the tune of "On Top of Old Smoky."
The song, featuring a wayward meatball, had a chorus of children
singing lines like "On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese." 

Folk singer Pete Seeger remembered Glazer as a solid performer. 

"He wasn't fancy," Seeger said Tuesday. "He was just straightforward.
He had a good sense of humor." 

Glazer was born in Philadelphia and hitchhiked to New York when he was
17. He later went to Washington, worked at the Library of Congress and
befriended Alan Lomax, who established the library's Archive of
American Folk Song. 

In 1945, he started an ABC radio show, "Tom Glazer's Ballad Box." He
was host of a weekly concert show for children in the 1960s on WQXR
radio in New York. 

Glazer also wrote books about music and composed songs recorded by
Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and the Kingston Trio. 

ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI 
By Tom Glazer

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese.
I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table, it rolled on the floor,
And then my poor meatball rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden and under a bush,
And then my poor meatball was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty as tasty could be,
And early next summer it grew to a tree.

The tree was all covered with beautiful moss.
It grew great big meatballs and tomato sauce. 

So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese, 
Hold on to your meatball and don't ever sneeze.