"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CHILDREN TOO" PLAYGROUND RHYME

The Pointer Sisters: Wang Dang Doodle [1974]

Uploaded by SafariCreations on May 22, 2009

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This post presents examples of and suggested sources for certain words to the playground rhyme "Ladies And Gentlemen, Children Too".

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. The copyrights remain with their owners.

My thanks to all the contributors of these examples presented in this post. My thanks also to The Pointer Sisters and to others associated with the performance and production, and uploading to YouTube of the video that is featured in this post.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES OF "LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN, CHILDREN TOO"
[Presented in relative chronological order]

Example #1 (movement rhyme)
Ladies and gentlemen, children too
This brown girl
She gonna boogie for you
She gonna turn all around
She gonna wear her dresses up above her knees
She gonna shake her fanny just as much as she please.
I never went to college.
I went to school.
But when it comes to boogie,
I can boogie like a fool.
You go in out, side to side.
You go in out, side to side.

[second rhyme sometimes sung right after that one]
Hey baby, how about a date?
I'll meet you round the corner
'Bout half-past eight.
Hands up!
Tachie Tachie Tachie
Hands down!
Tachie Tachie Tachie!
Sans BOOTS!
Tachie Tachie Tachie
Hands down!
Tachie Tachie Tachie!
Sans BOOTS!
- Barbara Ray (African American female), memory of childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1950s; collected in November 1996 & in August 2009 (second interview) by Azizi Powell

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Example #2 (dramatized skit)
Fast forward to current time. The guys(yes boys) at campfires and Diocese-wide events here in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark (NJ) do a dance off to the following with one guy sitting down after each sing through. I'll check around, but I know it goes back to the mid 1990's

Seven little sisters
Like to boogie down
Like to turn around
Like to touch the ground
Like to wear their skirts above their knees
Now they've never been to college
And they've never been to school
But when it comes to dancin'
They can boogie like a fool.

Hands up, shake-shake, shake, shake
Hands down, shake-shake, shake, shake
To the front, to the back to the side, side, side
to the front, to the back, to the side, side, side

Six little sisters.....
-Tinker,
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123101 "We Wear Our Hair In Curls" , August 23, 2009

-snip-

[continue counting down "five little sisters", "four little sisters" etc]

In another post to that discussion thread, Tinker indicated that this performance of males acting out the countdown song "Seven Little Sisters" at that camp goes back to at least the 1970s. He indicated that this camp (called "The Eagles Nest") was a racially/ethnically integrated summer experience for high academic achieving girls and boys. But it was part of the camp's tradition that only the boys performed "Seven Little Sisters". Tinker posted a query about this song on that camp's alumni page. Although other posters remembered this song, neither he nor anyone else knew where it came from.

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Example #3 (movement rhyme that serves as an introduction to song "Wang Dang Doodle" by The Pointer Sisters)

[Intro to song “Wang Dang Doodle” performed by the Pointer Sisters without any backup instrumental music, and accompanied by the audience handclapping]

Thank you!
Here we go:

Walkin down the alley, alley, alley
Shakin your jally, jally, jally.
Swingin your partner, partner, partner.
LADIES, and gentlemen, children too
These brown babies gonna boogie for YOU.

[Do motions as indicated; For “boogie” & “cha cha cha”, wiggle your hips from side to side]

They gonna turn around,
And touch the ground
They gonna step back, and step back
And boogie on down.
Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Ah Cha cha cha cha.
To the front, to the back, to the side by side
To the front, to the back, to the side by side
To the front, to the back, to the side by side
I never went to college,
I never went to school
But when I came back
I was an educated fool.
HANDS UP

[One of the performer's say "Come on! Join in. Ya’ll love it!"; Drum beat begins]

Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Ah Cha cha cha cha.

[increase tempo]

Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Ah Cha cha cha cha.

[tempo remains the same]

Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Cha cha cha cha.
Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Cha cha cha cha.

Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Cha cha cha cha.
[music begins for the song “Wang Dang Doodle]
Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Cha cha cha cha.

