Little Boxes Lyrics
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same
[Verse 2]
And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same
And there's doctors and lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same
[Verse 3]
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same
About
What Tom Lehrer called “the most sanctimonious song ever written,” “Little Boxes” is a song written in 1962 by the folk singer Malvina Reynolds about the conformist, quick-fix attitudes of middle-class Americans at the time. A university professor, speaking in Time magazine in 1964, famously quipped,
I’ve been lecturing my classes about middle-class conformity for a whole semester. Here’s a song that says it all in 1½ minutes.
From 2005 through to 2008, the song was the theme song for the Showtime original series Weeds, detailing the exploits of suburban drug dealer Nancy Botwin and her clueless, affluent neighbours. The song was covered by numerous different artists on the show, including Regina Spektor, Death Cab For Cutie, Linkin Park, Walk off the Earth, and Pete Seeger.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 3.Little Boxes
- 10.The Bloody Neat
- 11.Quiet
- 13.Bitter Rain
- 18.Uneasy Dreams
- 20.Malvina’s Blues
- 23.If You Love Me
- 25.Mailman Blues
- 26.The Money Crop
- 29.The Little Mouse