"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 song, copyrighted by Henry J. Sayers, and introduced in Boston, Massachusetts in Tuxedo

Tuxedo (vaudeville)

Tuxedo is a vaudeville with minstrelsy in which the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was interpolated.Actor and songwriter Edward Marble wrote and produced Tuxedo for George Thatcher and his minstrel troupe known as Thatcher's Minstrels. It played a tryout in Boston, Massachusetts beginning on August...

in 1891. The song was best known in the version sung by Lottie Collins

Lottie Collins

Lottie Collins was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!"-Life:...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 music halls in 1892.

Background

The song's authorship was disputed for some years and was the subject of a lawsuit in the 1930s. It originally appeared credited to Sayers, who was the manager of the George Thatcher Minstrels, and was sung by Mamie Gilroy in Tuxedo

Tuxedo (vaudeville)

Tuxedo is a vaudeville with minstrelsy in which the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was interpolated.Actor and songwriter Edward Marble wrote and produced Tuxedo for George Thatcher and his minstrel troupe known as Thatcher's Minstrels. It played a tryout in Boston, Massachusetts beginning on August...

, a minstrel farce variety show in 1891. However, Sayers later stated that he had not written the song, but had heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known St. Louis brothel run by "Babe" Connors. The 1930s lawsuit decided that the tune and the refrain were in the public domain.

The song is recorded as performed in France under the title 'Tha-ma-ra-boum-di-hé', first by Mlle. Duclerc at Aux Ambassadeurs in 1891 but the following year as a major hit for Polaire

Polaire

Polaire was the stage name used by French singer and actress Émilie Marie Bouchaud .Born at Agha, Algiers, Algeria, according to her memoirs she was one of eleven children of whom only four - Emilie, her two brothers Edmond and Marcel, and a sister, Lucile - survived infancy...

 at the Folies Bergères.

Sayers gave the song to Lottie Collins

Lottie Collins

Lottie Collins was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!"-Life:...

, who worked up a dance routine around it, with new words by Richard Morton and a new arrangement by Angelo A. Asher, and performed it to great acclaim in London in 1892 in an adaptation of Edmond Audran

Edmond Audran

Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful operettas, including Les noces d'Olivette , La mascotte , Gillette de Narbonne , La cigale et la fourmi , Miss Helyett , and La poupée .After Audran's initial success in Paris, his works also became a...

's opérette, Miss Helyett. According to reviews at the time, Collins delivered the suggestive verses with deceptive demureness, before launching into the lusty refrain and her celebrated "kick dance", a kind of cancan in which, according to one reviewer, "she turns, twists, contorts, revolutionizes, and disports her lithe and muscular figure into a hundred different poses, all bizarre".

Around 1914 Joe Hill

Joe Hill

Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...

 wrote a version which tells the tale of how poor working conditions can lead workers into "accidentally" causing their machinery to have mishaps.

The tune is widely recognizable and has been used for numerous other songs, including children's camp songs and military ballads from the early 20th century. It was used for the theme song to the show Howdy Doody

Howdy Doody

Howdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir and telecast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows...

("It's Howdy Doody Time") and by the Mariachi-tuned Dilly Sisters on the 1960s children variety show The Banana Splits

Banana Splits

The Banana Splits were four comedic animal characters who featured in a late 1960s children's variety show made for television. The costumed hosts of the show were Fleegle , Bingo , Drooper and Snork .The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was an hour-long, packaged television program that featured both...

. The character Tarara, in the 1893 Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Utopia, Limited

Utopia, Limited

Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...

, is the "public exploder".

A 1945 British film of the same name describes the history of music hall theatre. From 1974 to 1988 the Disneyland park in Anaheim, California USA presented a portion of the song as part of a musical revue show entitled America Sings

America Sings

America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronic animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion....

. Containing four acts in a revolving carousel theater

Carousel of Progress

The Carousel of Progress is an attraction located at the Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort, currently operating under the name Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress...

, the song was part of the finale in Act 3: The Gay 90s

1890s

The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...

.

George Carlin

George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....

 joked that "Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay" was followed by "Did you get yours today? I got mine yesterday, that's why I walk this way."

