Excerpt Of Marv Goldberg's Article About Some "Baba Leba" / "Be-Baba-Leba" Songs (Which That Author Considers Separate Songs Than "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop")

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - May 11, 2023

This pancocojams post presents an excerpt of a 2017 article entitled "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" by Marv Goldberg.

I found this article while searching for additional material for the series of posts that I've published on the word "bop" that refer to music and on the word "bop" as part of the title of certain American social dances.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-timeline-of-sorts-with-information.html, https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/06/book-article-excerpts-about-philly-bop.html, and https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/06/book-article-excerpts-information-about.html for some of the pancocojams posts in these series.

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The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Marv Goldberg and all others who are quoted in this post.

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ARTICLE EXCERPT ABOUT "BE-BABA-LEBA" SONGS AND "HEY!BA-BA-RE-BOP SONGS

Pancocojams Editor's note: The italic font, or bold font, or blockquotes are given as they are found in this article.

From http://www.uncamarvy.com/ReBop/rebop.html Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" By Marv Goldberg [2017 from Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook]

"AUTHOR'S NOTE: I didn't think this one would be too difficult although there are a lot of versions. However, it turns out that we're talking about two different songs that most people end up conflating into one. (I have to admit that I never really paid that much attention before starting this article and probably would have agreed that they were variants of the same song.) On top of that, unlike "Open The Door, Richard", little was ever written about the history (real or fanciful) of either song.]

INTRODUCTION
Lionel Hampton's "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" was another musical phenomenon, predating "Open The Door, Richard" by a year (with some artists recording both tunes). The discography lists around 70 versions from 1946 through 2014 (and I'm sure there are others).

Just like "Open The Door, Richard", versions could be complex or simple. Many artists just sang "Open The Door, Richard" over and over as a break from the music; many artists just sang "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" over and over as a break from the music. Unlike "Open The Door, Richard", those who sang a full set of lyrics tended to use the same set. It was usually spelled the same by everyone, although the placement (or absence) of hyphens varies a lot.

The other song isn't as easy to talk about because each artist gave it a different title, such as "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob", "Be-Baba-Leba", "Ee-Bobaliba", and "Oo-Oo-Ee Bob A Lee Bob". Just to make it easy on myself, I'll refer to all the versions of that tune as "Baba Leba". Nevertheless, they were all essentially the same song, although lyrics were rarely consistent. To confuse things even more, when Helen Humes sang her "Be-Baba-Leba" in a 1947 movie, it was listed as "Hey Baba Leba". There are around a dozen versions through 2013.

Even worse, the two songs overlapped in time to some extent. Helen Humes' "Be-Baba-Leba" was still on the charts when Lionel Hampton released "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" in January 1946.

Again, I emphasize that we're talking about two songs that differ both lyrically and musically; they truly are different. However, I have to believe that the title "Be-Baba-Leba" influenced the title "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" (although it's possible that both were based on some undocumented song that was performed, but never recorded).

Supposedly, Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton called Be-Baba-Leba's refrain "a riff so old it's got whiskers." Nice words, and they might even be true, but there was nothing ever in print prior to 1945 to indicate where the refrain might have come from. (And, I know I'm being picky, but it's probably important for me to point out that Morton died in July 1941, years before the song came out.) So what was he talking about? It turns out that the quote came from "The Fortunes Of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole And 'Inventor Of Jazz'", a 1973 book by famed musicologist Alan Lomax. This is the actual late 1930s quote from the book:

His diamond-studded grin lit up the sombre hall as he feathered his barrel-house rhythms out of the concert grand. "You hear that riff" he said. "They call that swing today, but it's just a little thing I made up way back yonder. Yeah, I guess that riff's so old it's got whiskers on it. Whatever those guys play today, they're playing Jelly Roll."

Clearly, Morton is talking about Swing music, not the Baba Reba refrain. The rest of the Baba Reba lyrics, on the other hand, were variations on standard Blues lines and probably did have whiskers.

