The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #74328   Message #1296516
Posted By: Jim Dixon
13-Oct-04 - 08:45 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Aba Daba Honeymoon (Fields & Donovan)
Subject: Lyr Add: ABA DABA HONEYMOON (Fields & Donovan)
It seems that WYSIWYG transcribed the lyrics from an old sound file which is no longer available, but not to worry: The sheet music can be found at The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, and it reveals a few errors in the transcription, so I'll post the corrected lyrics here:

"Ruth Roye's sensational novelty song hit"
ABA DABA HONEYMOON
"As featured by Ruth Roye, the Princess of Ragtime, 14 consecutive weeks at the Palace Theatre, New York."
Words and music by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan, copyright 1914.

1. Way down in the Congo land lived a happy chimpanzee.
She loved a monkey with a long tail. Lordy how she loved him!
Each night he would find her there, swinging in the coconut tree,
And the monkey gay, at the break of day, loved to hear his Chimpie say:

CHORUS: "Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab," said the Chimpie to the Monk.
"Baba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab," said the Monkey to the Chimp.
All night long they'd chatter away,
All day long they were happy and gay,
Swinging and singing in their honky-tonkey way:
"Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab," means, "Monk, I love but you."
"Baba, daba, dab," in monkey talk, means, "Chimp, I love you too!"

Then the big baboon one night in June,
He married them and very soon
They went upon their aba-daba honeymoon!

2. Well, you should have that band play upon their wedding day!
Each chimp and monkey had nutshells. Lordy how they played them!
And now it is ev'ry night, high up in the coconut tree,
It's the same old thing with the same old swing,
When the Monk and Chimpie sing:

[CHORUS, then:]

One night they were made man and wife,
And now they cry, "This is the life,"
Since they came from their aba-daba honeymoon.