Songs like this demonstrate the communal heritage of folk music songs everyone can enjoy singing. This songbook is often regarded as the folk song bible. Within the book's covers you'll find a variety of folk songs everything from the Scottish ballad Barbara Allen , a ballad that goes back further than the 17th century and whose authorship is unknown, to Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music , written by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1959.
Chances are they know all the words.
Now think of your next door neighbor. Chances are he knows the words, too. Re Mi didn't intend to become a folk song, but almost by osmosis, everyone knows it. Even your Scout troop would include it when singing around the campfire. Another type of folk music is folk-rock.