[78-L] Chalking up a "borrowed" song idea (was: Kate Smith stamp)

[Bill McClung]

The first time I heard "Huggin' and Chalkin'" (youngster that I am) was by
Johnny Mercer on Capitol.

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 10:19 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:

> Don'tcha go a-blamin' Hoagy..the song was written by Clancy Hayes and
> Kermit
> Goell, and was also a hit for The Old Professor.
>
> dl
>
> Michael Biel wrote:
> > I've been trying to figure out who accidentally merged my paragraph
> > about "She Gave Them All the Ha Ha Ha" with the statement "That's a line
> > from "Huggin' And Chalkin" (1946-7)." as if I said it. (Could it have
> > been  "L78rpm at aol.com" aka "pc" whoever he is??) I didn't add that
> > sentence because I don't know the later song.  So I checked it out and
> > it seems that Hoagy Carmichael STOLE the idea from the song I discussed
> > that was written and recorded twenty five years  earlier!!  I see it
> > listed as recorded by Eddie Cantor, but I have it on a Phantasie Concert
> > pasteover label (the original might have been a Lyric (?)).
> >
> > Hoagy put it in the 40s:
> >
> > "You have to take a piece of chalk in your hand
> > And hug a ways and chalk a mark to see where you began
> > One day I was a-huggin' and a-chalkin' and a-chalkin' and a-huggin' away
> > When I met another fella with some chalk in his hand
> > A-comin' around the other way over the mountain"
> >
> > The older song from 1920 goes:
> >
> > "I never get my arms around her,
> > But one night I tried.
> > I got three-quarters way around her,
> > Then I almost died,
> > For I met another fellow coming 'round the other side,
> > And she gave us both the Ha Ha Ha,
> > The Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha."
> >
> > So somewhere in the deep recesses of Hoagy's mind was this earlier song
> > which he unconsciously stole, er, borrowed from.
> >
> > Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
> >
> >
> > mbiel at mbiel.com writes (all but the final line, of course):
> >
> > Just before Kate's stardom and during the era of Vaughn DeLeath, there
> > was a popular song in the 20s "She Gave Them All the Ha Ha Ha" about a
> > lovable "girl about 5'4" who weighs 200 pounds or more", who when the
> > singer hugged her "met another fellow coming 'round the other side".
> > That's a line from "Huggin' And Chalkin" (1946-7).
> >
> >
> > pc
> >
>
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