buttercup7956, March 19, 2011
-snip-
My transcription of this rhyme is given below.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision- September 27, 2022
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on Jazz scatting and the inclusion of the Jazz scatting phrase "scooby doo" in some versions the "Miss Sue From Alabama" children's rhyme.
Part II presents some information about the children's recreational rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" (or similar titles).
Part II also presents an example from that rhyme family that includes the scat phrase "scooby-do-wah" and some examples of that rhyme that include the phrase or cartoon dog's name "Scooby Doo".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/11/what-is-jazz-scatting-with-youtube.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I presents definitions for and article extracts about Jazz scatting.
The Addendum to that post also presents information about scatting.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the unknown composers of these rhymes and thanks to John and Alan Lomax for collecting and publishing some early examples of these rhymes. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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EARLIEST RECORDED DATES FOR "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA"
1934 -- cited by Google result: Miss Sue From Alabama- Kodaly Center For Music Education that online site which is no longer available]
Collected by John and Alan Lomax, 1934. Informant/Performer Eight girls, Kirby Industrial School, Atmore, AL,1934. State:Alabama
**
1936- https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc9999005.1833.0
"Title: Miss Sue from Alabama
Contributor Names
Lomax, John Avery -- 1867-1948 (recordist)
Unidentified children (singer)
Created / Published: Taylor, Louisiana.
Subject Headings: - United States of America -- Louisiana -- Taylor
Notes
- Sung by Negro
children with dancing. (statement of responsibility)
- With dancing.
- School Yard (venue)"
**
Miss Sue from Alabama / Who De Cat (Sail, Sail)
Date recorded: August 12, 1942
Contributor(s): Performer: Unidentified girls; Performer:
Johnson, Mary; Performer: Harris, Etherine; Recordist: Lomax, Alan; Recordist:
Jones, Lewis
Subject(s):
Genre: play song, game song
Instruments: voice
Setting: Mohead Plantation
Location: Moon Lake, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United
States
Tape number: AFS6669
Track Number: 3
Archive ID: 6669A3
Transcript:
Belongs to: Moon Lake 8/42"
-snip-
"Miss Sue Miss Sue
Somebody’s in your parlor
Miss Sue Miss Sue
Somebody’s in your parlor
Miss Sue Miss Sue
Somebody’s in your parlor
Miss Sue from Alabama
Miss Sue Miss Sue
Did you ever see a monkey make a motion
Miss Sue Miss Sue
Did you ever see a monkey make a motion
Did you ever see a monkey make a motion
Miss Sue from Alabama"
"Miss Sue, Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you Scooby -doo
Now let me see you smoothing
Now let me see you smoothing"
-from Yo Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and
Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America, edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie, (Temple
University Press, 2003, page 99) "Collected primarily in
metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black street
poetry (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s)
https://books.google.com/books?id=9_4fUgF9BFMC&dq=miss+sue+from+alabama+in+other+countries&source=gbs_navlinks_s
-snip-
Another early example of "Scooby Doo" in "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhymes is given as Example #1 below in this post's section about rhymes that include the words (or the name) "Scooby Doo".
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THE WORDS "SCOOBY DOO" IN "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA RYHMES"
The actual words "Scooby Doo" don't appear in "Miss Sue From Alabama" rhymes or in any other recreational rhymes until the late 1960s or the early 1970s.
I believe that the words "Scooby Doo" were popularized by if not a referent to the fictional dog cartoon character. Here's information about the "Scooby Doo" cartoon character from the American series Scooby Doo Where Are You" that first aired in 1969.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo_(character) [retrieved September 27, 2025
"Scoobert "Scooby" Doo is a fictional character and protagonist of the eponymous animated television franchise created in 1969 by the American animation company Hanna-Barbera.[1] He is a male Great Dane and lifelong companion of amateur detective Shaggy Rogers, with whom he shares many personality traits. He features a mix of both canine and human behaviors (reminiscent of other talking animals in Hanna-Barbera's series), and is treated by his friends more or less as an equal. Scooby often speaks in a rhotacized way, substituting the first letters of many words with the letter 'r' a speech pattern that, while never fully explained, is understood and accepted without question by those around him. His catchphrase is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!".