As sung by Lottie Collins

A sweet tuxedo girl you see

A queen of swell society

Fond of fun as fond can be

When it's on the strict Q.T.

I'm not too young, I'm not too old

Not too timid, not too bold

Just the kind you'd like to hold

Just the kind for sport I'm told

Chorus:

Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-re! (sung eight times)

I'm a blushing bud of innocence

Papa says at big expense

Old maid

Old Maid

Old maid is a Victorian card game for two to eight players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter, in Sweden as Svarte Petter and in Finland as Musta Pekka and in France as le pouilleux or vieux garçon...

s say I have no sense

Boys declare, I'm just immense

Before my song I do conclude

I want it strictly understood

Though fond of fun, I'm never rude

Though not too bad I'm not too good

Chorus

A sweet tuxedo girl you see

A queen of swell society

Fond of fun as fond can be

When it's on the strict Q.T.

I'm not too young, I'm not too old

Not too timid, not too bold

Just the kind you'd like to hold

Just the kind for sport I'm told

Chorus.

As laundered and published by Henry J. Sayers for the sheet music

A smart and stylish girl you see,

Belle of good society

Not too strict but rather free

Yet as right as right can be!

Never forward, never bold

Not too hot, and not too cold

But the very thing, I'm told,

That in your arms you'd like to hold.

Chorus:

Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay! (sung eight times)

I'm not extravagantly shy

And when a nice young man is nigh

For his heart I have a try

And faint away with tearful cry!

When the good young man in haste

Will support me round the waist

I don't come to while thus embraced

Till of my lips he steals a taste

Kiss

A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another person or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good...

!

Chorus

I'm a timid flow'r

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

 of innocence

Pa says that that I have no sense,

I'm one eternal big expense

But men say that I'm just "immense!"

Ere my verses I conclude

I'd like it known and understood

Though free as air, I'm never rude

I'm not too bad and not too good!

Chorus

You should see me out with Pa,

Prim, and most particular;

The young men say, "Ah, there you are!"

And Pa says, "That's peculiar!"

"It's like their cheek!" I say, and so

Off again with Pa I go--

He's quite satisfied--although,

When his back's turned--well, you know--

Chorus.

Joe Hill

Joe Hill

Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...

 version

I had a job once threshing wheat

Worked sixteen hours with hands and feet.

And when the moon was shining bright,

They kept me working all the night.

One moonlight night, I hate to tell,

I "accidentally" slipped and fell.

My pitchfork went right in between

Some cog wheels of that thresh-machine.

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!

It made a noise that way.

And wheels and bolts and hay,

Went flying every way.

That stingy rube said, "Well!

A thousand gone to hell.

But I did sleep that night,

I needed it all right.

Next day that stingy rube did say,

"I'll bring my eggs to town today;

You grease my wagon up, you mutt,

And don't forget to screw the nut.

I greased his wagon all right,

But I plumb forgot to screw the nut,

And when he started on that trip,

The wheel slipped off and broke his hip.

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!

It made a noise that way,

That rube was sure a sight,

And mad enough to fight;

His whiskers and his legs

Were full of scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs is a dish made from beaten whites and yolks of eggs . Beaten eggs are put into a hot pot or pan and stirred frequently, forming curds as they coagulate.-Sample preparation:...

;

I told him, "That's too bad --

I'm feeling very sad"

And then that farmer said, "You turk!

I bet you are an "I Won't Work".

He paid me off right there, By Gum!

So I went home and told my chum.

Next day when threshing did commence,

My chum was Johnny on the fence;

And 'pon my word, that awkward kid,

He dropped his pitchfork

Pitchfork

A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...

, like I did.

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!

It made a noise that way,

And part of that machine

Hit Reuben on the bean.

He cried, "Oh me, oh my;

I nearly lost my eye"

My partner said, "You're right --

It's bedtime now, good night"

But still that rube was pretty wise,

These things did open up his eyes.

He said, "There must be something wrong;

I think I work my men too long"

He cut the hours and raised the pay,

Gave ham and eggs for every day,

Now gets his men from union hall,

And has no "accidents" at all.

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!

That rube is feeling gay;

He learned his lesson quick,

Just through a simple trick.

For fixing rotten jobs

And fixing greedy slobs,

This is the only way,

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!