Singer, songwriter, and activist Malvina Reynolds watched firsthand as new suburbs sprouted around her hometown of San Francisco. She wrote the following song, “Little Boxes,” about Daly City, a community of tract housing developed by Henry Doelger. Folksinger Pete Seeger’s version of the song was a hit in 1963, and its message continues to find an audience. Recently, Reynolds’s version was featured as the theme song to the HBO television series Weeds.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink 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.
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.
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.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There’s a green one and a pink 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.
Words from the song, Little Boxes
Words and music by Malvina Reynolds
Copyright 1962 Schroder Music Co.(ASCAP) Renewed 1990
Used by permission. All rights reserved.