Talk:If I Had a Hammer

message: I'm a little surprised to see the Trini Lopez version listed in that "Other versions" section where Wikipedia usually lists some Serbian or Mongolian bar band's cover version. The Trini version is the one most people know and was the hit record. I came here to remember his name cause I just flipped across him singing it on a PBS special, and was surprised to find his name buried.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.255.241.210 (talk) 23:21, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trini Lopez 

message: "if i had a hammer" is a folksong, in the authentic sense of the term.  it is a composition that was worked on by many people, over a period of decades.  wikipedia shouldn't give the impression that it is a lee hayes/pete seeger original composition.  it was probably sung for decades before these two men copyrighted it.  in fact, it should not have been copyrighted in the first place.  the u s copyright office generally does NOT allow folk tunes and lyrics to be copyrighted. (officially, at least.)  they are considered to be "in the public domain." but there have been times when copyright officials haven't been able to distinguish folk tunes from original compositions, or have turned a blind eye to the origins of these works. (apparently, we don't have people like harry smith and alan lomax working in the copyright department.) hayes and seeger implicitly presented "if i had a hammer" to the copyright office as an original piece of work, either intentionally or unwittingly committing a fraud (or coming close to doing so).  nobody in the copyright office recognized it as an old folk tune, so hayes and seeger were granted the copyright. (and i guess no one there had gottten any wiser twenty four years later, when the copyright was RENEWED.) taking public domain folk tunes and and copyrighting them for fun and profit was at one time an "accepted" practice (among some people, at least).  but we should know better these days.  we shouldn't be blind to the actual origin of these tunes.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.68.9.233 (talk) 21:29, 14 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  "if i had a hammer" is a folksong (in the authentic sense of the term) 

message: "Folk music died out when people realised that everyone in the world already had a hammer." 141.92.129.41 (talk) 13:24, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rich Hall quote 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on If I Had a Hammer. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20050407084710/http://www.arlo.net:80/lyrics/hammer-song.shtml to http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/hammer-song.shtml
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 21:02, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Is it necessary to precise in which context Bob Flanagan used Nimoy's cover? I mean, I think it would be better if it just said that this version was used in one of his (sado-masochistic) performances, without saying what exactly he was doing in that performance...
Cordially,
Sété40 (talk) 02:30, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bob Flanagan 

message: French pop-singer sang a version of the song "Si j'avais un marteau", which isn't listed on this page.
See:
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org › wiki › S...
Si j'avais un marteau
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer 2A02:8440:5309:766A:8ED4:20D8:5E8E:9F54 (talk) 11:22, 26 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing version by French singer Claude François 

message: The first time I ever heard this song was its italian version performed by Rita Pavone when I was a child: Datemi un Martello. I think it was recorded in 1964 and it was a huge success in Brazil. I never knew that it was originally a protest song until now. I wonder why this Italian version is not mentioned in Wikipedia since it seems to be well known and not only in Brazil. 2804:1B3:6D02:CFEE:209E:3FB1:3F54:EECD (talk) 18:34, 10 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rita Pavone version is not mentioned