"The Inch Worm" (also known as "Inchworm") is a song by Frank Loesser, who wrote both its music and its lyrics. It was first performed by Danny Kaye, with Gordon Jenkins and his chorus and orchestra, in the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen, a Samuel Goldwyn Technicolor production, and it appears on the soundtrack, which was also released as an album. Loesser also wrote a contrapuntal arithmetic chorus that counts sums up to thirty-two. In the film, a children's chorus chants this arithmetic in a classroom while Andersen, outside, gazes at an inchworm. The arithmetic chorus became popular on its own as a children's song. Loesser enjoyed the intellectual challenge of contrapuntal writing. A fan letter praising the song's simplicity and counterpoint, signed "a Kansas inchworm", received a reply from Loesser in the form of a newspaper advertisement in Lawrence, Kansas. The song has been recorded by many singers, including Paul McCartney, Anne Murray, Doris Day and Patricia Barber. John Coltrane's quartet performed it regularly, and it appears on the album Coltrane (1962). David Bowie said it inspired his 1980 "Ashes to Ashes".
