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"Inchworm", also known as "The Inch Worm", is a song originally performed byDanny Kaye in the 1952 filmHans Christian Andersen. It was written byFrank Loesser.
The song's lyrics express acarpe diem sentiment, with the singer noting that the inchworm of the title has a "business-like mind", and is blind to the beauty of the flowers it encounters:
Subsequent verses include the lines "Measuring the marigolds, you and your arithmetic / You'll probably go far" and "Seems to me you'd stop and see / How beautiful they are".
Loesser wrote acounterpoint chorus that, sung by itself, has become popular as a children's song because of itsarithmetical chorus:
In the film, a children's chorus sings the contrapuntal "arithmetic" section over and over inside a small classroom, dolefully and by rote, while Andersen, listening just outside, gazes at aninchworm crawling on the flowers and sings the main section of the song. Loesser loved the intellectual challenge of such contrapuntal composition, which he also did in other works such asTallahassee.[1]
The composer received afan letter (signed pseudonymously, "Respectfully, a Kansas inchworm") which said of the song:
...It is simple, yet it is so intricate, the harmony is perfect and the counterpoint — well it just gives me a headache when I think of what it would be like to try to write it...
Loesser was so touched by the letter that he placed a large advertisement in the largest newspaper inLawrence, Kansas — theDaily Journal World — in thanks. His correspondent wrote again, revealing herself to be teacher Emily Preyer.[1][2]
"Inchworm" has been recorded by many singers, includingPaul McCartney,Rachelle Ferrell,The Brothers Creeggan,Anne Murray,Kenny Loggins,We Five,John Lithgow,Mary Hopkin,Doris Day,Dan Zanes,Kurt Wagner,Lisa Loeb,The Sandpipers, andPatricia Barber. Performed instrumentally, it was a regular feature of theJohn Coltrane Quartet's repertoire and appears on the albumColtrane.
David Bowie said[3] the song was the inspiration behind his 1980 song "Ashes to Ashes":
Ashes To Ashes wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t have been for Inchworm. There’s a nursery rhyme element in it, and there’s something so sad and mournful and poignant about it. It kept bringing me back to the feelings of those pure thoughts of sadness that you have as a child, and how they’re so identifiable even when you’re an adult.
