Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay

Contemporary Bromo-Seltzer advertisement in which Lottie Collins dances and sings "Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-ay!"

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song first performed by the 1880s. It was included in Henry J. Sayers' 1891 revue Tuxedo in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the 1892 version sung by Lottie Collins in London music halls, and also became popular in France.

The melody was later used in various contexts, including as the theme song to the mid-20th century United States television show Howdy Doody.

Background

The song's authorship was disputed for some years. It was originally credited to Henry J. Sayers, the manager of Rich and Harris, a producer of the George Thatcher Minstrels. Sayers used the song in the troupe's 1891 production Tuxedo, a minstrel farce variety show, in which "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was sung by Mamie Gilroy. Sayers later said that he had not written the song, but heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known St. Louis brothel run by "Babe" Connors. Another American singer, Flora Moore, said that she had sung the song in the early 1880s.

Stephen Cooney, Lottie Collins' husband, heard the song in Tuxedo and purchased rights from Sayers for Collins to perform the song in England. Collins created a dance routine around it. With new words by Richard Morton and a new arrangement by Angelo A. Asher, she first sang it at the Tivoli Music Hall on The Strand in London in December 1891 to an enthusiastic reception. It became her signature tune. Within weeks, she included it in a pantomime production of Dick Whittington and performed it to great acclaim in the 1892 adaptation of Edmond Audran'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. One reviewer noted that "she turns, twists, contorts, revolutionizes, and disports her lithe and muscular figure into a hundred different poses, all bizarre".

The song was performed in France under the title "Tha-ma-ra-boum-di-hé", first by Mlle. Duclerc at Aux Ambassadeurs in 1891. The following year it was a major hit for Polaire at the Folies Bergère. In 1892 The New York Times reported that a French version of the song had appeared under the title "Boom-allez".

Later editions of the music credited its authorship to various persons, including Alfred Moor-King, Paul Stanley, and Angelo A. Asher. Some claimed that the song was originally used at American religious revival meetings. Richard Morton, who wrote the version of the lyric used in Lottie Collins' performances, said its origin was "Eastern".

Around 1914 activist Joe Hill wrote a version that tells how poor working conditions can result in workers "accidentally" causing their machinery to have mishaps. Similarly, in 1954 Joe Glazer released a rendition of the song about a worker who is initially dismissive of labor organizers. After losing his savings and standard of living in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he joins the labor movement. A 1930s lawsuit determined that the tune and the refrain were in the public domain.

Gene Krupa's version, "Ta-ra-ra-Boom-der-e", released as a shellac record

The 1893 Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Utopia, Limited has a character called Tarara, 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, included a portion of the song in their musical revue attraction America Sings, in the finale of Act 3 – The Gay 90s.

Other lyrics

Since the early 20th century, the widely recognizable melody has been re-used for numerous other songs, children's camp songs, parodies, and military ballads. It was used for the theme song to the United States television show Howdy Doody (as "It's Howdy Doody Time").

Lyrics

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 maids 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 as 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!

Chorus

I'm a timid flow'r 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.

References

• Sheet music (1940) from the library of Indiana University
• Banana Splits, Dilly Sisters and Hocus Pocus Park
• The Dilly Sisters singing Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay (begins at 1:59) Accessed 2009/02/09