Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series on the popular catchphrases "See You Later. alligator and its usual response "After while, crocodile".
Part II of this pancocojams series presents an excerpt of the 2020 article ‘See You Later Alligator ' Originated In U.S. Teenagers' Slang" by Pascal Tréguer and an excerpt of a 2012 National Public Radio (NPR) transcript of a "Fresh Air" segment about Bobby Charles, the composer of the song "See You Later, Alligator".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/two-records-of-see-you-later-alligator.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I showcases two YouTube examples of this song. The first example is a sound file by Bobby Charles, that song's composer and the second is a YouTube video of Bill Hailey & The Comets performing the most popular cover recording of that song.
Information about Bobby Charles and information about Bill Hailey & The Comets are included in Part I along with the lyrics for the song "See You Later Alligator".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/did-black-americans-originate-rhyming.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III includes my editorial comments and some article excerpts that I believe corroborate my position that the sayings "See you later, alligator", and "Afterwhile, crocodile" originated from and were first popularized by Black Americans.
The content of this post is presented for cultural and linguistic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Pascal Tréguer and thanks to all those who were associated with the NPR radio show that is quoted in this post.
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I encourage pancocojams visitors to read that entire article Pascal Tréguer. I also encourage pancocojams visitors to hear that entire NPR radio show and read that entire NPR radio show transcript on the "Puddin Tane" saying .
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ARTICLE EXCERPT:
" ‘See You Later Alligator Originated In U.S. Teenager's Slang"
by Pascal Tréguer (no publishing date is given, but two comments have the publishing dates of April 8, 2020)
From https://wordhistories.net/2017/12/29/see-later-alligator/#:~:text=The%20colloquial%20see%20you%20later,after%2C%20a%20while%2C%20crocodile.
"The colloquial see you later, alligator, which originated in
American English, is a catchphrase used on parting. The expected response is
in, or after, a while, crocodile.
[…]
The earliest instance of see you later, alligator that I have found is from Teenagers’ Slang Expressions Are Explained by Columnists, by “Jackie and Jane, Star-Bulletin Teen Columnists”, published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii) of 1st May 1952:
Lots of the Hawaii-style slang can be credited to or blamed on the Mainland. Some of it’s strictly jive talk. And of course there’s the additional “pidgin” and Hawaiian words to dress it up.
[…]
Besides the everyday “slang,” many high school students
use expressions such as “toodle-oo tofu,” “so long, dai-kong,” or “see
you later, alligator.”
These sayings invite expressions like “see you soon,
goon,” and “hit the road, toad.”
On 15th February 1954, The Kansas City Times (Kansas City, Missouri) published Words, Wit and Wisdom, in which William Morris wrote:
It has long been my conviction that the most effervescent and everchanging department of the American language is the subdivision labeled “Teenage slang.” So I suggested that my younger readers send in the favorite expressions of their teenage set.
Well the mails have brought literally hundreds of letters
and postcards from youngsters all over the country. Here are just as few and
catchphrases like:
[…]
Melt down and float away: meaning get lost, drop dead, or
in grown-up language, go away.
Go dad: meaning wonderful.
Solid Jackson: meaning excellent.
See you later, alligator: meaning good-bye.
On 28th February 1954, The Sunday Sun (Baltimore,
Maryland) published Do Kids Speak English?, in which Lester Rand,
president of the Youth Research Institute, “an organization which exclusively surveys
the tastes, attitudes and buying habits of young people five through 25”,
explained that youngsters develop their own talk as a way of excluding
grownups; about see you later, alligator, he said:
“The ‘alligator’ is an all-encompassing term and relieves the party of having to recite several names.”
The author of the article, Beulah Racklin, wrote that, additionally:
Rhyming expressions, which are mainly for effect rather than to convey any actual meaning, are very popular and somewhat confusing like ‘Do you know what I mean, jellybean?’ ‘Let me have steak, Jake,’ ‘Have a piece of salami, Tommy,’ etc. In few instances does the person addressed comply with the speaker’s demands. In most cases names are changed for ones that rhyme.
So popular was the phrase that in 1955 it was one of the twenty-four slogans printed on the badges offered by Armour Star Franks, a brand of frankfurters…
[…]
“See You Later, Alligator, a song written and first recorded
in 1955 by the American singer-songwriter Bobby Charles (Robert Charles Guidry
– 1938-2010) capitalised on the popularity of the catchphrase among children
and teenagers.
(In the Catalog [sic] of Copyright Entries (Washington, 1956), it appeared as See Ya Later, Alligator, words and music by Robert Charles Guidry, copyright claimed by Robert Charles Guidry, registered on 6th September 1955, as number EU409054.)
The most popular recording of the song, however, is that
made by Bill Haley* & His Comets later in 1955; it appears for example in
this advertisement for Millikan’s Records, published in The Hammond Times
(Hammond–East Chicago, Indiana) on 30th December 1955”….
-snip-
-end of quote-
The words in italics and the words in bold font were given that way in that article.
EXCERPT FROM A 2012 FRESH AIR (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO) TRANSCRIPT:
THE UNTOLD STORY OF BOBBY CHARLES
https://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/150960729/the-untold-story-of-singer-bobby-charles
June 13, 2012 1:10 PM ET; Heard on Fresh Air; Ed Ward (host)
One night as he left a gig, Charles said to his friends, "See ya later, alligator," and one of them yelled back, "In a while, crocodile." Charles stopped in his tracks. "What did you say?" he asked. The friend repeated it. At that moment, as would happen countless times in the future, the song "See You Later, Alligator" came to him, fully formed.
Fats didn't want the song, and told the young man he didn't want to sing about alligators. Somehow, though, the kid wound up singing the song over the phone to Leonard Chess, whose Chess Records in Chicago was the hottest blues label in town. Chess didn't hesitate: He sent the kid a ticket and when Charles showed up at his office, Chess said something I can't say on the air. The sentence ended with the word "white" and a question mark, though.
Chess recorded him, though, and put the song out, changing Guidry's name to Bobby Charles; almost immediately, Bill Haley grabbed it for himself. Haley's record was one of the best sellers of 1956, and both Chess and Charles made some decent money from it. They tried follow-ups called "Watch It, Sprocket," which wasn't something people actually said, and "Take It Easy, Greasy," which was, but the record was a little too, well, greasy to be too popular. Charles recorded for Chess until 1958, but his records only sold locally. Along the way, though, he seems to have pioneered a genre called swamp pop.
He also got to realize a dream. One evening, Fats Domino played Abbeville, and Fats invited Charles to a show in New Orleans. The young singer said he had no way to get there. "Well," the fat man said, "you'd better start walking." And sure enough, a song popped into Charles' head: "Walking To New Orleans." "…
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
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