The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91948   Message #1756499
Posted By: Azizi
10-Jun-06 - 12:47 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Kid's rhymes: Big Mac, Coca Cola & more
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kid's rhymes: Big Mac, Coca Cola & more
And returning to the subject of children's rhymes that mention food or beverages, or fruit, or candy etc, see this rhyme:

PIZZA PIZZA DADDY-O

Leader #1
(Center)        Georgia has a boyfriend
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Leader #2        Oh how do you know it?
                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Leader #1        cause she told me
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Leader #2        What's his name?
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Leader #1        Jesse James
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O        
Leader #2        Where does he live?
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O        
Leader #1        Up a hill
Group                Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O
Leader #1        Let's jerk it *
Group                Jerk it, jerk it Daddy-O
Leader #1        Let's swim it
Group                Swim it, swim it, Daddy-O
Leader #1        Let's twist it
Group                Twist it, twist it Daddy-O
Leader                Let's end it
Group                End it, end it, Daddy-O

source: Eleanor Fulton & Pat Smith, Let's Slice the Ice, p 50 (MMB Music, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri, (1978);
The authors noted that they collected these rhymes from children from multiple states in the USA. No specific state was cited for individual rhymes. The introduction to that book indicates that the rhymes' informants were African American children.

Directions [as given in that book]: "Children form a circle with one child in the center. On each repeat of the words, "Pizza, Pizza Daddy-O, all the children in the center do the foot pattern as described below:
        
Piz         Jump and land with feet apart
za        jump and cross feet, with left foot in front of right
piz        jump and land with feet apart
za        daddy        jump and cross feet, with right foot in front of left
O        jump and land with feet apart

This pattern always begins and ends with "jump and land with feet apart. Beginning with the words "let's jerk it, the center child becomes the caller, and the group responds by singing and imitating the caller. The "center" can decide the motions to be imitated and determine the length of the game. The game ends with the words "let's end it" as the enter child puts his hand over his eyes, spins around, and points to a new player to be "it". Note, if the center child is a boy, the name "Georgie" is used at the beginning. And his girlfriend 's name is "Jenny James"."

-snip-

Although the term "daddy-o" was first popularized as a referent for a "hip" male during the swing eras of jazz {1930s-1940s}, I think that this rhyme dates more from the 1960s. That date is suggested by the referents to "The jerk", "The swim" and "The twist", all popular dances from the mid 1960s.

Btw, I've not found any evidence of this rhyme being known among the African American children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area {my primary source for rhyme collections}. And I've not seen this rhyme mentioned among contemporary sources. However, Betty Jones and Bess Lomax-Hawes include an example of a very similar rhyme from Gullah {Georgia} traditions called "Pizza Pizza Mighty Moe". This game was described as a 'play' [dramatic, role playing game that is performed with syncopated chanting, {non-partner] hand claps and movements].
I have also found a very similar version of "Pizza Pizza Daddy-O" in a book about Black American culture entitled "Talk That Talk" {source: African American children Philadelphia, PA, 1980s [editor: Linda Goss, I believe, and the 1980s' is if I'm not mistaken, since I tried to but can't find that book at the moment}

Another similar version of "Pizza Pizza Daddy-O} is included in a book on African American children's rhymes called "Apple On A Stick" [children from Houston, Texas, again 1980s I think]..That book has two authors. U'll also have to track that book down {it's 12:30+ here in the morning, and I'm winding down

:0}

But before I go, it's my opinion that "Pizza Pizza Mighty Moe" is probably the earliest version of this rhyme {among the ones I have found so far}. Also, imo, "Daddy-o" replaced the phrase "mighty Moe" because the personal name "Moe" wasn't [and still isn't] given much any more {among African Americans-maybe thanks to "Three Stooges"}...Also, imo, this rhyme really isn't about food because "pizza pizza daddy-o" serves as a syncopated refrain and not really a reference to that cheesy meal that many kids and other people like.

I'm outta here! See ya lata, alligata!