Yet another “Standard snippet”, the stock “Da-da-da-DA-DA-DUM” fanfare intro to a song that announces “wacky shit is going down!”
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The “song” consists of three of the same notes repeated, then up a full step, up a half step, and another full step.It can basically be played with any tonic note!
It’s also occasionally called the Cockney Intro but that’s a more recent term that has been popularized by British comedian Bill Bailey.
Anyway, when exactly did this become invented? My research didn’t say definitively, but I did narrow it down tremendously.
The term, as far as my research shows, comes from the vaudeville days, and specifically refers to Minsky’s Burlesque in New York City, a brand or “wheel” (which is to say a running theatrical circuit) of burlesque run by the Minsky brothers, and their story is pretty interesting in and of itself.
…The Minsky circuit showcased many entertainers of the era that are even known to this day. Comedians like Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Abbot and Costello, Red Skelton, and Zero Mostel, as well as strippers like Gypsy Rose Lee and Sherry Britton. Several of their patrons are famous too, such as poet Hart Crane, Robert Benchley of the Harvard Lampoon, and Conde Nast, best known for his publishing house of the same name which is in turn best known for Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and owning the rights to The Shadow and not doing a damn thing with them…
…As for its use in music…it’s pretty ubiquitous. It is often used to signify “old-timey American music”, as seen in this clip from the 1977 biopic of Scott Joplin…
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