There were two variations of this chant at my school:
Bang Bang you’re dead
brush your teeth and go to bed
and
Bang Bang you’re dead
fifty bullets in your head
Googling around shows that both (or a combination of the two) are fairly well known, though I can’t quite find anything that might indicate how far back they go. I can’t find either of them in print, though “bang bang you’re dead” by itself was a common cry by the middle of the 20th century in war games all over the country. No telling where the rest of it came from, though I imagine that it’s been around a while.
There are plenty of variations after the “fifty bullets” line, including “some are red, some are blue / some are made of chicken poo” and “another one / up your bum”
Where and when did YOU hear this one?
Philadelphia, early 70s. "Brush your teeth and go to bed" version only.
When I was a kid in Michigan 1980s we said:
"50 bullets in your head
One here, one there
and the rest in your underwear"
I think the "here" was pointing at the head and the "there" was your heart.
I don't think we specified that the subtraction of one here and one there would leave 48 for your underwear. Maybe math wasn't our strong point.
Bang bang, you're dead, 50 bullets in your head.
Now brush you're teeth and go to bed, and don't wake up until you're dead!!
My sisters and I used to chant this back in the early 80's up here in Maine. I can't for the life of me remember where we got it but it stuck in my head like all silly chants do
I remember both versions from the 1960's in the Bronx, NY.
My sisters and brother only said bang, bang, your dead, brush your teeth and go to bed. I've never heard the part about bullets. This was in Fort Worth, Texas in the 70's.
1980s, Wisconsin, did "Bang Bang, you're dead / brush your teeth and go to bed."
Bang bang your dead 50 bullets in your head…one red….one blue …..the rest is made of chicken poo Boston mid 1960's in the school yard lol
I remember in about 1987 I use to sing with my class mates something like: Bang Bang you're dead, brush your teeth and go to bed, dont forget your teddy bear, stick him in your underwear.
Bang Bang you're dead, 50 bullets in your head, turn around, touch the ground, Bang Bang you're dead.
At primary school in England, Yorkshire. It was a skipping rope chant.
Vestal, New York 1969
bang bang your dead 50 bullets tyhrough your head turn around touch the ground bang bang your dead is the one everyone uses now as the school chants for the skipping rope
england birmingham 2004
My mother was just telling me this from her childhood – northern Wisconsin in the 1940s.
bang bang your dead, fifty bullets in your head. brush your teeth and go to bed, in the morning you'll be dead!
Metro-Detroit, Early 90's.
i knew it as "Bang bang your dead 50 bullets in your head, plus one up your bum that makes 51, plus one in the loo that makes 52, plus one in a tree that makes 53, plus one on teh floor that makes 54, plus one in a hive that makes 55, ETC" from atleast 1990's – 2000's england.
"bang bang your dead, 50 bullets in your head. one here one there and the rest are in your underwear"
2000-2004, London in England
I definitely remember the brush your teeth version, but the other one and the combo sound familiar too. Heard them on Long Island in the mid 1970's.
So glad I'm not the only who remembers this…though I'm living in Ca now and those from here never seem to have heard of this. I remember it rm the early 70's in the Chicago area…
New Hampshire, mid to late 1960's
out of all of them i think i like this version the best it makes sense 😀
Bang bang your dead fifty bullets in your head, turn around and touch the floor, you'll be safe if you reach the door..1970's UK
I remember the version that goes like: "Bang bang you're dead fifty bullets in your head, now brush your teeth and go to bed, and don't wake up until you're dead."€
This was in 2006, north wales.
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"Bang Bang, you're dead! 50 bullets in your head. One green one blue, the rest are made of chicken poo"
London, UK
2006
bang bang you're dead, fifty bullets in you're head, one black, one blue all the rest are chicken poo! 2003-2005 Banbury, UK
One red, one blue.
London, 90's.
NJ mid 80's
Bang Bang you're dead
Brush your teeth and go to bed
Don't forget your teddy bear
And (put/ shove) him in your underwear
Sometimes there was an inexplicable line added after that "Put your money in your head and listen to it shred"
Essex, England
Mid 90s
Bang bang you’re dead,
Fifty bullets in your head,
One black,
One blue,
The rest filled with chicken poo.
Same here 00’s North’land
Here in western Oregon we said the 50 bullets in the head version in the early 70s.
the only version we had we did on the school bus back in the late 1970’s in eastern and western Ohio..been wondering how widespread this was! living in michigan they’ve only heard the 50 bullets in your head and not the other from all i’ve heard…
in ohio late 70’s we had only the brush your teeth version…living in michigan the only thing people here have heard is the 50 bullets it seems from same time period…
Bang bang your dead
50 bullets in your head
was popular in mid 80s South West England when I was 5 years old. We had an American kid in my school though, maybe he introduced it.
Good times!
My version?
“Bang.”
(Old Tappan, NJ, mid 2010s)
Bang bang your dead
I shot you in the head
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or more
That’s how much bullets my gun stores
Bang bang I shot you down
Bang bang you hit the ground
Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang my baby shot me down
(Japan, 2002)
“Bang bang, you’re dead,/ Fifty bullets in your head,/ Twenty red,/ Twenty blue,/ Ten smell like doggy poo.” Alternatively, the last line would be “Ten look like doggy poo.” (Southwestern Ontario, 1980s)
The one I heard the most went something like:
“Bang bang, you’re dead,
Fifty bullets in your head,
One green, one black,
The rest are made of chicken crap.”
sometimes it would be Ten instead of One but you get the idea
Used to be a skipping game when I was young (1995) bang bang your dead how many bullets in your head then you would skip the bullets 1,2,3 etc.
The one we heard in Texas in the mid-70s was Bang Bang You’re Dead 50 bullets in your head I stole money you stole clay 50 bullets in your way