Malaysia Berjaya

In the mid 1980s, a wave of patriotism (aided by a directive from the Ministry of Education) swept through the school and we started every morning session with a rendering of "Negaraku" and "Malaysia Berjaya". Today, I thought it would be apt to share lyrics of the song we sang on so many mornings.

Happy 54th Birthday Malaysia!

Listen to the song on You Tube: http://youtu.be/Cmy0OQ6CKi8

Malaysia kita sudah berjaya

Aman makmur bahagia

Malaysia abadi selamanya

Berjaya dan berjaya

Berbagai kaum sudah berikrar

Menuju cita-cita

Satu bangsa satu negara

Malaysia berjaya

Dari Perlis sampailah ke Sabah

Kita sudah merdeka

Negara makmur rakyat mewah

Kita sudah berjaya

Dengan semboyan kita berjaya

Gemuruh ke angkasa

Satu bangsa satu negara

Malaysia berjaya

Remember these cheers?

Just found a whole heap of cheerleading songs from the 1984 School Magazine and couldn't wait to share them with you...


Gimme a V, V, V, I, C
Gimme a C, C, C, T, O
Gimme a O, O, O, R, Y
VICTORY, VICTORY is our cry.

We're all leaders of Maclay team,
We're gonna show you how to win,
Just feel the beat and follow the team,
C'mon Maclay we're gonna win.

Prouse House is dynamite,
Don't play with dynamite,
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Anything that they can do,
Green House girls can do it too,
Am I right or wrong?
You're right!
Tell me if I'm wrong,
You're right!
Sound of
1, 2
Sound of
3, 4
Sound of 1, 2, 3....FOUR!

5, 6, 7, 8
What do we see?
What do we hear?
Shirtliff is the house to cheer!
if we lose,
Please don't jeer
Coz we will win next year!

Candle 37: A Song to Sing

I received a delightful gift in my inbox this morning from Carolyn Joan Lau (Class of 1981), which she'd like to share with all BBGSians. Carolyn is a landscape designer based in KL, who found a pre-Independence songbook that was used by schoolkids in colonial Malaya, containing the origins of our beloved School Song. Curious to find out more..read on! Thanks for sharing, Carolyn...


Dear Joanna

Here is something to add to the Back2BBGS blog, more so for you younger ones. (Joanna says: Thanks for the compliment, Carolyn. It's been ages since anyone described me as young!)

I found this old song book in an old Ipoh junk shop. The cover is as old as my generation - hope we're weathering better than this book!

There are so many odd songs in it that us older girls used to sing in primary school - with Mrs Singham at the piano (Pri 1) - that we can never shake out of our heads. School concerts were such a blast - done properly - and so much fun.

More importantly, do note that our school song was adapted from "Land of Our Birth" (words by Rudyard Kipling). Many schoolkids in the Federation of Malaya, and later Malaysia were singing this!

Calling all Cheerleaders

Hi everyone,
Greetings from sunny California! I'm finally on vacation after completing annual budgeting meetings at corporate HQ in Texas. It's been good fun spending time with my sister Julie, shopping at COACH factory outlets and watching TV. I happened to be watching American football over the weekend when I was reminded of cheerleading. I never had the looks to qualify as a cheerleader (still don't ;-) but had the VOICE of one.

It's good to know that cheerleading is one of the few traditions that have carried over to SBU. Does anyone remember any of the old cheers? Here are some that I recall...

"BBGS Dynamite, don't play with dynamites - yeay, yeay, yeay"

"2-4-6-8 Who do we appreciate? BBGS! (replace with whomever you're cheering for that day)

"Have you got that spirit? Yeay man. Let me see it in your hands. Ooh ah ooh ah ah"

Oh dear...I know these sound really dated so if you remember any more cheers, please share them with me and it will be posted on the blog.

Until next time then, cheerio!

She sat by the window

Looks like this blog has reached beyond the usual crowd of middle-aged BBGSians who miss their school. I received a lovely email from Mr. Robert Blair of Victoria, Australia who found this blog while looking for some scouting songs from the '50s and '60s. Well, since BBGS was pioneered by English missionaries with Victorian-era ideals, it's not an unusual connection. I'll let you hear from him in his own words...

Dear Joanna,

You may find this communication odd. I am not a member of your school community. I am a 60+ man from near Melbourne in Victoria Australia. I came across your web site when I goggled the above song and I found your site and no complete list of the verses of this fun song. I learned it as a kid in the scouts in the 1950s and 1960s.
Chui Yen, 5Sc4 (1993) remembered some of the verses.

In case your readers are interested most of the others are:

She sat by the window and played her guitar
He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar
He told her he loved her, but oh how he lied
She told him she loved him but she did not lie
And when they were married some cooking she tried
The onions she boiled and the taters she fried
She got indigestion and poor thing she died
He went to the funeral but just for the ride
He sat on her tombstone and laughed till he cried
He caught consumption and he also died
She went to heaven and flip flop she flied
He went to hades and frizzled and fried
She leaned out of heaven and spat in his eye
The moral of this story is don't tell a lie

Of course this sort of song lends itself to modification and additions - that's half the fun.
I have included a couple of verses that were never in our scout song books published from 1948 till 1960s. Also words were replaced with actions and non word sounds, etc.

Thanks for your time,
Cheers,
Robert Blair


The email he was referring to from Chui Yen, 5Sc4 (1993) is re-produced below...

Joanna, I applaud your efforts and written flair in keeping up the BBGS spirit and memories.

Going through the various list of songs, another popped into my head which goes something like this:

" ...She sat by the window and played the guitar
Played the guitar, played the guitar
She sat by the window and played the guitar
Played the guitar, played the guitar
Plaaaayyyeed the guitar hahaha.

