A popular song from 1940.
Words by Raymond B. Egan.
Music by J. Fred Coots.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
The flags are up on Main Street
The traffic grows and grows
The school closed down and all the town
Is up and on its toes
Refrain
Come along children, school is out
And so are the verbs and nouns
Put ’em away, it’s Circus Day and
Here come the clowns
Funny buffoons in pantaloons
And comical colored gowns
Isn’t it grand the laugh they hand you
Here come the clowns
See the happy jungle family
Parade without a fuss
The monkeys are insulted
They were told they look like us
Wait’ll you hear that funny music
Chasing away your frowns
Time to be gay, it’s Circus Day and
Here come the clowns
Interlude
Hear the horns go “root-toot-too”
So very optimistic
Hear the drums go “rum-tum-tum
It’s all so modernistic
But there’s nothing sweeter in the way of melody
Than “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater”
On the steam Calliope
Refrain
Come along children, on your way
To lilliput circus towns
What a swell time we’ll have together
Here come the clowns
Hurry up children, let your voices
Mingle with circus sounds
Float away lightly as a feather
Here come the clowns
The lions and the tigers
And the funny old giraffe
Will take us down to monkey town
Where we can get a laugh
Come along children, have your fun
Just watching their “ups and downs”
What do you say, we do as they do
Here come the clowns