# Shave and a haircut - two bits

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/48134>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 2, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/48134 "2001-01-02T20:24:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![schreu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@schreu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schreu)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/48134/1 "2001-01-02T20:24:38Z")

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What is the origin of the musical phrase (or rhythmic pattern) known as “shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits”?  
It is often used as a musical cliche at the end of a performance, as an obnoxious way to knock on a door, etc.  
I assume it is quite old, dating from the time when barbers charged “two bits” for a shave and a haircut, but what is the Inside Story? Does it perhaps originate with barbershop quartet songs?

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/48134/2 "2001-01-02T21:48:01Z")

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Welcome to the Board!

Here are a couple of links, but nothing too conclusive:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=26968](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=26968)

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38661](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38661)

One mentions Cecil having covered this, but I didn’t find it in the archives.

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**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits/48134/3 "2001-01-03T00:52:38Z")

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This what I turned up.  
[http://jrnl.net/news/00/Nov/jrn26171100.html](http://jrnl.net/news/00/Nov/jrn26171100.html)

> [@](#):
>
> …According to `The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk'' by James J. Fudd, the first official appearance of the musical phrase you inquired about may have been in Charles Hale's 1899 song, `At a Darktown Cakewalk.’’ It next turned up in the `Hot Scotch Rag'' by H.A. Fischler, published in 1911. Three years later, the song `Bum-Diddle-De-Um-Bum, That’s It!’’ by Jimmie V. Monaco and Joe McCarthy featured the phrase in the last two bars.
> 
> `Shave and a Haircut,'' the tune you referred to in your letter, M.A.N., was first recorded as a folk melody in 1939 by Rosalind Rosenthal and Herbert Halpert. That same year, Don Shapiro and Lester Lee published `Shave and a Haircut, Shampoo.’’ The musical phrase continued to be popular into the 1940s when one of its main adaptations was as a coded signal. One person would rap out the first five notes of the phrase on a wall and the person on the other side would knock the last two notes to indicate he or she was there.