A Blog of Bosh

Edward Lear published two collections of arrangements of Alfred Tennyson’s poems. This first, in 1853, included four settings (’Edward Gray’, ‘A Farewell’, ‘Tears, Idle Tears’, and ‘Sweet and Low’), the second, in 1859, added five more, including the one I am posting this week, for obvious reasons: The Time Draws Near the Birth of [...]

This week’s nonsense song has much in common with The Owl and the Pussy-cat; Aba Daba Honeymoon is another happy story of love and marriage, in this case between primates. It was written by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan and brought to success by Ruth Roye, Princess of Ragtime, in 1914. The version I am [...]

The second song from Elton Hayes’s first Edward Lear record: The Jumblies.

Cartoon Brew reports that Gilbert Mack passed away on 5 December 2005 at the age of 93.

In addition to movies and lending his voice to several cartoon characters, Mack published 78-rpm records of his readings of two of Edward Lear’s Alphabets; there is no date on the records but they probably appeared in 1948-49. Here [...]

Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston, authors of last week’s Mairzy Doats, later teamed up with Mack David to form a trio specializing in nonsense songs: theirs are the famours Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo from Walt Disney’s Cinderella (1950) as well as The Unbirthday Party from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951).
Before these songs, the first [...]

Elton Hayes published three 78-rpm records with Edward Lear songs, the first one in October 1950 (Parlophone R 3329) and containing The Table and the Chair and The Jumblies (to be posted next Wednesday).
This was followed by Parlophone R 3602 (December 1952), containing The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs and The Quangle [...]

I’m also resuming the Nonsense Lyrics from the 1940s series after the hiatus due to the site hacking. This week Mairzy Doats ( words and music by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston. Miller Music Corp., NYC, 1943) in Al Trace’s 1944 version.

MAIRZY DOATS
Al Trace
Oh, mairzy doats and dozy doats and little lambsy divey
A kiddle [...]