History
Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, for Hanna-Barbera as a part of CBS's 1969–1970 Saturday morning cartoon schedule. Originally titled Mysteries Five, the dog who later became Scooby was originally more of a sidekick character – a bongo-playing dog named "Too Much" whose breed varied between Great Dane and sheepdog between treatments.[2][3]
By the time the series was pitched to the network as Who's S-S-Scared? in early 1969, Too Much was solidified as a cowardly Great Dane. Both the dog and the series would be renamed Scooby-Doo by Fred Silverman, CBS's head of daytime programming, between its unsuccessful first pitch and the second pitch that earned the show a green light. Silverman stated that he came up with the name from the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" in Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night".[4][5] Though a similar name was featured in the title of the single "Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)" released just a few months earlier in 1968 by The Archies, a fictional band from the CBS series The Archie Show that was also overseen by Silverman.[6][7] There was also a character in an unsold TV pilot Swingin' Together, broadcast in 1963 on CBS, named Skooby-doo.[8]…
WHAT "BETTY CROCKER" MEANS IN SOME CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA"
Some contemporary versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama" in the
USA include the lines "sittin in the rocker/eating Betty
Crocker"/watching the clock go boom tick tock etc".
“Eatin Betty Crocker" means "eating Betty Crocker cookies or pastry", "Betty Crocker" is the invented name for a fictitious cook who represents the General Mills company. That name and character was first introduced in 1921. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Crocker "Betty Crocker" cookbooks contain easy to use recipes, including recipes for bake goods such as cookies, pies, and cakes. Thus "eating Betty Crocker" means eating some baked goods that were created by using a Betty Crocker recipe.
The word "rocker" is an abbreviation for "rocking chair" and the word "crocker" rhymes with the word "rocker".
Based on my admittedly informal collection efforts, it appears to me that "eatin Betty Crocker" versions of "Miss Sue From Alabama" are relatively recent (1990s?). Please share any examples of this rhyme that you remember with the phrase "Betty Crocker" that predate the 1990s. Thanks!
****
AN EXAMPLE OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" THAT INCLUDES
THE SCATTING PHRASE "A DOOBIE- DO-WAH
[no title given]
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Someone is in your garden
Miss Sue from Alabama
Show me what you can do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Show me what you can do
Miss sue from Alabama
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Is this the way you do
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey Hey
A doobie-do-wah
Your mama's broke
And your papa's broke
Turn to the east
Turn to the west
Turn to the very one you love the best
Milk in the pitcher
The butter's in the bowl
Can't catch a sweetheart
To save your soul
I think this is the way we sang this game in Northern Mississippi cira 1965.
-snip-
GUEST,nanasallthat, Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes?, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 ; 11 Dec 07
-snip-
Italics are used to highlight this line.
-snip-
This is the earliest example of "Miss Sue From Alabama" with words that I've come across offline or online.
This contributor didn't include any racial demographic information. However, the textual structure and vernacular language of this example is clearly of African American origin. Notice that the contributor referred to rhyme as a "game". Also, notice the "show me your motion: and "I can do your motion" lines. These lines strongly suggest that this version of "Miss Sue From Alabama" was performed as a "show me your motion" circle game with one person in the center.
**
This example is composed of a number of lines from stand alone rhymes including a version of "Little Sally Walker" that is found in
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AfroAmFolkMusicMissL67_opt.pdf [B7 Sung with hand clapping by Nettie Mae and Aleneda Turner, near Senatobia, Mississippi, July 9,1971. Recorded by Cheryl Evans.]
"Little Sally Walker sitting in a saucer.
Rise, Sally, rise.
Wipe )'our weeping eyes.
Put your hand on your hip
And let your backbone slip.
Oh, shake it to the east.
Oh shake it to the west.
Oh, shake it to the one that you love the best
Your mama says so.
Your papa says so.
That's the way you do it,
and you'll never catch a beau.
The milk in the pitcher,
the butter ill the bowl.
You can't catch a sweetheart
to save your soul. "
****
WHAT THE WORDS "TAKE A SMOOTH SHOT" MEANS IN A FEW VERSIONS OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA" RHYMES
I believe that "take a smooth shot" is a folk processed form of the phrase "take a flu shot".
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EXAMPLES OF "MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA THAT INCLUDE A
"SCOOBY DOO" PHRASE/NAME
[The words or the name "Scooby doo" is given in italics to highlight that portion of the rhyme]
MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA
(Version #1)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Alabama
Hey you,
scooby do
your Mama's got the measles
Your papa's got the flu
magic measles
magic flu
Take an a b c d e f g
Take an h i j k l m n o p
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
and now freeze.
-Eleanor Fulton, Pat Smith: Let's Slice The Ice,
(Magnamusic-Baton, 1978; St. Louis, Mo.; p. 16)
-snip-
Rhymes in this compilation are from African American children in St. Louis, Missouri.
