Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1964
The Name Game
Buy The Name Game now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'The Name Game'" is a song co-written and performed by Shirley Ellis as a rhyming game that creates variations on a person's name.[http://keepkey.yochanan.net/shirley1.htm The Shirley Ellis Name Game Page] She explains through speaking and singing how to play the game. The first verse is done using Ellis's first name; the other names used in the original version of the song are Lincoln, Arnold, Tony, Billy, Marsha, and Nick.
History
Written by American singer Shirley Ellis and Lincoln Chase, Ellis's recording, produced by Charles Calello, was released in late 1964 as "The Name Game". The record scored number 3 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100, and number 4 on the magazine's R&B charts during 1965. The record was re-released in 1966 and again in 1973. A R&B singer for 10 years before that success, Ellis was also successful with "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" (#8 pop and #16 R&B), and "The Nitty Gritty" (#8 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box R&B chart). Ellis performed on then-major television programs, including 'Hullabaloo', 'American Bandstand' and 'The Merv Griffin Show'. It later became a popular children's singalong.
"The Name Game" has been recorded by dozens of recording artists in the years since, notably Laura Branigan, whose version produced by Jeff Lorber was included on her 1987 album 'Touch', released as the fifth single. It features a classroom of third-grade schoolchildren singing along to the game. Judy Moody, Hannah Banana and many other phrases have been referenced from this song.
Often sung by relative unknowns for collections of songs for children, other cover versions have been recorded by artists as diverse as:
* 1965: Dean Ford and the Gaylords
* 1965: Soupy Sales (1965)
* 1965: Olivia Molina ("Juego De Palabras")
* 1975: Anne Rene ("Un jeu d'fou")
* 1980: Joanie Bartels covered the song with different names, releasing it as a single from the 1980 album, 'Sillytime Magic', and the 1994 video 'The Extra-Special Substitute Teacher'.
* 1980: Divine
* 1982: Stacy Lattisaw's contemporary R&B/hip hop recording "Attack of the Name Game," with a completely different melody and lyrics, reached #70 on the Hot 100.
* 1990: Cree Summer (as Elmyra Duff) performed a cover for "TV Toons", an episode of 'Tiny Toon Adventures' using the Toons' names (except Plucky Duck's, as mentioned by that episode's end credits). This version was collected on the 1992 album 'Tiny Toons Sing!'.
* 1991: Rose Nylund (Betty White) sings The Name Game when Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) stop the car off camera and tell Rose to get out from 'The Golden Girls' (season 7, episode 11: "Room 7").
* 1994: Xuxa ("Jogo da Rima")
* 1997: Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir covered the song with alternate names from the album 'Shakin' a Tailfeather'.
* 1999: Lattislaw's version was sampled by Mariah Carey on her single "Heartbreaker", from her album 'Rainbow'.
* 2013: Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) performs a rendition in the second season finale of 'American Horror Story', titled after the song.
* 2016: Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) sings a segment on 'The Big Bang Theory' (season 9, episode 21: "The Viewing Party Combustion").
Ellis told the publication 'Melody Maker' that the song was based on a game she played as a child.
On May 3, 2017, Howard Stern stated that he sings this song to young children, and calls it "his secret weapon" saying "it not only comforts them, it also distracts them from [his] unsightly features".
This song was excerpted in Dickie Goodman's novelty break-in record single called "Shonanza" (1965), a spoof on the popular television Western 'Bonanza', where the "Tony" verse is sped up, and then slowed, losing its energy.
The former oldies AM radio station AM 1110, did a version of that song in the late 1980s, with the names of the living disc jockeys, who presided in that station at that time.
Rules
Using the name 'Katie' as an example, the song follows this pattern:
:Katie, Katie, bo-batie,
:Bonana-fanna fo-fatie
:Fee fi mo-matie
:Katie!
A verse can be created for any name with stress on the first syllable, with 'X' as the name and 'Y' as the name without the first consonant sound (if it begins with a consonant), as follows:
:('X'), ('X'), bo-b ('Y')
:Bonana-fanna fo-f ('Y')
:Fee fi mo-m ('Y')
:'(X)'!
If the name starts with a 'b', 'f', or 'm', that sound simply is not repeated. For example: 'Billy' becomes "Billy Billy 'bo-illy'"; 'Fred' becomes "bonana fanna 'fo-red'"; 'Marsha' becomes "fee fi 'mo-arsha'"
The song as originally performed gives no indication of what to do with names where the stress falls on a syllable after the first, like Anita or Antoinette; however, the cover version on the workout video 'Sweatin' to the Oldies 3' (vocals by Donna Miller) suggests that the first syllable should be dropped after the name is first said; the name Madonna is sung as "Madonna-donna-bo-bonna," etc.
See also
*1964 in music
*Nursery rhyme
*Swinging the Alphabet
References
Category:1964 singles
Category:1965 singles
Category:Laura Branigan songs
Category:Songs written by Lincoln Chase
Category:Patter songs
Category:1964 songs
Category:Stacy Lattisaw songs
Category:Novelty songs
Buy The Name Game now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1964