From: iplt_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Ilana Plutzer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,misc.kids
Subject: Re: Walla walla bing bang (was Re: Worm song?)
Date: 8 Apr 92 21:47:34 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

In <1992Apr7.212847.21844@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.
>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.

	Do you by anychance know all the words to Ahab the Arab? Anyone?

>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?)

By the way, it's foghorns not bughorns.

>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 :-))
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.urban:11594 alt.folklore.science:1322