I’ve Got a Song

Words and music by Malvina Reynolds
© 1965 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1993

Malvina Reynolds wrote the perfect situational song time and time again. With an uncanny accuracy, Malvina captured in this song the mindset of a young child trying to remember what he or she was going to say. Nancy Schimmel tells this story about how her mother wrote “I’ve Got a Song.”

“Malvina and her husband were visiting Lou Gottlieb and his wife one day. He was the humorist of the Limeliters and was a witty but lengthy talker off stage, too. The talk that day was of music, as it often was. Lou’s little girl, Judy, was lingering around the outside of the grown-up circle, trying to get a word in. She said, ‘I’ve got a song!’ Malvina asked, ‘Would you sing it for us?’ Judy hesitated, then said, ‘I forgot.’ Malvina went home and wrote this song, which was first published as ‘Judy’s Song.’”