Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?-Imagination

Subject: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?
From: GUEST,rsw, inverness
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 12:27 PM

I hope someone can make some sense out of my "sounds like" fragments of lyric from late '50s/ early '60s. Google searches and Mudcat searches did not get anywhere for obvious reasons.

Doo Wop song started out with a bass voice singing,
"Gimme da bop, bop, bop, gimme da bop bop bop, jim-nation.
Gimme da bop bop bop, gimme da bop bop bop, jim-nation..." And from there, I assume the group went into the rest of the song- wish I could remember! The "bop-bop-bop" part of the above phrases was pretty rapid fire, and the "jim nation" was more stretched out, with "NA"(shun) going to a low note, and coming back up for the "shun."
All guesses and leads for possible matching songs or lyrics are appreciated!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 01:08 PM

You're thinking of "Imagination," with its immortal refrain...
Imminy maa-maa-maa, imminy-maa-maa-gination.
Imminy maa-maa-maa, imminy-maa-maa-gination.

It's a doo-wop version of an older song that goes "Imagination is funny/ It makes a cloudy day sunny...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?
From: GUEST,rsw, inverness
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 08:41 PM

To Cool Beans, and friends: your response was amazing! After 40+ years, I found out the real title words to that song... of course! "Imagination!" I have also found out that the Quotations had the hit in 1962. Googling "Imagination" + "Quotations" is almost as frustrating (for my purposes) as the "bop bop bop" searches I was doing previously. Fun, really.   In any event, I always enjoy the Mudcat Cafe site and especially want to thank Cool Beans for taking the time to reply.
Have a great day,
rsw, inverness

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 08:59 PM

The song was recorded by The Quotations - I think in 1961. My Rhino Doo Wop Box says songwriters were James Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. I wondered if that meant Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, because it sure didn't sould like the Van Heusen-Burk songs I knew.
This page (click) has the answer:

Johnny Burke (1908 – 1964) was one of the greatest popular song lyricists. One of the many web sites for Burke tells us that “Bing Crosby claimed he owed much of his success to a lyricist he dubbed ‘the Poet.’ Crosby said, ‘one of the best things that ever happened to me was a 145-pound leprechaun named Johnny Burke.’” For the movie Road to Morocco (1942) he wrote the lyrics to three great songs – Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Moonlight Becomes You, and Imagination. This last song begins:

Imagination is funny,
It makes a rainy day sunny,
Makes a bee think of honey,
Just as I think of you.
Imagination is crazy,
Your whole perspective gets hazy,
Starts you asking a daisy
“What to do? What to do?”
Have you ever felt a gentle touch
And then a kiss, and then, and then
Find it’s only your imagination again?
Oh, well.

So, it's a Doo-Wop version of a song from the 1942 Hope-Crosby-Lamour movie, Road to Morocco.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?-Imagination
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 10:14 PM

Yes, Joe, it was Jimmy (or James) Van Husen and Johnny Burke. Like so many of the doo wop songs (you're walking down my street now) the kids put a beat to the old records their parents listened to like Imagination, Heart and Soul, Zippity Doo Dah, Blue Moon... the list goes on indefinetely. The Platters built their whole career on pop songs of the war years (which you clearly already know.) I have Imagination by at least two or three big band singers. Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Ella Fitzgerald all had top 40 hits with the song.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: obscure Doo Wop song?-Imagination
From: Cool Beans
Date: 15 Mar 09 - 08:23 AM

As long as we're on the subject...
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