Skip to main content
Video

"English is Crazy (English is Kuh-ray-zee)" by Pete Seeger for Smithsonian Staff

Now regarded as the dean of 20th-century folk singers, Pete Seeger started recording for Folkways founder Moses Asch in 1943. Asch continued to record Pete during the 1950s and beyond, with Pete eventually recording over fifty records for him and Folkways Records. Now in his eighties, Pete continues to make an occasional recording and still plays an occasional concert, where his audiences always sing along with him in unison. In 2005 he performed Josh White Jr.'s song "English Is Crazy" at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, D.C., leading Smithsonian employees in the chorus "English is kuh-ray-zee." More about Pete Seeger, American Folk icon