Boop Style

The other day I played “Crazy Words, Crazy Tune,” for Ann on RealPlayer via the extraordinary Red Hot Jazz Archive. Recorded in 1927, the song is Irving Aaronson & His Commanders having fun with a throwaway tune. At one point, two vocalists have this exchange:

“Washington at Valley Forge/Bitter cold/And up spoke George…”

“Vo do dee-o vo do do dee-o do!”

“Napoleon matched his men/To Waterloo/What did he say to them?”

“Vo do dee-o vo do do dee-o do!”

“And in the Senate/The other day/What did our President Coolidge say?”

“Vo do dee-o vo do do dee-o do!”

As soon as this tune started up, Ann said, “Boop!” We have a collection of public domain Betty Boop cartoons, all black and white, some of which I’d never seen before getting the disk—Betty, I’m afraid, was considered too much of a has-been even for children’s programming when I was growing up. I was surprised to learn just how musical most of them are. Not just background or punctuation music, but full-blown singing and dancing in popular jazz style. Not a bad thing for a three-year-old to recognize.