Swingin' the Alphabet is a novelty song sung by The Three Stooges (Moe
Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard) in their 1938 short film, Violent
Is the Word for Curly. It is the only full-length song performed by
the trio in their short films, and the only time they mimed to their
own pre-recorded soundtrack. It contains a censor-baiting line; when
the singers start ringing the changes on the letter “F†it seems
as though an obscene word will result, but it does not.For their 1959
album The Nonsense Songbook, the Stooges re-recorded the song
(retitled as "The Alphabet Song") with Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe DeRita
(filling in for Curly Howard, who died in 1952). The letters "G", "J",
"M" and the "Curly's a dope" line were omitted, and new lyrics
featuring the letters "N," "P," "R," "S," "T," "V," and "Z" were
added.In 2005, Stooge film historian Richard Finegan identified the
composer of the song as Septimus Winner (1827â€"1902), who had
originally published it in 1875 as "The Spelling Bee". Septimus' own
version, though, appears to have been based on an earlier version
called "Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu", which has a centuries-old tradition.The
lyrics of Septimus Winner's "Spelling Bee" (a.k.a. "Ba Be Bi Bo Bu")
were slightly different. A number of schools like Harvard University
used this as one of their traditional songs, which itself may have
originated centuries earlier in typesetting, as a very similar song or
chant was used to help train apprentice printers in the structure of
language, a tradition being described as "ancient" even as early as
1740:
Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard) in their 1938 short film, Violent
Is the Word for Curly. It is the only full-length song performed by
the trio in their short films, and the only time they mimed to their
own pre-recorded soundtrack. It contains a censor-baiting line; when
the singers start ringing the changes on the letter “F†it seems
as though an obscene word will result, but it does not.For their 1959
album The Nonsense Songbook, the Stooges re-recorded the song
(retitled as "The Alphabet Song") with Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe DeRita
(filling in for Curly Howard, who died in 1952). The letters "G", "J",
"M" and the "Curly's a dope" line were omitted, and new lyrics
featuring the letters "N," "P," "R," "S," "T," "V," and "Z" were
added.In 2005, Stooge film historian Richard Finegan identified the
composer of the song as Septimus Winner (1827â€"1902), who had
originally published it in 1875 as "The Spelling Bee". Septimus' own
version, though, appears to have been based on an earlier version
called "Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu", which has a centuries-old tradition.The
lyrics of Septimus Winner's "Spelling Bee" (a.k.a. "Ba Be Bi Bo Bu")
were slightly different. A number of schools like Harvard University
used this as one of their traditional songs, which itself may have
originated centuries earlier in typesetting, as a very similar song or
chant was used to help train apprentice printers in the structure of
language, a tradition being described as "ancient" even as early as
1740:
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.