He sat down beside her and....(missing lyrics)

He told her he loved her but oh how he lied
Oh how he lied, oh how he lied
He told her he loved her but oh how he lied
Oh how he lied, oh how he lied
Ohhhh how he lied hahaha ..."

I don't think I can remember the rest and I'm sure there was something amiss in the middle.

Best regards
Chui Yen, 5Sc4 (1993)

Yellow Bird

Here's a letter from Poh Ching Suan, another BBGSian with fond memories of singing songs during school assembly.

Dear Joanna

I really enjoyed reading the article A Tribute to our teachers and am much delighted to know many of our school teachers are are still involved in the field of education.

Here are some songs we sang in school: (Mrs Abraham used to lead us in songs. I remember this one especially as she corrected our pronounciation of “Yeh-low bird, high up in bah-nah-nah tree… Song goes something like this


Yellow Bird

Yellow bird, high up in banana tree,
Yellow bird you sit all alone like me
Did your lady love, leave your nest again
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away in the sky away
You’re more lucky than me.

I also have a pretty girl
She’s not with me today
They’re all the same those pretty girls
Build them a nest, then they’ll fly away


Isle of Capri

Twas on the isle of Capri that I found her
beneath the shade of an old walnut tree
O I can still see the flowers bloomin’ round her
Where we met on the isle of Capri.

She was as sweet as a rose at the dawning
But somehow fate hadn’t meant her for me
And though I sailed with the tide in the morning
Still my heart’s on the isle of Capri.

Summertime was nearly over
Blue Italian skies above
I said lady I’m a rover
Can you spare a sweet word of love

She whispered softly “it’s best not to linger,”
And then as I kissed her hand, I could see
She wore a plain golden ring on her finger
Twas good bye to the isle of Capri.

Best regards,
Poh Ching Suan

Rotorua song

Hi Joanna,

Medaline Chang here. I was in the year with people like Savitha, Pek Tho, Melissa Siew, etc - 4Sc5 (1988) and 5Sc2 (1989). I was a Girl Guide and dear old Mrs Simon would teach us some unusual songs, like a Maori one which went like this:

Pokarekare ana
Nga wai o Rotorua
Whiti atu koe hine
Marino ana e
E hine e
Hoki mai ra
Ka mate ahau
I te aroha e

Hurry hurry hurry home love
Hurry home to Rotorua
To the mountains and the valleys
Hurry home to me
I know I know
You had to go
Please hurry back home love
I miss you so

Thanks for this song, Medaline. I remember it well from my Girl Guides days too!

Within these walls

If through these walls, we can hear the stories long ago
Those BBGS dreams their hopes and more
If through these walls, we can see the days before
We'll see the joy, the rise and growth
Every smile that greets hello

Names may change and faces pass
But the tune's the same we'll make it last
We'll learn these words before they come to pass
BBGS in my heart, ten decades we've grown to love
Add a hundred more, my heart will still belong
Within these cherished walls

Here on these walls, I found meanings of love
To conquer fears to wipe the sorrow tears
Here I learnt of friends, learnt to give a helping hand
And when I'm lost, they'll guide my way with God's will till the end...

Names may change and faces pass
But the tune's the same we'll make it last
We'll learn these words before they come to pass
Within these walls we've built our lives
For a hundred years it stayed with us
Let us keep it standing strong...

Lyrics and music by Raja Ismahan and Nik Serena - winners of the BBGS Centenary Song Competition, 1993

On top of Spaghetti...

Here's another one of those "silly" school assembly songs we all know and love. Try singing it to your kids - and watch out for giggles galore!

(Sung to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey")

On top of Spaghetti
All covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody sneezed...Aaahchoo!

It rolled off the table
And onto the floor
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out of the door

It rolled to the garden
And under a bush
And now my poor meatball
Is nothing but mush

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be
And then the next summer
It grew into a tree

The tree was all covered
All covered with moss
And on it grew meatballs
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti
All covered with cheese
Hold on to your meatball
And don't ever sneeze!

P/S: Thanks for the rest of the lyrics, Irene.

Making music

After catching the latest music video on MTV, I'm shocked. Surely this is not the kind of musical influence we'd like our children to grow up on?

Sigh..call me a prude but I can't help but reflect on the wholesome and innocent musical fare that BBGSians grew up on.

Remember our school assemblies? Everytime we had a couple of minutes to spare, Ms Yeap would encourage us to sing her favourite song about a pomeranian pup (did you know why? - she owns one!)

If my memory serves me, the song went something like this...

One man went to mow
Went to mow a meadow
One man and his pet pomeranian pup
And a bottle of pop
And a sausage roll
Went to mow a meadow

(Repeat until you reach no. 10 and increase the speed of singing until everyone bursts into laughter!)

or what about this one....

Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Every morning you greet me
Small and white, Clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever

and another canine-theme song

How much is that doggy in the window (woof! woof!)
The one with the waggerly tail
How much is that doggy in the window
I do hope that doggy's for sale
I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If he had a dog he won't be lonesome
And the doggy will have a good home

A dear reader just reminded me of 2 songs that we used to sing in rounds...here goes

Kookabura sits on the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookabura laugh
Kookabura gay your life must be

Row row row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a dream

BBGS We Pledge To Thee

BBGS we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be
When we are grown and take our place
As loyal women with our race

Father in Heaven who lovest all
O help Thy children when they call
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage

Teach us to bear the yoke in youth
With steadfastness and careful truth
That in our time Thy grace may give
The truth whereby the nations live

Teach us delight in simple things
And mirth that has no bitter springs
Forgiveness free of evil done
And love to all men 'neath the sun


Our school song is adapted from a hymn (Presbyterian Hymnal) entitled Land of Our Birth after the Second World War.