The terms "be-bop" and "re-bop" appeared as musical nonsense syllables (like "doo wah") as early as the mid-1920s. The earliest example I can find is "Four Or Five Times" by McKinney's Cotton Pickers (Victor, 1928). It contains the lyrics "bih-bop one, bih-bop two, bih-bop three...". Washboard Sam's "Don't 'low" (Bluebird, 1936) has "We don't care what mama don't 'low, we gonna re-bop anyhow". Then, there was "Wham Re Bop Boom Bam", recorded by Glenn Miller (RCA, 1939) and Jimmy Lunceford (Vocalion, 1939), among others. Of course, the term "be-bop" as applied to a kind of jazz music was popularized by Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s.

"Wham Re Bop Boom Bam" might rate a closer look. It was composed by guitarist Eddie Durham and trumpeter/vocalist Marion Joseph "Taps" Miller, both musicians in Count Basie's Orchestra. This is important because Helen Humes was one of Basie's vocalists at the time the song was written. Tina Dixon joined Lunceford's band a couple of years later and I'm sure they were still performing "Wham" then. Both Helen and Tina recorded the "Baba Leba" song (and each claimed to have written it). Musically, "Wham" has nothing to do with "Baba Leba", but the title is catchy.

I wish I could find out more about the song's origins, but there'll be enough work digging into all the versions. Let's start with "Baba Leba".

BABA LEBA (my catch-all term for all the versions)

E-Bob-O-Le-Bob - Tina Dixon with Jimmie Lunceford - AFRS Jubilee 138 - 7/45

Tina Dixon and Jimmie Lunceford This was recorded in mid-June of 1945. Regardless of what title you may see attached to this, announcer Ernie "Bubbles" Whitman clearly introduces it as "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob". For more on this, see the entry on Tina Dixon, immediately after the one on Helen Humes.

AFRS Jubilee recordings were made by black entertainers and broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Service; the discs weren't meant for commercial release. It was probably aired in late June or July.

Be-Baba-Leba - Helen Humes, with the Bill Doggett Octet - Philo 106 - 8/45
reissued on Aladdin 106 - ca 3/46

Philo ad Helen Humes Helen Humes was born in Louisville, Kentucky on June 23, 1913. In 1937, she was the vocalist with Prince Albert & His Singin' Sweet Orchestra. After that, it was Vernon Andrades' Band. By July 1938, she'd joined Count Basie's Orchestra, remaining with him until May 1941. Popular throughout the 1940s, her popularity waned considerably in the 1950s. In 1960, she was still being billed as "ex-Basie vocalist". She continued to cut albums and make appearances at jazz concerts throughout the 1970s. Helen died on September 9, 1981 (and her obituaries all mentioned her time with Basie 40 years previously).

Pianist Bill Doggett set up the August 1945 Los Angeles session and specially brought in tenor saxophonist Wild Bill Moore, who wasn't a member of his aggregation. Others on the session were Johnny Brown (alto sax), Ernest Thompson (baritone sax), Ross Butler (trumpet), Alfred Moore (bass), Charles Harris (drums), and Elmer Warner (guitar).

Helen Humes at Jazz At The Philharmonic Helen Humes at the Orpheum Helen Humes - the Be Baba Leba Girl Since Helen's song became a hit, there was a big fight over who actually wrote it. Was it Helen Humes (whose name appears as writer on her record) or Tina Dixon (whose name appears as writer on her record)? While the answer is probably Dixon, it was Helen Humes who had the hit. Billboard (March 30, 1946) reviewed her appearance at the Orpheum in Los Angeles and said: "Her final number, Be-Baba-Leba, brings down the house and nets her a hand slightly short of a showstop."

Helen Humes ad "Be Baba Leba" was a #3 R&B record for Helen Humes. It entered the national charts on December 14, 1945 and remained for 8 weeks. It was the 21st most played R&B juke box record of 1946 (ironically Lionel Hampton's Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop was #1).

These are the lyrics to Helen Humes' "Be-Baba-Leba". (Note that she never once says "be-baba-leba"). Compare these with the Tina Dixon lyrics, below.

