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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 "Row, Row, Row", 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


• "Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)", written by Edward Robinson; Jerry Brandow; Lenny Kent; Leonard Ware; Willie Spottswood in 1938


• "Three Little Fishies", written by Josephine Carringer and Bernice Idins; 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


• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", written by Paul McCartney in 1968


• "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

See also

• Literary nonsense


• Novelty song

References