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08 Oct 22 - 09:38 PM (#4154385) Subject: Gooney Bird Song From: GUEST,email from Ted Warmbrand Hi Joe ...stumped again…in the 1950s there was a novelty song First verse (as best I rercall): Once there was a gooney bird Who lived in a big bell tower And every time the bird would sing The bellsl would ring the hour He’d open up his little mouth’ And gayly start to sing When the great big bell went “BING BANG The middle sized bell went CLANG CLANG CLANG The tiny little bell went TINGALINGALING And nobody ever heard that gooney bird sing (Third verse has a happy ending…but I can’t find it ) Who wrote and sang it? Where can I hear it again? Ted |
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08 Oct 22 - 10:27 PM (#4154388) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: Joe Offer Hi, Ted - Well, I didn't have any luck, but I had a good time looking. The wonderful Lois Lowrey has a whole series of books about a girl named Gooney Bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_AsB6zFiY And I don't know who Lomax is, but she's got a recording of "Mother Gooney Bird" (which I know as "Father Abraham"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMAw0LQiMXQ And Oscar Brand had one about the DC-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsNWoP4eLM&t=5s |
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09 Oct 22 - 07:55 AM (#4154448) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: GUEST,cnd A very different novelty song about a Goony Bird: Dory Langdon - Gooney Bird (1957) No luck so far but I'll keep looking |
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09 Oct 22 - 08:12 AM (#4154451) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: cnd I've found a novelty bird song about a Dolphus Bird by Jackie Kannon where the bird couldn't fly because it had no wings (Billboard, June 24th, 1957, p. 56) -- does that sound familiar? A report in XXXXX wrote "The cry of the Dolphus bird keeps things pretty exciting" (Cash Box, July 6th, 1957, p. 17). No luck on finding either a sound clip or the lyrics, but there's several other recordings of his online. Maybe the voice will sound familiar? |
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09 Oct 22 - 08:29 AM (#4154452) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: cnd Oops, the XXX above was meant to be replaced by "Cash Box," obviously. What I get for not proof-reading... Credit to Chris Setari on the Facebook discussion on this song, though, who discovered the answer late last night. (link) The song is THE GOONIE-BIRD SONG by FRANK LUTHER. Written by George Kleinsinger and Joe Darion from 1951 (link) listen |
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10 Oct 22 - 09:10 AM (#4154593) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: MaJoC the Filk Side issue: I understand (a segment of a *long*-ago children's TV programme) that Gooney Birds are what happens when albatrosses land on Midway Island in the Pacific, and proceed to try to nest in the middle of the USAF air strip. (Standing orders are to pick them up and move them to the side of the runway just before Something Serious takes off or is about to land. They appear to not object to this, and usually stroll back again.) Picture a rear-end shot, apparently in slow motion, of a huge bird trying to take off, with its feet dangling, and a nasal voice instructing: "Gooney Bird One, retract your undercarriage. I repeat: Gooney Bird One, retract your undercarriage." And at the end of the segment, when the Gooney Birds are all in the sky, "they become albatrosses again," says Johnny Morris. |
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11 Oct 22 - 08:23 AM (#4154710) Subject: RE: Req: Gooney Bird Song From: cnd Funny how random kids TV shows will stick with us like that... Just for thoroughness, I've transcribed the lyrics from the archive.org link above. The last line of the chorus, denoted in brackets, changed slightly on each iteration of it. THE GOONIE-BIRD SONG (George Kleinsinger and Joe Darion) Oh, once there was a goonie bird who lived in a big bell tower And every time he tried to sing, the bells would ring the hour! He opened up his little mouth and gayly flapped his wings CHORUS Then then great big bell went boom, bang The middle-sized bell went clang-clang-clang The little, little bell went tingle-tingle-ting [And nobody heard that goonie bird sing] He met a lady goonie bird and he began to woo her He said "I'll make a lovely song, and I will sing it to her" But when he opened up his mouth and started in to sing CHORUS [And she never heard...] The lady bird, she said to him, "I never cared for singing But how I love your lovely voice, it sounds just like bells ringing" And so he put a wedding band upon her pretty wing CHORUS [And they were wed one morning in spring] Boom, bang, clang-clang-clang, clink-clink-clink-clink-clink They lived there without a care though nobody ever heard That goonie bird sing That goonie bird sing That goonie bird sing That goonie bird sing |