I played at my mom's assisted living center last night. I did a set of three silly songs. I prefaced it with the comment that my dad a (professional sax player till the day he died) thought "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" were stupid lyrics. I then proceded to play:

Ja Da
Abba Daba Honeymoon
Doodle Dee Do

After those three songs they all agreed that "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" wasn't so bad after all. The scary part was they all knew those three songs. I'll bet Boo knows them also.

Tom

OH OH,, Tom, I know them too!!

It's funny how if you recite lyrics of a song, without melody, they will often sound stupid. If you're old enough to remember Steve Allen (or perhaps read in some history book ), he would occasionaly do just that. Like a song such as "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", he would recite, in a very serious tone: "Get out in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans, etc). Very funny bit.

Glenn

Glenn .. as I began to read your post I immediately thought of Steve Allen ... One I remember best of all was Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula (She's My Baby)" ...
Well Be Bop A Lula she's my baby
Be Bop A Lula I don't mean maybe
Be Bop A Lula she's my baby
Be Bop A Lula I don't mean maybe
Be Bop A Lula she's my baby doll, my baby doll, my baby doll.

t.

You can't imagine how brilliant and funny Steve Allen was in his prime, especially in a live nightly setting. In 1962-3 he had a live syndicated late night show from LA (around 350 markets-11:30-1:00 P.M.). I was honored to work as a still photographer and occasional musician.

He would dress up in cheezy news reporter clothes and read the lyrics of popular songs totally dry.

Another thing he would do when back from a commercial was stare through a fish tank in the studio directly at the camera. His thick glasses and distortion on the tank and water would rally distort his image through a wide angle setting. He would say, "Can you believe that the syndicate is paying $25,000 a minute for THIS"?

He also devloped a bit called "chicken man", who was a super hero, a la Clark Kent. He would go into a phone booth...feathers would fly, there would be a clucking sound and he would emerge as "chicken Man".

My favorite segement was called "meeting of the minds", where bit actors, including Steve, his wife, Jane Meadows and others would adopt the characters of famous people and discuss popular topics from the viewpoint of the famous charactors. This was deadly serious. George Washington would be discussing social programs with Ronald Reagan, Aristotle and a pope. The bit got the show canceled after multiple warnings from the producer, but he did the same bit
for years when he went to PBS.

A brilliant man, who never adjusted to the transition of TV to a mass (read less intellectual) communication channel. Through that contact, I met band members Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, and other famous jazz giants like Clark Terry, Jim Hall, Shelly Mann, Charlie Byrd,Lionel Hampton, Rays former wife, Ella Fitzgerald and others. Heady times for a 16 year old. Unfortunately, I was such a novis that I didn't really appreciate the opportunity until years later.


Russ

Fran, the sad thing is I knew them AND played them.

Tom,
How did you miss Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy??
Bebop

Captain Russ...
Steve Allen was one of my all time favorite TV personalities as I was growing up. Spontaneous, clever, smart as a whip and recognized the value of a lot of off-beat talent (ala Don Knotts).

I can't remember the year, late 80's I think, I was working as a PR guy for a performing arts society that hired Steve for three shows. On stage he was all I expected. Off stage he was...well, shall we say just a tad more than extremely eccentric.

He was the focal point of a VIP reception we had for our platinum patrons. Steve showed up in slippers and stuffed his face with finger foods the whole time, not talking to anyone. The patrons and management were very disappointed in his "social skills".

His manager called us and told us not to give him his check, unless Jane was with him. He was famous for misplacing everything. Jane kept him straight.

Three of his musicians who had to travel across the state for the gig got delayed by a major traffic accident enroute. They were a couple hours late for the rehearsal and we got to see a major rant from Steve when they finally showed.

Despite all this, I have always admired his creativity and showmanship.

Remember Bent Fabric (Alley Cat)? That was Steve. You had to love his humor.

Eddie

Bebop, I do remember that one but left it out. If I remember correctly wasn't there also one about fish that "svam an they svam right over the dam"?

Tom

Tom

Interesting post. What's even more interesting to me is I still occasionally perform Doodle Doo Doo and Ja-Da.

Used to play drums in a dixie-swing band that did Ja-Da. It was the only song the reed player sang on and the words he used started out: Je-lly, Jelly.........

Are you familiar with that "high profile" version? Does anybody have the rest of the words?

Scott