Spalding was also known for his enthusiastic rendition of songs like Three Blind Mice, Sing a Song of Sixpence, Ging Gang Goolie, Green Grow the Rushes, O, and The Wild Rover at camp fires.
Similar constructions are found in German, Dutch, Afrikaans, certain varieties of Norwegian, Slovene and Arabic as well as in archaic and dialect English (compare the line "Four-and-twenty blackbirds" in the old nursery rhyme.)
"Sing a Song of Sixpence", an English nursery rhyme which features the line
song | Eurovision Song Contest | Song Dynasty | Sing Sing | My Way (song) | Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | Eurovision Song Contest 2013 | Academy Award for Best Original Song | Eurovision Song Contest 2009 | Eurovision Song Contest 2006 | Song | Eurovision Song Contest 2011 | A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (song) | A Song of Ice and Fire | Viña del Mar International Song Festival | Eurovision Song Contest 2004 | The Song of Hiawatha | Song of the Year | Grammy Award for Song of the Year | Dream a Little Dream of Me (song) | Sixpence None the Richer | Eurovision Song Contest 2007 | Song of the South | Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest | Song of Songs | Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest | I've Got You Under My Skin (song) | Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | Creep (Radiohead song) | World Popular Song Festival |
Like several of Christie's novels (e.g., Hickory Dickory Dock, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe) the title and substantial parts of the plot reference a nursery rhyme, in this case Sing a Song of Sixpence.
The nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" makes reference to "Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie..." but it is uncertain whether pie vents were designed to look like birds because of this song.