Oh well, oh well, I feel so fine today
Oh well, oh well, I feel so fine today
'Cause the man who sends me
Is comin' home to stay

Got a man over there, got a man over here,
But my man over there,
Oo, oo, oo, baba-leba
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Ah, oo, baba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba

Well, the man I love is built for speed,
He's got everything his mama needs.
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Ah, oo, baba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba

Now he thrills me in the mornin', thrills me in the night.
The way he loves me, makes me scream with delight.
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Oo, oo, baba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba, laba-leba

Comes in like a tiger, goes out like a lamb
Starts a-lovin' me, I holler oo, oo, oo
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Oo, oo, baba-leba,
Oo, oo, baba-leba, oo baba-leba, baba-leba

It's possible that one reason this song resonated so strongly is because of the first stanza. World War 2 was finally over and men were starting to return home.

Be Ba Ba Le Ba Boogie Around September 1946, Helen released a follow-up record called "Be Ba Ba Le Ba Boogie" on Black & White. It really has nothing to do with the original song ("Ba ba le ba is the hep cat's way"), but starts with some wonderful piano work by Meade Lux Lewis.

E-Bob-O-Le-Bob - Flennoy Trio (vocal by Tina Dixon) - Excelsior 130 - 9/45

Excelsior ad for the Flennoy Trio Tina Dixon The 1944 Billboard yearbook presented this press-agent-generated biography of Tina Dixon:

Tina Dixon, the 'Bombshell of the Blues,' was born in Detroit and started her singing career at 18. Her first club job was at the Club Ballyhoo, Detroit. Tina played de luxe theaters with Jimmie Lunceford and his ork. Night clubs where she has appeared are: Tic Toc Club, Boston; Zanzibar, New York; Bali, Washington. She is managed by Harold F. Oxley [who also managed Jimmie Lunceford and Mabel Scott]. She is in line for a forthcoming radio commercial. Besides her club and theater work she also appeared before television cameras. Tina Dixon has made color movie shorts for Pathe and has performed at many army and navy camps.

By October 1943, Tina Dixon was singing with Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra. She played the Apollo Theater several times, along with Lunceford (for example, the week of December 29, 1944) and her performances were generally well-received.

[[Actually, Augustine "Tina Dixon" Dickson was born in New Orleans in 1913, although her family had moved to Detroit by 1930.]

Tina's "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob" (with the Flennoy Trio) was issued slightly after Helen Humes' "Be-Baba-Leba". There are no available session dates, but it must have been recorded around the time Tina did the above-mentioned AFRS recording with Lunceford in June.

Humes and Dixon essentially sang the same song, but each woman claimed to have written it. It turns out that Tina's was the version originally recorded, but Helen's was the version that got to disc first. This was the subject of a January 26, 1946 Billboard article, at the time when Helen's version was really taking off. It said, in part:

[Charlie] Barnet [representing the Indigo Publishing Company] closed deal for Be-Baba-Leba with Harold Oxley, the agent, who controlled original copyright of the tune introduced in the first place by Tina Dixon, whom Oxley manages. Dixon also made recording of tune for Excelsior label. Her side, however, came out after the Humes version for Philo. Barnet dickered with Helen Humes on tune for a while until he learned that her recorded version followed Dixon's featuring of the song in night clubs, therefore making Dixon's a prior copyright.

It never seemed to have been brought out anywhere at the time that Tina had originally recorded the song in mid-June 1945 (with Jimmie Lunceford's band) for an AFRS Jubilee disc that was "released" (that is, broadcast over the Armed Forces Radio Service network) in June or July and easily makes her version earlier.

Billy Rowe's column in the February 2, 1946 Pittsburgh Courier said: "The publishing rights for 'Be-Baba-Leba,' the new swing tune which is sweeping the country, went to Charlie Barnet. Brought into popularity by Helen Humes, a Count Basie alumnus [sic], the ditty has many variations and just as many supposed authors. Notwithstanding, Harold Oxley, whose Tina Dixon waxed the number first, holds the initial copyright and made the deal with Barnet. Now the thing to do is just sit back and watch the feathers fly."

Tina Dixon sheet music Note that Tina's sheet music had the title as "E-Bob-O-Lee-Bop", rather than "E-Bob-O-Lee-Bob". I guess spelling doesn't count.

The May 16, 1946 California Eagle wrote about Tina Dixon: "Her popular number 'E-Bob-O-Le-Bob' was first introduced in Brooklyn in 1942. Later, she presented it at Shepp's Playhouse and recorded it with the Flennoy Trio." I can neither confirm nor refute the story about Brooklyn. There's only a single mention of Tina in all of 1942, and that's in Detroit. No performance review prior to the release of the record ever mentioned that she'd sung the song, although they sometimes listed other tunes she'd done at shows.

