# Lyrics To The Popeye Song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755 "2007-05-11T21:45:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/21 "2007-05-13T18:54:57Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Yes, I know who Popeye is. What I don’t get is what’s with all the skat lyrics? They have no resemblance to anything I recognize as having anything to do with a Popeye theme song. -FrL- [/QUOTE] Not the official “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” song that dates all the way back to the 1930s Fleischer cartoons, or any alternate lyrics. What the OP is referring to is a song Popeye would sometimes sing to himself in the 1960-1961 King Features cartoons (the ones where his enemy was called Brutus). A sort of bee-bop tune with improvised nonsense lyrics (is that style called skat?) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/22 "2007-05-13T18:57:04Z")
I’m confused too! 😕 I thought the scat part of the Popeye song went something like this: > [@](#): > > Yub nub, eee chop yub nub, > toe meet toe pee chee keene, g’noop dock fling oh ah. > Yah wah, eee chop yah wah, > toe meet toe pee chee keene, g’noop dock fling oh ah > Coat ee chah tu yub nub, > Coat ee chah tu yah wah, > Coat ee chah tu glo wah. > allay loo ta nuv > Glo wah, eee chop glo wah, ya glo wah pee chu nee foam, > ah toot dee awe goon daa. > Coat ee cha tu goo (Yub nub!) > coat ee cha tu doo (Yah wah!) > coat ee cha tu too (ya chaa!) > allay loo tu nuv (3 times) > Glo wah, eee chop glo wah. > Ya glow wah pee chu nee foam, > ah toot dee awe goon daa > allay loo tu nuv. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/23 "2007-05-13T19:07:40Z")
No, that’s the Witch Doctor song. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/24 "2007-05-13T19:42:57Z")
I remember Popeye scatting in many an old cartoon. Certainly in the Max Fleischer cartoon, and possibly in the cartoons of the Famous Studios era. Jack Mercer provided the voice of Popeye from 1935 until his death in 1984, except for a period during WW II, when he served in the U.S. Navy, so it’s possible to hear him scatting during just about any era. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/25 "2007-05-13T20:28:06Z")
The line “skiddly-bop a doo skiddly skee bop a skiddly bop” sticks in my memory as one of his lines, too. Thanks for making those long-repressed memories surface up! I wonder what other sorts of flotsam and jetsam was pulled up with it. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/26 "2007-05-13T21:43:05Z")
Here’s one example of Popeye singing nonsense to the music in 1936. [Little Swee’pea](http://www.archive.org/details/little_sweepea). It’s not quite the same as the scat singing in the later cartoons (which I think the OP is referencing). I don’t recall any particular song he usually sang, I think he just did this to any music (though this meant mean that he can hear his own theme song playing). But I’m no Popeye expert. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/27 "2007-05-13T21:55:55Z")
[Sing Along with Popeye](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyWv2YkdHss). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755/28 "2007-05-13T22:33:30Z")
[QUOTE=panamajack] Here’s one example of Popeye singing nonsense to the music in 1936. [Little Swee’pea](http://www.archive.org/details/little_sweepea). [/QUOTE] That music is from the Popeye cartoon “Brotherly Love”. Original lyrics here: [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon\_information/1792-Brotherly\_Love.html](http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_information/1792-Brotherly_Love.html) The skat singing the OP refers to occurs in one or more of the color (Harvey? Paramount?) Popeye cartoons, not the earlier b&w, according to my vague memories of the audio. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-to-the-popeye-song/403755.md?page=1)