From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,misc.kids
Subject: Re: Walla walla bing bang (was Re: Worm song?)
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:28:47 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <1992Apr4.010929.21383@ims.com> johnnyb@ims.com (Johnny Battle) writes:
>It was: "Ting, tang, walla-walla bing-bang."
>And it wasn't the Chipmunks, at least not originally, it was ..(?) somebody.
>It came out around the same time the Chipmunks had their first Big Hit (the 
>one in which Alvin won't stop playing his harmonica). My other favorites
>from around that time were the "One-eyed, One-horned, Flying Purple People-eater" 
>and the "Itsy-bitsy, Teeny weeny, Yellow, Polka-dot Bikini" songs. I believe 
>"Ahab the A-Rab," "Does Your Chewing Gum Loose Its Flavor on the Bedpost 
>Overnight," and "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" also made it big just about then. Now,
>my question is: were the radio airways really dominated by this kind of song
>back then or did it just seem that way to a nine year old boy?  I can't think
>of many kid songs (except for a couple of Weird Al songs) that have made it to
>the charts in the past few years. 
>
>Johnny Battle.
> 

As was rattled off earlier (last week?) on afu, the Witch Doctor song is
indeed the product of musician/some-time actor Ross Bagdasarian aka
David Seville, who later used the speeded-up voice technique to create
the Alvin and the Chipmunks songs featuring David Seville.  So technically,
while there is a little bit of the speedup trick in parts of the Witch Doctor,
Alvin, Simon and Theodore don't appear until the Christmas song about the
Hula Hoop, etc. a little later.

Around the same time, the One-eyed One-horned Flying Purple People Eater song
was released by Sheb Wooley, which also used some of the speed-up.  There
were other imitators, including the purveyors of the song the Martian Hop.

Other songs using more "normal" voices were Brian Hyland's Ittsy Bittsy
Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini (that she wore for the first time today;
[...] From the locker to the blanket.... from the blanket to the shore....
from the shore to the water..... guess there isn't any more :-)) that featured
high-pitched female backup singers.  Brian Hyland also recorded a song called
the Joker, and became known as Brian Hyland and the Jokers.  Their other
big hit was Sealed with a Kiss.

Ray Stevens (Everything is Beautiful, You better take care of business, Mr.
business man, if you can, etc.) recorded Ahab the Arab, (the sheik of the
burning sand) and used a little falsetto voicing for the part of Fatima, etc.
but no speed-up either.

Rolph Harris recorded Tie 'me Kangaroo Down, Sport using only normal voices,
but there was an unusual sound-effect throughout the song: the rhythm is
maintained my warping back and forth a large piece of sheet metal.  (So we
tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, and that's it hangin' on the shed, 
altogether now...).

Lonnie Donnigan (Rock Island Line) recorded Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its
Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? (Does your Mother say don't chew it and you
swallow it in spite?  Do you catch it on your tonsils, and you heave it
left and right? (Whee-phew!) Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the
bedpost overnight.  Here comes the blushing bride; the groom is by her side;
up to the altar; she's steady as Gibraltar; and the groom has got the ring; and
it's such a pretty thing; and while he slips it on her finger the choir begins
to sing...) (If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make bughorns from?)

This is a so-called "skiffle" song that the Beatles were enamoured of, but not
much of it came to the USA.  No particular effects other than the unusual
rhythm.

I guess the whole era was filled with songs that needed some particular
gimmick to win us over.

Several years later, there was a song called I Can See Clearly Now recorded by
Johnny Nash which used an accordion with reverse-bellows sounds as a so-called
"hook".  I guess we just like strange musical stuff :-).

Perhaps it's all summed up in Barry Mann's Who Put the Bomp in the 
Bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp song.  (Who was that man?  I'd like to shake his
hand, he made my baby fall in love with me :-).)

(And when I say DIT.... DIT-DIT.... DIT-DIT.... you know I mean it from the
bottom of my boogedy-boogedy-shoot :-).)

Rama-lama-ding-dong forever :-).

cjl (child of the '60's :-))
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