The Clapping Song by Shirley Ellis

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Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine
The monkey chew tobacco on the street car line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row boat

Clap pat, clap pat, clap pat, clap pat
Clap pat, clap your hand,
Pat it on your partner's hand, right hand
Clap pat, clap your hand, cross it with your left arm
Pat your partner's left palm, clap pat
Clap your hand, pat your partner's right palm
(With your right palm again)
Clap slap, clap your hand,
Slap your thigh an sing a little song, go...

Who's sampled it? Is it a bit too "big beat by proxy"? Which commercial is it used in? Why does nobody have it on Soulseek? Who covered it? Is it annoying? What's it made of? What the fuck is the Aaron Carter version like? Has Michael Jackson used it as a "special lullaby"? Do people only know the intro? What's Alex in NYC's opinion? And how about one-time-only-poster ScaryManFace (check the archives)? Can I/We/You "dig it"? etc.

Talk now.

― wo ist meine kaybords? (Lynskey), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

is this shirley ellis the shirley of shirley and lee?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

...bananna fanna fo Shirl, fe fi fo furly -- SHIRLEY...

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

. . . it's quite exciting to be sleeping here in this new room

― wo ist meine keybords? (Lynskey), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

I like it a lot, although possibly not as much as "Iko Iko". It seems unnecessary for both songs to have been released in the same decade.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

COVER VERSION AHOY:

http://www.bubblegum-machine.com/week78.html

― Tantrum (Tantrum The Cat), Sunday, 13 March 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

Disco 2000 was one of the projects of the people behind the KLF. The song 'I love disco 2000 (90 bpm remix)' has a shouty Bill yelling that '3 6 9' bit. It also has a sample of that Nellie the Elephant WOOOOAH noise and the superb line: "My boyfriend told me, if I was dirty, he would buy me, Terence Trent D'arby."

(I'm very pleased that I got to mention this first).

― Affectian (Affectian), Sunday, 13 March 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

"My boyfriend told me, if I was dirty, he would buy me, Terence Trent D'arby."

That fucking rules!

― Tantrum (Tantrum The Cat), Sunday, 13 March 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

Hereisa more recent cover by the band Mother & The Addicts.

http://wilma.nmsu.edu/~mvann/claphands.mp3

http://www.livejournal.com/users/gigabytepicnic

― Dj Mattiepoo, Sunday, 13 March 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

http://www.coastaltown.nildram.co.uk/porl/dray.mp3

Couldn't resist

― wo ist meine keybords? (Lynskey), Monday, 14 March 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

Re Dom: TS: "The Clapping Song"/"Iko Iko" vs. "Papa Oom Mow Mow"/"The Bird's the Word"/"Surfin' Bird"

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 14 March 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

It's all about THE NAME GAME. Favorite of children for generations, also a selection by DJ Afrika Bambaataa. It's got a dope beat.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 14 March 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

>Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine
The monkey chew tobacco on the street car line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row boat<

see also: "Shiny Shiny" by Haysi Fantayzee; "Get Low" by Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz

>It's all about THE NAME GAME.<

see also: "Attack of the Name Game," Stacy Lattisaw

― xhuxk, Monday, 14 March 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Also: Didn't the Meters hit with a (probably inferior) clapping song as well?

― xhuxk, Monday, 14 March 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

the meters have their own, unrelated, mostly instrumental song called "the clapping song." it is awesome.

― one time gaffled 'em up, Monday, 14 March 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

also, there's a great scene in the documentary "scratch" where steinski (of double dee & steinski) describes hearing afrika bambaataa (or jazzy jay, i guess) play the shirley ellis song at a party, intercut with video of amoeba records. "i hadn't heard it since i was 9, and i really LIKED IT when i was 9!"

― one time gaffled 'em up, Monday, 14 March 2005 01:22 (twenty years ago)

OMG it took me like a week to get this on slsk

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 14 March 2005 01:43 (twenty years ago)

I like it a lot, although possibly not as much as "Iko Iko". It seems unnecessary for both songs to have been released in the same decade.

-- Dom Passantino (juror...) (webmail), March 13th, 2005 9:38 PM. (Dom Passantino) (link)

but surely the proliferation of "iko, iko" soundalikes is a reason to continue living!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 14 March 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

I think Freddy Fresh sampled it - or maybe it was 'The Name Game', come to think of it - for a b-side which I can't remember the name of.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 14 March 2005 02:34 (twenty years ago)

"Renegades of Funk" by Soul Sonic Force uses the "Iko Iko" bit ... "my zulu and your zulu were jamming at the party / my zulu told your zulu you got to shake your funky body"

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 14 March 2005 02:37 (twenty years ago)

I think Freddy Fresh sampled it

His track is called 'C'mon', I think it's came out around 1997... It's more like a re-edit of the track, looping the first few bars right when she begins to sing "Come on everybody...". it's good.

― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Monday, 14 March 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

the dude at DiddyWah just posted this.
http://diddywah.blogspot.com/2005/03/fee-fi-mo-mirley-shirley.html

MR. DIDDY WAH, DO YOU POST TO ILM? i like your site a lot.

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Thursday, 17 March 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

i love 'the clapping song' and 'iko iko'.
does anyone have any suggestions for songs in a similar vein?

― zappi (joni), Monday, 21 March 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

There's a righteous mash-up of "The Clapping Song" and Bubba Sparxxx's "Ugly" on Soulwax Presents Hang All DJ's Volume 4.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

does anyone have any suggestions for songs in a similar vein?

The Bobbettes' "Mr. Lee," maybe?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 21 March 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

i love this song!

Is it a bit too "big beat by proxy"?

omg!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 6 November 2006 04:03 (eighteen years ago)

this song is awesome. if you listen to the "clapping instructions" it sounds like it would really be the most boring, slow-paced dance ever, but the laconic delivery makes the song itself even cooler.

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Monday, 6 November 2006 04:18 (eighteen years ago)

Is this the song that always gets sampled with the "Goddamn! Louder!" and so on?

― Rodney... (R. J. Greene), Monday, 6 November 2006 06:47 (eighteen years ago)

Is this the song that always gets sampled with the "Goddamn! Louder!" and so on?

It is not.

The 3-6-9 part was also reprised by Gucci Crew II in 1987

― PappaWheelie, don't fuck this up (PappaWheelie 2), Monday, 6 November 2006 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

it's a joy to hear this at optimo. i'm a bigger fan of The Name Game though.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 6 November 2006 18:51 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 26 November 2008 18:10 (sixteen years ago)

great tune

― rent, Wednesday, 26 November 2008 18:30 (sixteen years ago)

you'd think that drum intro would be sampled more

― i am truley sorry for your lots (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, 26 November 2008 18:41 (sixteen years ago)

― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 November 2008 18:45 (sixteen years ago)

Well, I meant the very intro (cymbals), but yeah, good call.

As stated upthread, Gucci Crew was the first group I knew to tackle this in 1987, albeit, interpolation.

― i am truley sorry for your lots (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, 26 November 2008 18:46 (sixteen years ago)

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