Mairzy Doats

“Mairzy Doats” is a novelty song written and composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. It was first played on radio station WOR, New York, by Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists. The song made the pop charts several times, with a version by the Merry Macs reaching No. 1 in March 1944. The song was also a number-one sheet music seller, with sales of over 450,000 within the first three weeks of release.[1]

This article is about the song. For the horse, see Mairzy Doates.
"Mairzy Doats"
Song
Published1943 by Miller Music Publishing Co.
GenreNovelty
Songwriter(s)Milton Drake
Al Hoffman
Jerry Livingston
Composer(s)Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston

The song's refrain, as written on the sheet music, seems meaningless:

Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?[2]

However, the lyrics of the bridge provide a clue:

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,
Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."[2]

This hint allows the ear to translate the final line as "a kid'll eat ivy, too; wouldn't you?"

Meaning

Milton Drake, one of the writers, said the song had been based on an English nursery rhyme. According to this story, Drake's four-year-old daughter came home singing, "Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters."[3] (Cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oysters.)

Drake joined Hoffman and Livingston to come up with a tune for the new version of the rhyme, but for a year no one was willing to publish a "silly song." Finally, Hoffman pitched it to his friend Al Trace, bandleader of the Silly Symphonists. Trace liked the song and recorded it. It became a huge hit, most notably with the Merry Macs' 1944 recording.[4]

Origins

The scholars Iona and Peter Opie have noted that the last two lines of the song appear in an old catch which, when said quickly, appears to be in Latin:[5]

In fir tar is,
In oak none is,
In mud eels are,
In clay none are,
Goat eat ivy,
Mare eat oats.

They trace the origin of the joke to a manuscript of about 1450 which has "Is gote eate yvy? Mare eate ootys".[5]

Other recordings

In 1958, New Orleans R&B singer Tommy Ridgley released a rock and roll version of "Mairzy Doats" on the Herald Records label as a 7" 45 rpm single (number 526).

In 1959, Dodie Stevens released "Mairzy Doats" as her first recording under Dot Records.

Also in 1959, The Mark IV released the song as a 7" single on Mercury Records.

Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album Join Bing and Sing Along (1959)

In 1963, an up-tempo rock and roll version of "Mairzy Doats" was also recorded by Carlo Mastrangelo of the Belmonts and released as a 7" record on Laurie Records the same year.

"Mairzy Doats" received a minor revival in 1967, when it was recorded by The Innocence, who took it to Number 75 on the Pop Top 100 on Kama Sutra Records.

Spike Jones was among several other artists who covered it, characteristically substituting sound effects for the "food" words.

Experimental band Xiu Xiu used lyrics from "Mairzy Doats" on their album Plays the Music of Twin Peaks. It had been sung by Leland Palmer in the second-season premiere of the series.[6]

Liverpool comedian Arthur Askey sang a version based on local names: "Mersey Docks and Harbour Board/And ferries to New Brighton..."

See also

References
  1. Smith, Kathleen E.R. God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 137. ISBN 0-8131-2256-2.
  2. Drake, Milton; Hoffman, Al; Livingston, Jerry (1943). Mairzy doats. New York: Miller Music Corporation. OCLC 876125772. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  3. Randall, Dale B. J. (1995). "American "Mairzy" Dottiness, Sir John Fastolf's Secretary, and the "Law French" of a Caroline Cavalier". American Speech. Duke University Press. 70 (4): 361–370. doi:10.2307/455617. JSTOR 455617.
  4. https://www.discogs.com/artist/1193177-The-Merry-Macs
  5. Opie, Iona; Opie, Peter (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 263. ISBN 978-0198600886.
  6. https://slate.com/culture/2017/05/why-mairzy-doats-was-perfect-for-twin-peaks-creepiest-scene.html
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