It's obvious there are two songs (at least) referred to in this thread, but I want to point out something about the Minstrel "Black Cat, White Cat" listed above. The last verse has what may be the earliest reference to scat singing I can recall. Most people credit Louis Armstrong with "inventing" scat singing on a recording of "Heebie jeebies," although Wikipedia cites many other, slightly earlier sources (dating from 1900 or so). If the line above, "Skit at te at, te skat, te it, at the skat." is really scatting, and it surely looks a lot like Armstrong's syllables to me, then the origin is even earlier than credited in Wikipedia. Just a footnote in passing. Bob
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