Solomon Grundy (nursery rhyme)

Lyrics

In popular culture

• The nursery rhyme is the inspiration for the DC Comics character Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy, a large, strong zombie supervillain created in 1944 as an adversary for the Green Lantern, though later a common foe of Batman and Superman.
• In 1964, Jamaican singer Eric "Monty" Morris released the ska song "Solomon Gundie" whose lyrics were based on the nursery rhyme. It was covered in 1980 by French singer Amanda Lear to a chart success.
• The premiere episode of Sesame Street features a Solomon Grundy cartoon in which he washes only one part of the left half of his body each day. At the end of the week Solomon is still "half dirty".
• Jamaican deejay Big Youth recorded the song "Solomon a Gunday" on his 1972 album Screaming Target, which was loosely based on the story of Solomon Grundy.
• "Hippopotamus" by Nokoinoko, a Japanese song, was based on the poem. It was aired on "Hirake Ponkikki", a TV show for kids, and became popular in 1970s. The strange lyrics made it a cult song and it was used in The Lost Village anime in 2016.
• In a 1979 episode of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, "Solomon / Grundy Binding" is referenced on the box of ACME Jet-Propelled Skis.
• The poet Philippe Soupault adapted this rhyme and called it "The Life of Philippe Soupault".
• The comic book version of Solomon Grundy is mentioned in the song "Superman's Song" by the Crash Test Dummies.
• There was a professional wrestler named Solomon Grundy who competed as a "hillbilly" type character in bib overalls and competed primarily in the Dallas based Wild West and World Class Wrestling companies, as well as in Mexico for the CMLL promotion during the late 80's and early 1990s.
• The 1992 song "Mars Ultras, You'll Never Make the Station" by the band Half Man Half Biscuit refers to the song in the lines: "Surrogate Grundy, sold on a Monday, to Richard and Judy".
• Comic artist and writer Kaori Yuki wrote a short story concerning the poem using characters from her series Godchild, which was published at the end of book five.
• The name and structure of Ian McDonald's science fiction novella "The Days of Solomon Gursky" are based on the nursery rhyme. The title character invents a way to resurrect the dead using nanotechnology, developed in McDonald's 1994 novel Necroville. The spin-off novella consists of seven episodical chapters showing in increasing intervals Gursky's life from the early 21st century through the posthuman future in space to the end of the universe when he constructs a Tipler machine to be reborn.
• The Bluetones song "Solomon Bites the Worm" was based on this nursery rhyme.
• Jamaican deejay Tapper Zukie released the song "Solomon a Gunday" on the 2003 re-release of his 1973 album Man ah Warrior.
• Solomon Grundy appears as a character in Jasper Fforde's novel The Big Over Easy: "'I'll be dead tired on Saturday,' he quipped to waiting journalists, 'but will bury myself in work again on Sunday.'"
• "Solomon Grundy" is the title of the ninth track of Mic Tyson, the third studio album of American rapper Sean Price.
• Solomon Grundy, a feature film based on the poem and its structure, was released in 2012. Grundy is portrayed as a child's imaginary friend, and each of the poem's days is represented as a stage in the development of their relationship.
• The 2013 track "Kingston Be Wise" by Protoje from his album The 8 Year Affair, references Solomon Grundy in the second verse: "Then where the gun deh? Dead pon Saturday; Buried Sunday like Solomon Grundy."
• In the 2016 movie The Accountant, Ben Affleck's autistic character recites the rhyme "Solomon Grundy" to calm himself down.