Hands up! Ah Cha cha Cha cha
Sam BOOM!
Cha cha cha cha.

["Wang Dang Doodle" song begins at 1:32]
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6a6bIrmg8 ; Uploaded by SafariCreations on May 22, 2009 [That video is posted at the top of this page]

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Example #4 (jump rope rhyme)
Ladies and gentlemen
Children too,
This young lady's
Going to boogie for you.

She's going to turn around.
(Jumper turn around)
She's going to touch the ground.
(Jumper touch ground)
She's going to shimmy, shimmy, shimmy
(Jumper wiggles hips)
Till her drawers fall down.

She never went to college.
She never went to school.
But when she came back,
She was a nasty fool.

Source: Knapp (1976), posted at http://www.mudcat.org/jumprope/jumprope_display_all.cfm

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Example #5 (performance activity not given)
down down baby down by the rollercoaster
sweet sweet baby, I'll never let you go
shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rah!
shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rah!
I like candy, I like tea, I like a little boy
and he likes me.
so step off jack, your hands are black
your looking like a monkey on a rail road track
To the front to the back to the side by side
To the front to the back to the side by side,
Ladies and gentlemen children too
this old lady's gonna boogie for you
she's gonna turn around
touch the ground
boogie boogie boogie till her pants fall down!!!

this version i remember from when i was little..i loved it!!
-GUEST,guest..jenna; http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=123101 "We Wear Our Hair In Curls" October 1, 2010

SUGGESTED SOURCES FOR TWO PARTS OF THIS RHYME
Lyrics:
The source flines
Never been to college
never been to school
but when it comes to boogie
I'm an educated fool

[or similar lines]
Source:
Unknown African American composer/s

Found in Dorothy Scarborough's On The Trail Of Negro Folk-Songs (Folklore Associates, Inc. edition, 1963, p. 71; originally published by Harvard University Press, 1925)

"Old Jesse was a gemman.
Among de olden times.

N****r never went to free school.
Nor any odder college,
An' all de white folks wonder whar
That n****r got his knowledge."...

-end of quote-
Editorial Notes:
This is not the same song as the African American secular slave song & old time banjo song [Here Comes]"Uncle Jesse".

In this post, the word "n****r" is the way I choose to write the pejorative referent for Black people which is now commonly known as "the n word".

"Gemman"="gentleman".

"Free schools" were the schools that were established for African Americans immediately after the end of the United States civil war. "Whar" ="Where".

"Boogie" = "dance". There are many African American dance songs that include the word "boogie". Among those songs is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM3PuXDpKiA&feature=related "Boogie Chillun" - John Lee Hooker (1948).

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Phrases: "Sam BOOM" and "sans boots"
Source:
I believe that the phrases "Sam Boom!", "sans BOOTS" and similar phrases* have their source in the late 19th century vaudeville song "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay". That song is credited to Anglo-American Henry Sayers. However, quoting from Wikipedia, "Sayers later stated that he had not written the song, but had heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known St. Louis brothel run by "Babe" Connors." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta-ra-ra_Boom-de-ay

*I've also come across what I think is another form of that phrase "alla bostia". There's no information given about how those words are pronounced, but I think they might sound like "ah lah boost tee ay". That phrase was part of a sexualized version of the rhyme I refer to as "We Wear Out Hair In Curls" http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 "Do kids still do clapping rhymes?" Guest ,Tianna; December 30, 2005

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This post was edited by Azizi Powell

FEATURED VIDEO
This video is posted at the top of this page.
http://ThePointers.DazMan.com
Willie Dixon's Blues stomper "Wang Dang Doodle" became the second hit for the Pointers Sister in 1974. On the original 1973 recording they are backed by the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils.

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RELATED LINKS
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/02/front-back-side-to-side-in-child... "Front, Back, Side To Side In Children's Rhymes "

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http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/02/choo-choo-ch-boogie-few-other-bo...

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