Ja-Da (song)

"Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!)" was a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton (surname is often misspelled as Carlton). The title is sometimes rendered as "Jada." Ja-Da has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard.

Carleton penned the 16-bar tune when he was club pianist in Illinois and first popularized it with singer Cliff Edwards. The sheet music for "Ja-Da" was published in 1918 by Leo Feist, Inc., New York. The tune was briefly famous, and then spent 35 years as a well-known standard.

In his definitive American Popular Songs, Alec Wilder writes about the song's simplicity:

"... It fascinates me that such a trifling tune could have settled into the public consciousness as Ja-Da has. Of course it's bone simple, and the lyric says almost nothing, except perhaps the explanation of its success lies in the lyric itself. "That's a funny little bit of melody—it's soothing and appealing to me." It's cute, it's innocent, and it's "soothing." And, wonderfully enough, the only other statement the lyric makes is "Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing.""

Selected renditions of Ja-Da

 * Player piano roll, Vocalstyle Company, #11302. Vodvil Series, as played by Cliff Hess
 * 1918 &mdash; Original New Orleans Jazz Band
 * 1919 &mdash; Arthur Fields with Billy Murray
 * 1938 &mdash; Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet
 * 1945 &mdash; Bunk Johnson and Don Ewell
 * 1947 &mdash; Frank Sinatra & Peggy Lee
 * 1947 &mdash; Muggsy Spanier
 * 1954 &mdash; Big Chief Jazzband (on the 78 rpm record His Master's Voice A.L. 3401)
 * 1958 &mdash; Ted Heath Orchestra
 * Al Hirt
 * Oscar Peterson
 * Louis Armstrong
 * Al Jarreau
 * Hot Tuna as "Keep On Truckin'"
 * Bobby Hackett
 * God-des and She
 * Scott Walker chorus sung in song "Psoriatic" from 2006's The Drift
 * Sonny Rollins 're-invented it' using the Ja-Da chords for his composition "Doxy" in 1954.

Rendition used in comedy

 * In the 1970s, the song was appropriated by the Canadian comedy duo Maclean and Maclean, who recorded it as their signature piece, with bawdy lyrics added.