My Grandfather's Clock

1876 song by Henry Clay Work

"Grandfather's Clock" (popularly known as "My Grandfather's Clock") is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. The Oxford English Dictionary says the song was the origin of the term "grandfather clock" for a longcase clock. In 1905, the earliest known recording of this song was performed by Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet (known then as the "Edison Quartet").

The song, told from a grandchild's point of view, is about his grandfather's clock. The clock is purchased on the morning of the grandfather's birth and works perfectly for 90 years, requiring only that it be wound at the end of each week. The clock seems to know the good and bad events in the grandfather's life; it rings 24 chimes when the grandfather brings his new wife into his home, and near his death it rings an alarm, which the family recognizes to mean that the elderly gentleman is near death and gathers by his bed. After the grandpa dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.

Work published a sequel to the song two years after, and again the grandson acts as the narrator. The grandson laments the fate of the no longer functioning grandfather clock—it was sold to a junk dealer, who sold its parts for scrap and its case for kindling. In the grandfather's house, the clock was replaced by a wall clock, which the grandson disdains (referring to it as "that vain, stuck up thing on the wall"). However, the sequel never reached the popularity of the original. The song was covered and translated many times, versions in other languages may vary. For example, in the Czech version, sung by the country band Taxmeni, the song continues with an additional, joyful strophe, narrating further events in the grandson's life: the birth of his son and the purchase of a new clock on the same day, to maintain the family tradition.

"My Grandfather's Clock" became well known in Japan in 1962 when the NHK children's music program, Minna no uta, broadcast the recording by Tachikawa Sumito. It was accompanied by an animated sequence created by 谷内六郎. The song became incorporated into educational settings in Japan ever since. A second version was broadcast on Minna no uta in 1972, which utilized the same recording, but with a new animated sequence by 竹口義之.

“My Grandfather’s Clock” has been used in the horror game franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s on multiple occasions for the series’ antagonist “The Marionette” or mainly referred to as “The Puppet” for its music box theme for the franchise’s second game and Ultimate Custom Night. The song was latter dubbed “Puppet Music Box” and was featured in the franchise’s film adaptation.