THAT'S IT

Created on 02/04/2002
Latest update on 21/11/2023

Artist: Jimmy Monaco
Author: James V. Monaco
Year: 1914

Bandleader and composer (of What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For a.o.). Instrumental connected to the barber expression Shave And A Haircut, Two Bits in 1939. The Barber Museum in Canal Winchester, Ohio (near Columbus) has the original sheet music. Two bits was indeed the price for a shave and a haircut in those days, that is about 25 $-cent, so figure out how much cheaper that was. When the dollar became America's monetary standard, the bit was a Spanish silver coin.

Covers:

1915:

American Quartet [opening and finishing On The 5:15; n°2 US]

1915:

Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan [idem]

1920s:

Happiness Boys [coda of That's A Lot Of Bunk]

1928:

Mickey Mouse [in his very first cartoon Steamboat Willy]

1930s:

bluegrass-ending [everybody in bluegrass knows what a shave and a haircut ending means; The Arkansas Traveler has one]

1930s:

slapstick-ending

1939:

Dan Shapiro, Lester Lee & Milton Berle [as Shave And A Haircut Shampoo]

1942:

Spike Jones [in Clink Clink Another Drink]

1950:

Dave Bartholomew [in Country Boy]

1952:

Dave Bartholomew [opens My Ding-A-Ling]

1955:

Bo Diddley [the famous Bo Diddley beat is just a succession of Shave And A Haircuts; same goes up for Not Fade Away]

1959:

North Mississippi fife & drum rhythm [sort of Bo Diddley beat, or is it the other way around? (see: Hambone)]

1961:

Jets [in Gee, Officer Krupke from Westside Story]

1962:

Dave Brubeck [coda Unsquare Dance]

1965:

Rene & His Alligators [coda 12th Street]

1965:

Cocktail Trio [coda Het Vlooiencircus]

1965:

Rita Corita [idem]

1965:

Winifred Atwell [in Flea Market Of Paris]

1972:

Carpenters [coda Piano Picker]

1988:

Roger Rabbit [in film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the poor fellow can't resist in finishing-off a Shave And A Haircut with Two Bits of his own, even if this reveals his hiding place]

Same 7-note-riff halfway the Charles Hale song At A Darktown Cakewalk (1899) and in the bridge of H.A. Fischler's Hot Scottish Rag (1911). Antwerp variation: Het Gat Van De N..., Ziet Zwart.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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