There were a bunch of nonsense-syllable songs associated with the old wild west, at least when I was a kid and people tended to think kids would want to listen to western-themed music.
I had a vinyl album with “sleepytime songs” on one side and “wide-awake songs” on the other. This was an age when I had only recent graduated from plastic rattles. On the “wide-awake” side there was
this song featuring the memorable lyrics “sing song kitchee catchee ki me oh” and
this one that has the insightful refrain “diddly eye dee die deedle, diddly eye dee die day”.
I don’t know if the trend actually literally dates back to when the American west was an unfenced and un-highwayed stretch through which folks drove herds of cows, but it’s possible — some music folks think nonsense syllables started when some singer couldn’t remember the lyrics and just threw nonsense syllables in, but then of course other folks learned the songs from them.
Alternatively, if I may quote from Eddy Arnold a second time, there’s the notion that cowboys were out by themselves in a big open area and it was fun to sing high-pitched vocalisms that might echo —