Except for this song, Tina really was a minor character on the scene; almost nothing was ever written about her. She played the Apollo twice in 1938, but wasn't listed in the Apollo's ad for either show (but she was in 1944, 1946, and 1952). Both she and her husband, dancer Leon Collins (whom she married in 1939), were with Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra for several years. By the 1970s, Tina was making off-color "party" records.

In subsequent recordings, only Charlie Barnet credited Tina Dixon and only Estelle Edson credited Helen Humes. The Bull Moose Jackson/Annisteen Allen disc gave credit to Walter Brown and none of the others listed a writer at all.

Here are the Tina Dixon lyrics to "E-Bob-O-Le-Bob", so that you can compare them to Helen Humes' (they're identical on Tina's Flennoy Trio and Lunceford recordings):

Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today
Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today
Got a letter from my daddy
He's comin' home to stay

He's a big bad man and he weighs 400 pounds
He's a big bad man and he weighs 400 pounds
I won't see you no more when my big bad man comes around

He's built like a sailor, fights like a marine
He's a big fat private but
Oo oo e-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob]
E-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob]
E-bob-o-la-bo de-bob-o-lab-o bob-a-le-bob

I got men over there, men over here,
But my man over there,
Oo oo e-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob]
E-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob]
E-bob-o-la-bo de-bob-o-lab-o bob-a-le-bob

He's got a head like a monkey
He looks like a frog
When he starts to lovin' me I holler oo-oo-oo
E-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob *]
E-bob-o-le-bob [e-bob-o-le-bob *]
E-bob-o-la-bo de-bob-o-labo bob-a-le bob

* Note that this particular echo isn't used in the Lunceford version.

Ee-Bobaliba - Jim Wynn & His Bobalibans (vocal by Claude Trenier) - 4 Star 1026 - 10/45
Also released on Foto 1026
Jim Wynn Born on June 21, 1908 in El Paso, Texas, Jim Wynn was a saxophonist (tenor and baritone), pianist, and bandleader. His family relocated to Los Angeles soon after his birth and he started playing in clubs while still a teenager. On the radio with a dance orchestra in 1931, the following year he had Jim Wynn's Eleven Devils. Wynn became a session musician in the 1950s and died on July 19, 1977 in Los Angeles.

As far as I can tell, "Ee-Bobaliba" was his first recording (Los Angeles, around September 1945). Supposedly, this song was a crowd-pleaser, in which he invited audience participation. He claimed to have written it years before (although there's no writer credit on the label). Wynn insisted that Helen Humes got the "be-baba-leba" refrain from him, but, since he never took her to court, there's no proof of that.

Vocalist Claude Oliver Trenier was born on July 14, 1919 in Mobile, Alabama (along with his identical twin brother, Cliff). Claude joined the Jimmie Lunceford band in 1943 (and Cliff came aboard the following year). Leaving Lunceford in 1945, they did various things on their own before becoming the Trenier Twins in 1946, and later, the incredibly successful Treniers. (Like the Red Caps, the Treniers were a visual act. Sensational in person, they didn't do particularly well on records.) Claude died on November 17, 2003 in Las Vegas.

The Bobalibans were: Jim Wynn (tenor and baritone saxophone), Stanley Casey (trumpet), David Graham (alto saxophone), Freddie Simon (tenor saxophone), Luther "Lord" Luper (piano), Theodore Shirley (bass), and Robert "Snake" Sims (drums).

The December 22, 1945 Billboard said: "Paced by the sax blowing of Jim Wynn and his little jam band of Bobalibans, Claude Oliver Trenier does some earthy blues shouting for the jive-ridden Ee-Bobaliba, newest song craze in Harlem quarters.... The race locations will reap a harvest with these sides [the flip was "I Want A Little Girl", sung by Luther Luper], particularly 'Ee-Bobaliba'."

