<P> "Drunken Sailor" began its life as a popular song on land at least as early as the 1900s, by which time it had been adopted as repertoire for glee singing at Eton College . Elsewhere in England, by the 1910s, men had begun to sing it regularly at gatherings of the Savage Club of London . </P> <P> The song became popular on land in America as well . A catalogue of "folk - songs" from the Midwest included it in 1915, where it was said to be sung while dancing "a sort of reel". More evidence of lands - folk's increasing familiarity with "Drunken Sailor" comes in the recording of a "Drunken Sailor Medley" (ca. 1923) by U.S. Old Time fiddler John Baltzell . Evidently the tune's shared affinities with Anglo - Irish - American dance tunes helped it to become readapted as such, as Baltzell included it among a set of reels . </P> <P> Classical composers utilized the song in compositions . Australian composer Percy Grainger incorporated the song into his piece "Scotch Strathspey And Reel" (1924). Malcolm Arnold used its melody in his Three Shanties for Woodwind Quintet, Op. 4 (1943). </P> <P> The glut of writings on sailors' songs and published collections that came starting in the 1920s and which supported a revival of interest in shanty - singing for entertainment purposes on land . As such, R.R. Terry's very popular shanty collection, which had begun to serve as a resource for renditions of shanties on commercial recordings in the 1920s, was evidently used by the Robert Shaw Chorale for their 1961 rendition . The Norman Luboff Choir recorded the song in 1959 with the yet uncharacteristic phrasing, "What'll we do ...?" </P>

What fo you do with a drunken sailor lyrics