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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. Since
then, "Mairzy Doats" has been used in movies like Radio Days and TV shows such as All In The Family as an evocative reminder of the relief and pleasure it brought to many in tense times. The wacky song that nobody wanted has come a long way. --------------------------------------------- Other
Jerry Livingston pages: |
