Nonsense song

A nonsense song is a type of song written mainly for the purpose of entertainment using nonsense syllables at least in the chorus. Such a song generally has a simple melody and a quick (or fairly quick) tempo.^[1]

History[]

The roots of this song type can be traced as far back as "Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me" and "Jimmy Crack Corn" to the 1890s "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay".^{[citation needed]} This last was a kind of can-can with an obvious accent on the "boom." Mostly it was a way of letting off steam.^{[citation needed]}

Every era has had its own nonsense songs. The turn of the 20th century had "", with lines like:

And then he'd row, row, row,
A little further he would row,
Oh, oh, oh, oh,
And then he'd drop both his oars,
Take a few more encores
And then he'd row, row, row.^{[citation needed]}

The jazz age created many nonsense songs, such as "Ja-Da".

Ja-da, ja-da
Ja-da, ja-da, jig, jig, jig^[1]

Examples[]

• "Sarasponda", a children's folk song
• "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", written by James F. Hanley in 1934
• "", written by Edward Robinson; Jerry Brandow; Lenny Kent; Leonard Ware; Willie Spottswood in 1938
• "Three Little Fishies", written by and ; with music by Saxie Dowell in 1939
• "Mairzy Doats", composed by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston in 1943
• "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", written by Al Hoffman, Mack David, and Jerry Livingston in 1948
• "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo", written by Helen Deutsch in 1952
• "The Purple People Eater", written by Sheb Wooley in 1958
• "Chim Chim Cher-ee", written by the Sherman Brothers in 1964
• "The Name Game", written by Shirley Ellis in 1964
• "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", written by the Sherman Brothers in 1968
• "I Am the Walrus", written by John Lennon in 1967
• "Dig a Pony", written by John Lennon in 1969
• "Surfin' Bird", written by Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, Turner Wilson Jr. in 1963. Performed by The Trashmen and the Ramones.
• "Prisencolinensinainciusol", written by Adriano Celentano in 1972
• The Israeli rock band Kaveret, active 1973–1976, are known with their songs with nonsense, wordplays and surrealistic stories.
• "Chacarron Macarron", written by "El Chombo" in 2006
• "Why This Kolaveri Di", an Indian song by actor Dhanush that skyrocketed him to international fame in 2011.
• "Ja Ja Ding Dong", a song from the 2020 film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

See also[]

• Literary nonsense
• Novelty song

References[]