Wassa matta for me? Hey, wassa matta for you?

Cafe Society
1

For some reason, this song popped into my head.

♬ Wassa matta for me? Hey!
Wassa matta for you? Hey!
Wassa matta for you? Hey!
Wassa matta for you? ♬

So I thought I’d look it up to see if I can find a YouTube video of it. I found Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce.

But this isn’t the [del]droid[/del] song I’m looking for. Shaddap You Face was written by Dolce in 1980, and the song I’m thinking if is much older. Bullwinkle J. Moose went to Wassmatta U., and the show was made from 1959 to 1964. I don’t know if Bullwinkle’s alma mater had any connection to the song in my head, but I wouldn’t bet against it.

So what is the song in my head? The tune sounds a bit like an Itlaianized version of the chorus from We Did It Before And We Can Do It Again. Kind of upbeat, like Mambo Italiano (but different tune). It’s not like Dolche’s song.

2

Bugs.

3

Thanks! I almost certainly heard it fro Bugs Bunny.

Found another one.

Next question: Was it a ‘real’ song? Or was it something Warner Brothers made up for the cartoons?

4

Wouldn’t surprise me if the lyrics were written by Mel Blanc or one of his cohorts (I saw something that credited it to Michael Maltese), although the music seems familiar from some other Italian song or instrumental.

5

One site I found says that the book “That’s All Folks!” attributes the lyrics as original to Michael Maltese, who wrote it for Warner Brothers.

6

Weird! I thought about this song and tried to look it up this week with no luck. I knew it was from Bugs Bunny and I remembered the basic lyrics (but not how to spell them). I could not find it in any of my searches. I was starting to think that I imagined the whole thing.

Another mystery solved thanks to the Dope!

7

Lou Monte (of Pepino the Mouse fame) did a version of **Shaddapa You Face**with the “Hey” that the OP was looking for. (Around 2 mins. in)

8

That’s a completely different melody, though.

9

It’s sort of similar to a couple of Italian classics like Tarantella Napoletana or Hey Gumbare.

10

Beat me to it. I found it in a longer clip that give a little more context. I love the Tazmanian Devil’s idea of a tossed salad.