# the pompatus of love and those peaches

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pompatus-of-love-and-those-peaches/578316>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 14, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pompatus-of-love-and-those-peaches/578316 "2011-04-14T01:48:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CarolBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@CarolBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarolBeth)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pompatus-of-love-and-those-peaches/578316/1 "2011-04-14T01:48:34Z")

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Well, about the "Really love your peaches let me shake your tree…try going back a little further. Irving Berlin wrote "If You Don’T Want My Peaches (You’d Better Stop Shaking My Tree) somewhere around 1915. 🙂

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pompatus-of-love-and-those-peaches/578316/2 "2011-04-14T04:04:11Z")

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Welcome, **CarolBeth**.

It’s always good to post a link to the column so that others can follow along.

[In Steve Miller’s “The Joker,” what is “the pompatus of love”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/972/in-steve-millers-the-joker-what-is-the-pompatus-of-love)

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**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pompatus-of-love-and-those-peaches/578316/3 "2011-04-17T08:33:14Z")

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Cecil’s column states that Miller’s line is identical to the one in the Clovers song. I think that distinction is more important than when the first mention was made of shaking peach trees.

I listen to a lot of old blues and I’ve heard many mentions of shaking one’s peach but I don’t recall any of them being prefaced with lovey-dovey or otherwise resembling Miller’s words as closely.