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Ja Da

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Ja-Da

"Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!)" was a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton (surname is often misspelled as Carlton). The title is sometimes rendered as "Jada." Ja-Da has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard.

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Carleton penned the 16-bar tune when he was club pianist in Illinois and first popularized it with singer Cliff Edwards. The sheet music for "Ja-Da" was published in 1918 by Leo Feist, Inc., New York. The tune was briefly famous, and then spent 35 years as a well-known standard.

In his definitive American Popular Songs, Alec Wilder writes about the song's simplicity:

... It fascinates me that such a trifling tune could have settled into the public consciousness as Ja-Da has. Of course it's bone simple, and the lyric says almost nothing, except perhaps the explanation of its success lies in the lyric itself. "That's a funny little bit of melody—it's soothing and appealing to me." It's cute, it's innocent, and it's "soothing." And, wonderfully enough, the only other statement the lyric makes is "Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing."

Selected renditions of Ja-Da

  • Player piano roll, Vocalstyle Company, #11302. Vodvil Series, as played by Cliff Hess
  • 1918 — Original New Orleans Jazz Band
  • 1919 — Arthur Fields with Billy Murray
  • 1938 — Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet
  • 1945 — Bunk Johnson and Don Ewell
  • 1947 — Frank Sinatra & Peggy Lee
  • 1947 — Muggsy Spanier
  • 1954 — Big Chief Jazzband (on the 78 rpm record His Master's Voice A.L. 3401)
  • 1955 — Marian McPartland - At the Hickory House
  • 1957 — Pee Wee Hunt
  • 1958 — Ted Heath Orchestra
  • 1982, 1986, and 1987 — Musical entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram & The Mammoth Band, recorded live and in studio]]
  • Al Hirt
  • Oscar Peterson
  • Erroll Garner
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Al Jarreau
  • Hot Tuna as "Keep On Truckin'"
  • Johnny and The Hurricanes
  • Bobby Hackett
  • God-des and She
  • The Fireballs, the band were singing that song, in 1966.
  • Scott Walker chorus sung in song "Psoriatic" from 2006's The Drift
  • Sonny Rollins 're-invented it' using the Ja-Da chords for his composition "Doxy" in 1954.
  • Rendition used in comedy

  • In the 1970s, the tune was appropriated by the Canadian comedy duo Maclean and Maclean, who recorded it as their signature piece, with bawdy lyrics added.
  • References

    Ja-Da Wikipedia


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