Lyrics & Music by: Lynn Ahrens

Performed by: Joshie Armstead, Mary Sue Berry, and Maeretha Stewart





Number Nine will put you on the spot.

Number Nine will tie you up, oh, in a knot.

When you're tryin'

Multipyin' by nine,

You might give it everything you've got

And still be stopped.

If you don't know some secret way you can check on,

You'll break your neck on

Naughty Number Nine.



Now the first thing to keep in mind

When you're multiplyin' by nine

Is that it's one less than ten.

You see nine is the same as ten minus one.

So you could multiply your number by ten,

And then subtract the number from the result,

And you'd get the same product

As if you'd multiplied by nine

And you knew it.



I mean 8 x 9 is 80 minus 8,

And 7 X 9 is 70 minus 7, and 6 x 9 is 60 minus 6.

You could use those tricks.

'Cause you must have some secret way you can beat it,

or else you'll meet it

with Naughty Number Nine.



Of course it doesn't hurt

to know the table of nines by memory.

It goes like this:

1 x 9 is 9, and 2 x 9 is 18.

(Mean old Number Nine)

3 x 9 is 27, and 4 x 9 is 36,

5 x 9 is 45, and 6 x 9 is 54, and 7 x 9 is 63,

8 x 9 is 72, and 9 x 9 is 81,

and 10 x 9 is 90



Now the digit sum is always equal to nine.

I mean, if you add 2 and 7, the digits,

You get 9, the digit sum.

That's true of any product of 9.

If they don't add up, you've made a mistake.



'Cause you must have some secret way you can check it,

Or else you'll wreck it

With naughty, nasty, mean old Number Nine