There is a children's song with the chorus "haha thisaway, haha thataway, hahah thisaway, my oh my." It was used as the Wizbit signature tune, sung by Paul Daniels, but had an original version like "all the boys come out and play" or similar. What is the proper title of the original tune?

If this is the same song I'm thinking of, the title is actually "Ha Ha Thisaway." It was recorded in various versions by Leadbelly and also by Pete Seeger on his "Children's Concert at Town Hall" album, a classic that I owned as a child. Children's singer Raffi has also recorded it.

I couldn't find lyrics for you, but the song appears on this folk music index, with a list of various recordings of it:

http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/h01.htm

Thanks Frankie, someone asked on the radio and was told Wizbit, then I heard it a week later (typical satguru moment) and it had traditional words. I guessed it must be, and I collect folk songs.

Followed the links, the words (not the title) I referred to are "When I was a young boy/maid" (depending who's singing it!) I'd written it down and mislaid it, but can now order the record as I have the correct title. It looks like Leadbelly wrote it, and I also discovered his name is Huddie Ledbetter which I also didn't know. A good day's trivia!

I am the guy that wrote and produced the Wizbit TV Series. I am also the guy that adapted, recorded, and wrote the new lyric for Ha Ha Thisaway which was used as the theme song for all the Wizbit series which were broadcast in the UK by the BBC starring Paul Daniels, who also sang the theme song.

Ha Ha Thisaway is an old traditional children's song, which undoubtedly originated in Europe, probably England, and like so many songs born of the oral tradition found it's way to the Americas via the early settlers. Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly) was a voracious collector, adapter, and interpreter of traditional material, he was also a very fine writer of original songs. Alan Lomax was one of the pioneers of field recording for preservation and historical purpose, funded by the American Library of Congress, he criss-crossed America, recording songs and musicians on a regional basis. One his discoveries was the former convict Leadbelly, a prolific source of traditional material in the public domain. Many of Lomax's recordings can be sourced at: http://www.culturalequity.org/index.html

It seemed pleasingly appropriate to me that the song in its adapted form, should not only return to England but be the theme for a children's entertainment series. I hope that further clarifies the intriguing and ongoing history of Ha Ha Thisaway.

Barry Murray.

I remember a song that went something like this:
When I was a little boy, a little boy a little boy
When I was a little boy a few years old
My Momma went and left me.kl left me , left me
My Momma went and left me, I've been told

Chorus:

Ha ha this a way, ha ha that a way
Ha ha This a way Ben bo ben (or then oh then.

There are other verses, but is this the song you were looking for?