Ten Green Bottles

"Ten Green Bottles" is a traditional English counting song believed to have originated in Yorkshire. The earliest recorded version appeared in England in 1929, and it was published in The Oxford Song Book in 1928, where it was noted as a "traditional North country song." One intriguing theory suggests that the "green bottles" refer to officers of the Metropolitan Police (established in 1829), with "hanging on the wall" alluding to them being on duty. However, a 1998 discovery of a 14th-century English manuscript containing remarkably similar phrasing—"Syxthene boetell gryne Yhangen, Yhangen..."—suggests the rhyme may have much older origins. The tune is shared with the American folk song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," with the children's version adapting the melody using a smaller number of non-alcoholic bottles as an interactive counting game.