Re: Mairzy Doats
- Subject: Re: Mairzy Doats
- From: J* S*
- Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 18:45:08 -0800 (PST)
To add to Carolyn's notes, if no one minds this
off-topic continuation ...
"BY DENNIS LIVINGSTON
This article originally appeared in Remember magazine,
October 1995, p. 7, titled "A Song Is Born: The Ditty
That Became A Hitty".
"Where did those crazy words come from?" That's the
first thing people ask me when they learn that my
father, Jerry Livingston, wrote the music to "Mairzy
Doats," a novelty song that burst onto the national
scene just over 50 years ago.
Once you hear it, the irresistibly catchy refrain is
impossible to forget: "Mairzy doats and dozy doats and
liddle lamzy divey, a kiddley divey too, wouldn't
you?" But these words are not nonsense rhymes.
Separate each syllable carefully, speak slowly and
here's what you get: "Mares eat oats and does eat oats
and little lambs eat ivy."
The song was inspired by Milton Drake, one of my dad's
songwriting partners. Drake had long been familiar
with the phrase "mares eat oats, does eat oats," and
so on, which many children learned as a nursery rhyme.
These words can be traced back to centuries-old
English ditties, one of which proclaimed: "In fir tar
is, in oak none is, in mud eel is, in clay none is,
goat eat ivy, mare eat oats." Slide those first words
together and you sound like you're speaking
pseudo-Latin!
Early in 1942, Drake suggested that he, my dad and Al
Hoffman, the third member of the team, have a go at
turning "mares eat oats" into an appropriately nutty
song at one of the daily brainstorming sessions they
held at the Brill Building in New York's Tin Pan
Alley. It took only a few days of tossing words back
and forth, with time out for creative lunch breaks
over blintzes and coffee at Lindy's delicatessen,
before they succeeded.
However, no publisher was willing to take a chance on
a tune with such crazy words and none of the leading
bands of the time would touch it. Eventually, the team
gave up, leaving a wrinkled copy of the song buried in
my father's piano bench for a year. But then, late in
1943, my dad brought the piece to Al Trace, a
bandleader whose "Silly Symphonists" were famed for
the comic antics they inflicted on songs they
performed.
Trace immediately agreed that "Mairzy Doats" was
perfect for his cornball musicians and he began
featuring the song in the shows he broadcast from New
York's Hotel Dixie. In order to stimulate audience
involvement, Trace put the words on a large
blackboard, then, like a professor giving a lecture,
led everyone through the words with a pointer.
"Mairzy Doats" became an overnight sensation and was
quickly picked up by Miller Music, a leading
publisher. Several recordings soon followed, including
a snappy version by The Merry Macs. The song was
spread around the world during World War II by
American troops who sang it when marching off ships at
foreign ports. Soldiers also used the lyrics as
passwords."
[end]
Joe
--- Carolyn Stone <parthenia@earthlink.net> wrote:
> As American as apple pie, Tim, written by Jerry
> Livingston (1909-1987), who
> went on to write another such called "Bibbiti
> Bobbiti Boo," and to be
> elected to the Song Writers Hall of Fame for his
> efforts, and by Al Hoffman
> and Milton Drake; the sheet music was copyrighted
> 1943. "Mairzy Doats" was
> sung on The Hit Parade for 12 consecutive weeks in
> 1944, and led the list
> for two weeks. But I don't know beans about
> Isoplexis spectrum. Carolyn
> Stone
>
=====
Joe Seals
Santa Maria, California --
where the weather is always perfect
and my garden always has something blooming
and birds galore
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