A Blog of Bosh

This week’s nonsense song has much in common with The Owl and the Pussy-cat; Aba Daba Honeymoon is another happy story of love and marriage, in this case between primates. It was written by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan and brought to success by Ruth Roye, Princess of Ragtime, in 1914. The version I am posting was performed by Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan and is taken from the UCSB Cylinder Digitization Project (sheet music at the University of Colorado)

More information and a somewhat better version at the American Memory site of the Library of Congress; a modern arrangement of the song, by The Fabulous Heftones, is also available under a Creative Commons licence.

Aba Daba Honeymoon

Way down in the Congoland
Lived a happy chimpanzee.
She loved a monkey with long tail
(Lordy, how she loved him!)
Each night he would find her there,
Swinging in the cocoanut tree,
And the monkey gay,
At the break of day,
Loved to hear his Chimpie say:

“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Chimpie to the Monk,
“Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they’d chatter away,
All day long they were happy and gay,
Swinging and singing in their hunky-tonkey way.
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Means “Monk, I love but you.”
“Baba, daba, dab,” in monkey talk
Means “Chimp, I love you, too.”
Then the big baboon one night in June,
He married them and very soon,
They went upon their aba, daba honeymoon.

Well, you should have heard that band
Play upon their wedding day,
Each Chimp and Monkey had nutshells
(Lordy, how they played them)
And now it is ev’ry night,
High up in the cocoanut tree.
It’s the same old thing,
With the same old swing,
When the Monk and Chimpie sing:

“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Chimpie to the Monk,
“Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they’d chatter away,
All day long there were happy and gay,
Swinging and singing in their hunky-tonkey way.
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Means “Monk, I love but you.”
“Baba, daba, dab,” in monkey talk
Means “Chimp, I love you, too.”
Then the big baboon one night in June,
He married them and very soon,
They went upon their aba, daba honeymoon.

“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Chimpie to the Monk,
“Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they’d chatter away,
All day long there were happy and gay,
Swinging and singing in their hunky-tonkey way.
“Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab,”
Means “Monk, I love but you.”
“Baba, daba, dab,” in monkey talk
Means “Chimp, I love you, too.”
One night they were made man and wife,
And now they cry, “This is the life,”
Since they came from their aba, daba honeymoon.

Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, authors of last week’s Mairzy Doats, later teamed up with Mack David to form a trio specializing in nonsense songs: theirs are the famours Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo from Walt Disney’s Cinderella (1950) as well as The Unbirthday Party from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951).

Before these songs, the first two in a series of eight to receive an Academy-Award nomination, however, they wrote Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep), no. 1 in the charts for three weeks in 1947 thanks to Perry Cuomo‘s performance.

CHI-BABA, CHI-BABA
Perry Como

Many a year ago in old Sorrento
a certain ditty was quite the thing
Whenever a mother rocked her baby in Sorrento
this little ditty she used to sing:

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

All the stars are in the skies ready to say “goodnight”
can’t you see your doll is sleepy, too?
Close your drowsy little eyes, mama will hold you tight
while she sings a lullaby to you:

Oh, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

(Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa, and chi-lawa)
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah (la goombah!)
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

( Chi, chi, chi-baba! )
Chi, chi, chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah (la goombah!)
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

All the stars are in the skies ready to say “goodnight, goodnight”
can’t you see your doll is sleepy, too?
Close your drowsy little eyes, mama will hold you tight
while she sings a lullaby to you, ever so sweetly!

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
An’ chi-lawa kook-a la goombah (la la goombah! chi-baba!)
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!

Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino go to sleep!
Chi-baba, chi-baba, chi-wawa
my bambino . . .
go to sleep!

I’m also resuming the Nonsense Lyrics from the 1940s series after the hiatus due to the site hacking. This week Mairzy Doats ( words and music by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston. Miller Music Corp., NYC, 1943) in Al Trace’s 1944 version.

MAIRZY DOATS
Al Trace

Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey
A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn’t you?
Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey

A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn’t you?

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear,
A little bit jumbled and jivey.
Say, “Mares eat oats and does eat oats
and little lambs eat ivy.”

Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey
A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn’t you?
Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey
A kiddle divey, too. Wouldn’t you?