The tune (John W. Bratton, 1907) is a good deal older than the words (Jimmy Kennedy, 1930), and indeed is almost coeval with the teddy bear itself. I have an LP (_The Sousa and Pryor Bands_, NW 282) that has a transcription of a performance by the Pryor Band in 1908. It is not, of course, sung, but it is accompanied by artificial bear growls.

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: When smart people are trying to second-guess fools and vice versa, it gets hard to tell them apart. :||