"Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" is a 1946 song by Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra. The song's lead vocals were performed by Lionel Hampton himself and the recording featured

Herbie Fields Herbie Fields (Herbert Bernfeld, May 24, 1919 – September 17, 1958) was an American jazz musician. He attended New York's famed Juilliard School of Music (1936–38) and served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1943. Career Membership in the Raym ...

on alto sax. The song went to number one on the R&B Juke Box chart for sixteen non-consecutive weeks and reached number nine on the national pop charts. Although the writing of "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" was credited to Hampton and his drummer Curley Hamner, it was essentially a partial rewriting of

Helen Humes Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 9, 1981) was an American singer. Humes was a teenage blues singer, a vocalist with Count Basie's band, a saucy R&B diva, and a mature interpreter of the classic popular song. Early life She was born on ...

' 1945 R&B hit "Be-Baba-Leba", which in turn was closely related to "Ee-Bobaliba" by Jim Wynn.

Precursors

The song "Be-Baba-Leba" was recorded by Helen Humes with the

Bill Doggett William Ballard Doggett (February 16, 1916 – November 13, 1996) was an American pianist and organist. He began his career playing swing music before transitioning into rhythm and blues. Best known for his instrumental compositions "Honky Tonk" ...

Octet in August 1945, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and rose to number 3 on the '' Billboard''

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

at the end of the year. The writing of the song was credited to Humes, who wrote the lyrics, such as: "He thrills me in the morning, thrills me in the night, the way he loves me makes me scream with delight, oooh oooh oooh baba-leba....". The vocal choruses are interspersed with saxophone breaks by

Wild Bill Moore William M. "Wild Bill" Moore (June 13, 1918 – August 1, 1983) was an American R&B and jazz tenor saxophone player. Moore earned a modest hit on the Hot R&B charts with "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll", which also was one of the earliest roc ...

, who was brought in by Doggett for the session. Pianist

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...

said that "Be-Baba-Leba"'s

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...

was "so old it's got whiskers", and it is close to the one on "Boogie Woogie" recorded by

Jimmy Rushing James Andrew Rushing (August 26, 1901 – June 8, 1972) was an American singer and pianist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948. Rushing was known as " Mr. Five by ...

with

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

in 1937. However, the scat wording apparently derives from "Ee-Bobaliba", a song performed by saxophonist and bandleader Jim Wynn in the early 1940s with his band, the Bobalibans. By that time, the term "

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

" or similar terms like "ba-re-bop" were becoming popular among musicians to describe the new forms of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

being performed by such musicians as Dizzy Gillespie. Wynn recorded his song, with vocalist

Claude Trenier The Treniers (pronounced /trəˈniərz/) were an American R&B and jump blues musical group led by identical twins Cliff and Claude Trenier. They were originally billed as the Trenier Twins, who performed alongside the Gene Gilbeaux Quartet, b ...

, after Humes recorded "Be-Baba-Leba", and it did not make the chart.Dave Penny, "Jim Wynn", ''Black Cat Rockabilly''
Retrieved 30 November 2016

Lionel Hampton recording

Once Humes' record had become a hit, Decca Records rushed Lionel Hampton into the studio to record a similar song, which became "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop". Their arrangement was similar to Jim Wynn's but added a

call and response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

element between Hampton and his musicians, and replaced Humes' salacious verses with nonsense rhymes like: "Matilda Brown told old King Tut, 'If you can't say rebop keep your big mouth shut', say hey ba-ba-re-bop...". Hampton was already a popular and established musician, at a bigger company than Humes'

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's de ...

, and his version soon knocked Humes off the charts and went to number one on the R&B chart for 16 weeks (a record broken at that time only by Joe Liggins' "

The Honeydripper "The Honeydripper (Parts 1 and 2)" is an R&B song by Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers which topped the US Billboard R&B chart (at that time called the "Race Records" chart) for 18 weeks, from September 1945 to January 1946. History Liggins cla ...

" and Louis Jordan's "

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" is a popular song written by Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, and Milt Gabler. The song was recorded in January 1946 by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five and released by Decca Records. It topped the R&B charts for 18 weeks f ...

"). The song is viewed in some respects as a precursor to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

. Reviewer Lindsay Planer wrote of Hampton's recording:

The cut immediate gets fired up with Hampton's trademark two-fingered piano lick as it beckons to hipsters of all stripes. He is joined by the rhythm section, which establishes a solid boogie-woogie tempo leading up to the catchy chorus. The verses are offered in a halting style, with the combo accenting the first downbeat, then laying out for the other three in the measure. This effective technique would later show up as a sonic hallmark of blues arrangements. The lyrics are presented in short rhymes... Between the second and final couplet there is an extended instrumental break, giving the trumpet and clarinet room to wail. Hampton returns with some improvised scat vocals and another round of the chorus before heading into the concluding lines and one last coda of the chorus.

Later versions and influence

Hampton was also responsible for recording another version of the song, "Hey-Ba-Ra-Re-Bop", by

Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter and rhythm-and-blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by ...

, which was released on his Hamp-Tone label, though Hampton himself did not play on the session. The song was also covered by

Tex Beneke Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke ( ; February 12, 1914 – May 30, 2000) was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. H ...

with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, as "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop", which reached number 4 on the pop chart in 1946. Other versions, though technically listed as different songs, included Dizzy Gillespie's "Bob A Lee Ba" and Tina Dixon's "E-Bop-O-Lee-Bop". The use of nonsense syllables to convey excitement was passed on in later years in such songs as

Gene Vincent Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula ...

's " Be-Bop-A-Lula" and Little Richard's "awopbopaloobop alopbamboom" in "

Tutti Frutti Tutti frutti (from Italian ''tutti i frutti'', "all fruits"; also hyphenated tutti-frutti) is a colorful confectionery containing various chopped and usually candied fruits, or an artificial or natural flavouring simulating the combined flavou ...

", both in 1956. Holger Czukay recorded several versions of a track "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop", inspired by a live recording of Hampton's performance in Hamburg in the 1950s; Czukay's version appears on the album Rome Remains Rome.

References

{{authority control 1946 songs Decca Records singles Lionel Hampton songs

Precursors

Lionel Hampton recording

Later versions and influence

See also

References