This song has been in my head a lot lately because one of our actors takes a shaving cream pie in the face in the current production of Dead End Dummy.
It’s one I haven’t thought about since I was a kid. As children, my sister and I spent a good deal of our weekends in bars, saloons, taverns, gin joints and roadhouses watching our parents get plastered. As it’s already occured to you, “That is not a place for children”. Thanks for the wisdom! We didn’t like it any better than you do, but we put a brave face on it. There wasn’t much to do in such places, hour after hour, but there WAS something. We played endless games of pinball, skee-ball and the like. And we put coins in the jukebox.
And, THIS tune was a favorite…we’d think nothing of playing it a dozen times in a row. The gag of it is that you keep thinking the guy is going to say “shit”, but he keeps veering off at the last second into…the song title. Now….a nine year old and a seven year old have a very good excuse for listening to this song. The adults – -what was their excuse?
Anyway, thank God for the internet, it allows me to track down a few facts, and to share the song with you. It was written by one Benny Bell, and recorded by Paul Wynn in 1946. In the 70s’ Dr. Demento began playing it on his radio show and it enjoyed a brief revival of popularity.
(Travalanche) 