EE-BA-BA-LEE-BA
Latest update on 27/06/2013Artist: Tina Dixon
Author: Tina Dixon
Label: Hallmark
Year: 1945
For the Jubilee Radio Show with Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra. Saved up for Jimmie Lunceford's The Minor Riff cd (2010). Pre Aladdin and pre Mercury jump blues. Oldest influence of bebop on rhythm & blues. Inspired by scat lyrics. Precursor of shouts like Be Bop A Lula (Gene Vincent) and A Wop Bop A Loo Bop A Lop Bam Boom (Little Richard).
Covers:
- 1945:
Helen Humes with Bill Doggett Octet [n°3 R&B as Be-Baba-Leba]
- 1945:
Lionel Hampton [n°1 R&B as Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop; the first to invite his audience to participate shouting]
- 1946:
Glenn Miller Orch. [under Tex Beneke, as Ba Ba Re Bop, first post-war white rip-off]
- 1946:
Big Jim Wynn [as Ee-Babaliba; real author - see footnote]
- 1946:
Wynonie Harris [with Hampton's band]
- 1946:
Bullmoose Jackson [as Oo-Oo-Ee-Bob-A-Lee-Bop]
- 1947:
Ramblers [as Hey-ba-ba-re-bop; vocal: Ferry Barendse; credits: Curley Hamner/Lionel Hampton; according to Jelly Roll Morton: a song so old it's got whiskers]
- 1957:
- 1958:
Thurston Harris [as Be Baba Leeba]
- 1958:
- 1964:
Blue Diamonds [idem]
- 1964:
Freddy Sunder [idem]
- 1965:
- 1968:
Frankie Yankovic [as Hey Baba Reba (Cafe Polka)]
- 1970:
Capt. Beefheart & The Magic Band [on Lick My Decals Off]
- 1978:
- 1981:
Peter Koelewijn [as Klap Maar In De Handen using GLORIA's riff]
- 1987:
Brave Combo [idem]
- 2000:
Tee [intro Oh Well]
Texan saxophone player and bandleader Big Jim Wynn, one of the first 'honkers', had a band in the early forties named The Bobalibans who sang a similar theme full of nonsense scat. Due to shellac shortage he couldn't record his potential novelty hit. And so he was forced to cover his own thing in the slipstream of the hit versions.
