"Swinging the Alphabet" is a novelty song sung by The Three Stooges in their 1938 film, Violent Is the Word for Curly. It is the only full-length song performed by the Stooges in their short films, and the only time they mimed to their own pre-recorded soundtrack.
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In 2005, film historian Richard Finegan identified the composer of the song as Septimus Winner (1827–1902), who had originally published it in 1875 as "The Spelling Bee". Septimus' own version, though, appears to have been based on a much earlier version called "Ba-Be-Bi-Bo-Bu", which has a centuries-old tradition outlined below.
In the 1959 re-recording of "The Alphabet Song/Swinging The Alphabet" with Moe, Larry and Curly Joe, 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.
Origin
The lyrics of Septimus Winner's "Spelling Bee" (AKA "Ba Be Bi Bo Bu") were slightly different. What's more, his was not the original version, either. In fact, 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:
Whilst the Boy is upon his Knees, all the Chapellonians, with their right Arms put through the lappets of their Coats as before, walk round him, singing the Cuz’s Anthem, which is done by adding all the vowels to the Consonants in the following Manner.