Wynn's version is mostly based on Tina Dixon's, but Claude's girl only weighs 300 pounds. Here's most of what Claude is saying:

Baba-leba, ee-baba-lee
Baba-leba, ee-baba-lee
Baba-leba, ee-baba-lee
Baba-leba, ee-baba-lee
Baba-leba, ee-baba-lee
Baba leba, baba leba

Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today
Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today
Got a letter from my baby
And she's comin' home to stay

Now she's a fly little chick and she weighs 300 pounds
Yes, she's a fly little chick and she weighs 300 pounds
She says 'be there baby' when she comes back to town

Now, she's got a head like a rooster
She's shaped like a frog
When she starts lovin' me oo-oo-oo
Ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba ee-baba-leba baba-lee-ba

Now, I've got women over here, women over there,
But my woman down here,
Oo oo oo ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba ee-baba-leba baba-lee-ba

[indistinct] don't you wanna take a ride
[indistinct] baby
Oo oo oo ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba [ee-baba-leba]
Ee-baba-leba ee-baba-leba baba-lee-ba

Oo-Oo-Ee Bob A Lee Bob - Bull Moose Jackson and his Orchestra (vocal by Annisteen Allen) - Queen 4107 - 12/45
With the discontinuation of Queen, it was reissued on King 4107 - 47

Singer/saxophonist/bandleader Benjamin "Bull Moose" Jackson was born in Cleveland on April 22, 1919. Originally a violinist, he switched to the saxophone when he started the Harlem Hotshots while in high school. In 1943, he joined Lucky Millinder's band. Millinder encouraged him to form his own band and, in 1946, he released "I Know Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well", an answer to Millinder's "Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well". He followed that with "I Love You, Yes I Do", which went to #1. Through it all, he remained with Millinder, at least through 1948. He later turned to more suggestive material, such as "Big Ten Inch Record", which couldn't get any airplay, but was quite popular at live shows. Bull Moose died, from lung cancer, in Cleveland on July 31, 1989.

Ernestine "Annisteen" Allen was born on November 11, 1920 in Champaign, Illinois. She was also a member of Lucky Millinder's aggregation and it looks like Millinder loaned her to Bull Moose for recordings, since she, too, remained with Millinder for several more years. Annisteen died August 19, 1992 in Harlem.

Recorded on December 19, 1945, it was released by the end of the month. Although it was pretty much Helen Humes' version, the composer credit went to Walter Brown, a singer in Jackson's band. Here are Annisteen's lyrics:

Oh well, oh well, I feel so fine today
Oh well, oh well, I feel so fine today
'Cause the man I love
Is comin' home to stay

Got a man over there, got a man over here,
But the man over there,
Oo oo oo oo-bob-a-lee-bob
Oo-oo-bob-a-lee-bob
Oo-oo-bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee-bob

Well, the man I love is built for speed
He's got everything his mama needs
Oo-oo-bob-a-lee-bob
Oo-oo-bob-a-lee-bob
Oo-oo-bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee-bob

He loves me in the morning, loves me in the night
The way he loves me is really all right
Ree-ee-bob-a-lee-bob
Ree-ee-bob-a-lee-bob
Ree-ree-bob-a-lee-bob, ree-bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee-bob

Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob]
Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob]
Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob]
Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob]
Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob]
Oo oo oo [ee-bob-a-le-bob, ee-bob-a-le-bob]

Goes in like a tiger, goes out like a lamb
When he starts to lovin' me, I holler ee, ee, ee
Ee-ee-bob-a-le-bob
Ree-ee-bob-a-le-bob
Ree-ree-bob-a-lee-bob, ree-bob-a-lee, bob-a-lee-bob

Ree-bob-a-lee-bob

In the following year, Annisteen Allen and Her Home Town Boys (along with Bull Moose Jackson) would release "She Lost Her Re-Bop" (Queen, 7/46). Walking a fine line, they sing "hey baba lee bop", "ee baba lee bop", "hey baba leba", and "ee baba leba"."...

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This excerpt gives this link to Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook's article on the song "Open The Door, Richard": http://www.uncamarvy.com/Richard/richard.html.

This Marv Goldberg article continues with additional examples of "Baba Leba" recordings as well as information about and lyrics for some recordings of the song "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/04/hey-ba-ba-re-bop-selected-videos.html for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled "Hey Ba Ba Re Bop - Selected Videos (with some lyrics)"

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