Nursery rhymes! They’re not just for kids. Pop songs have taken inspiration from Mother Goose for as long as there have been pop songs. And that’s a long time.

For centuries, people have adapted and added to nursery rhymes in order to educate, entertain, or even make a subtle political point. The tale of Jack and Jill, for example, originates from around 1765 and, at the time, only consisted of one verse, which featured the characters of Jack and Gill (one theory posits that the rhyme references King Charles I’s tax reforms on liquid volume measurements which were known as jacks and gills — plausible, but who knows).

The first printings of the rhyme in Mother Goose collections also featured a little maxim at the end: “The more you think of dying, the better you will live.”

Cheery. Always remember, kids — you’re going to die!

Over the course of many years, Gill eventually morphed into Jill and unknown writers added extra verses to make it clear that Jack survives his fall. In 1978, 200 years after its original publication, a pre-“Ghostbusters” Ray Parker, Jr. offered his own twist.

As a teen, Ray’s prodigious guitar skills scored him a gig in the house band of a popular Detroit nightclub. This led to jobs with various Motown acts in the 70s, occasionally in the studio but mostly as a tour guitarist. He also scored hits as a writer, penning a #1 R&B song for Chaka Khan and a #1 pop song (although unfortunately uncredited) for Leo Sayer, with “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”

In 1977, Parker formed Raydio, and Arista Records quickly snapped up the new group. Heading straight into the studio, Parker and the band recorded a laid back groove called “Jack And Jill.” Far from being a parable about volume measurements, this version of the old rhyme presented the two J’s as troubled lovers, with Jack waiting at the top of the hill for a Jill who never comes. Lonely and sad, he then sneaks down the hill looking for love with someone else.

No pails, no water, no physical fall. Just an emotional tumble.

Released as a single in December of 1977, “Jack And Jill” went up the hill into the Top 10 of the US Hot 100. The band scored a couple more Top 10 hits over the next few years, but by 1982 they were basically a Ray Parker, Jr. solo vehicle, and he made it official by going out on his own to bust some ghosts on the pop charts.

So get your Goose on…… with Raydio.