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MISS SUE FROM ALABAMA (Version #2)
Miss Sue
Scooby Doo
Miss Sue from Alabama
Sittin at the table
peeling mashed potatoes.
Waitin for the clock to go
boom tick tock.
boom ticky wally wally.
Boom tick tock
Boom ticky wally wally.
Stop!
Ah 2 more time.
Boom tick tock.
Boom ticky wally wally.
Boom tick tock.
boom ticky wally wally.
Ah 1 more time.
Boom tick tock
Boom ticky wally wally
Boom tick tock.
Boom ticky wally wally.
Ah no more times.
-Alafia Children's Ensemble, Pittsburgh, PA; 1999 &
2001; Collected by Azizi Powell, 1999 & 2001 [Groups on both dates recited
the same rhyme.]
-snip-
"Alafia Children's Ensemble" was the name of the
children's cultural group that I founded in 1990. The group in Braddock,
Pennsylvania was divided into components- one for girls and boys ages 5-12
years old in which the group learned,
shared, and performed original and adapted African American game songs, cheers,
and rhymes and one for girls and boys ages 10-14 years old in which children
were introduced to playing the djembe drum. The group in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania consisted of girls ages 8-9 years old who learned, shared, and
performed original and adapted African American game songs, cheers, and rhymes .
A lot of the children's rhymes that I directly collected from 1990-2004 came
from these groups.
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MISS SUE FROM PARRAMATTA (Example #3)
Miss Sue
Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Parramata
Hey you
Scooby-Doo
Your mother's got the measles
Your fathers got the flu
Magic measles magic flu
Take a abcdefg
Take a hijklmnop
Take a smooth shot
Take a smooth shot
And freeze.
-buttercup7956, Mar
19, 2011
-snip-
Here's information about Parramatta from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parramatta
"Parramatta … is a major commercial city[7][8] in Greater
Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is
located approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of the Sydney central business
district on the banks of the Parramatta River.[2] Parramatta is the
administrative seat of the local government area of the City of Parramatta and
is often regarded as the main commercial centre and the central business
district for the broader Greater Western Sydney region.”…
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MISS SUE FROM PARRAMATTA (Example #4)
mine is
miss sue
miss sue
miss sue from parramata
hey you Scooby-Doo
your mother's got the measles
your fathers got the flu
magic measles magic flu
take a abcdefg
take a hijklmnop
take a smooth shot
take a smooth shot
and freeze. (×4)
-Gymnast Queen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-svfUMX3BMMiss Sue Playground Song [discussion thread comment; discussion thread no longer available*], 2016
-snip-
*As per the policy of YouTube announced in Feb 2019, YouTube disabled almost all of the discussion threads for its videos featuring children *, including the one for the video whose link is given above. The admirably reason for this policy was to prevent "predatory comments". YouTube discussion threads were a treasure trove for contemporary examples of children's recreational rhymes. Unfortunately, almost all of the discussion threads for YouTube children's rhymes were deleted because of that policy. That action resulted in the lost of folkloric material and also means that the opportunities for people to share examples of and information about children's rhymes, game songs, and cheers online are greatly reduced.
Every online version of "Miss Sue From Parramatta" that I've come across doesn't include the "scooby doo" phrase/name, For instance, here's a link to another example of "Miss Sue From Parramata" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmqEV2U6uA&ab_channel=ThomasTang. The brief summary statement indicates that the girl reciting this rhyme learned it in school. This version doesn't include the "Scooby Doo" phrase/name, but otherwise is the same as the other "Miss Sue From Parramatta" examples given in this post.
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ADDENDUM: SCATTING
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing
'In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with
wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all.[2][3] In scat
singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an
instrument rather than a speaking medium. This is different from vocalese,
which uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental
solos.
Structure and syllable choice
Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are
often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs, as
is the case with instrumental improvisers. As well, scatting usually
incorporates musical structure. All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of
"How High the Moon", for instance, use the same tempo, begin with a
chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty
chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself.[4] Will
Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner
cartoon—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways.[4]
The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key
element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch
articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance.[5] Syllable choice
also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined to
use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or
liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee"
(fricatives, plosives, and open vowels).[6] The choice of scat syllables can
also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison of
the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that
Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics[a] the sounds of swing-era big bands with
which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics[b] that of her accompanying bop-era
small combos.[10]"...
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams post.
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