Shave and a Haircut

History

An early occurrence of the tune is from the introduction of the 1899 Charles Hale minstrel song "At a Darktown Cake Walk". Other songs from the same period also used the tune. The same notes form the bridge in the "Hot Scotch Rag", written by H. A. Fischler in 1911.

An early recording used the seven-note tune at both the beginning and the ending of a humorous 1915 song, by Billy Murray and the American Quartet, called "On the 5:15".

The tune features in part of the instrumental accompaniment to the 1925 Buster Keaton film Battling Butler. The tune is repeated multiple times from 23 minutes and 22 seconds until 23 minutes and 55 seconds.

In his 1933 novel, Hizzoner the Mayor, Joel Sayre wrote of boats "tooting the official Malta welcome blast to the tempo of 'Shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits, shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits, shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits, which was soon taken up by every craft in the harbor that had a boiler.

In 1939, Dan Shapiro, Lestor Lee and Milton Berle released "Shave and a Haircut – Shampoo", which used the tune in the closing bars. In the same year, Rosalind Rosenthal and Herbert Halpert recorded "Shave and a Haircut, Bay Rum".{{cite news |access-date=May 21, 2019

Popularity

The tune can be heard on customized car horns, while the rhythm may be tapped as a door knock or as a Morse code "dah-dit-dit-dah-dit, dit dit" ( ) at the end of an amateur radio contact.

The former prisoner of war and U.S. Navy seaman Doug Hegdahl reports fellow U.S. captives in the Vietnam War would authenticate a new prisoner's U.S. identity by using "Shave and a Haircut" as a shibboleth, tapping the first five notes against a cell wall and waiting for the appropriate response. U.S. POWs were then able to communicate securely with one another via a tap code.

The tune has been used many times as a coda or ending in musical pieces. It is strongly associated with the stringed instruments of bluegrass music, particularly the 5-string banjo. Earl Scruggs often ended a song with this phrase or a variation of it. On the television show The Beverly Hillbillies, musical cues signifying the coming of a commercial break (cues which were in bluegrass style) frequently ended with "Shave and a Haircut". It is the second most popular bluegrass run, after the G run.

"Shave and a Haircut" was used in many early cartoons, particularly Looney Tunes cartoons and 1929 Mickey Mouse shorts. It was also used as an ending to many cartoon shows, just after the credits. Decades later, the couplet became a plot device in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit: the villain Judge Doom repeatedly taps out "Shave and a Haircut" to lure Roger out of hiding, knowing that, as a cartoon character, Roger would be unable to resist finishing the melody with "two bits".

The tune was also featured in early Nokia phones, like the 3310 model, as the "That's it!" ringtone.

Music journalist Nardwuar ends each interview with "doot doola doot doo ..." (to the tune of "Shave and a Haircut"), to which the interviewee is expected to reply "doot doo!".

Usage

The phrase has been incorporated into many recordings and performances. Notable examples include:

• "That's a Lot of Bunk", a 1920s novelty song composed by Al Wilson, James A. Brennan and Mack Henshaw, and performed by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, known as "The Happiness Boys", closes with the riff.
• The Crazy Gang sang "How's your father? Goodbye!" to the same tune at the end of their 1937 movie O-Kay for Sound.
• Les Paul and Mary Ford's Capitol recording of "Magic Melody" concluded with the phrase minus the last two notes ("two bits"). Responding to complaints from disc jockeys, Capitol in 1955 released "Magic Melody Part 2"—consisting solely of the missing notes—on a 45, said to be the shortest tune on record.
• P. D. Q. Bach ends his "Blaues Gras" ("bluegrass") aria with "Shave and a Haircut", sung in Denglisch (mangled German and English): "Rasieren und Haarschneiden, zwei bitte" ("Shave and haircut, two please", ungrammatical in either language). "Zwei bitte" is a Denglisch pun, sounding like "two bits" to a speaker of both languages. The melody is also used in The Short-Tempered Clavier.
• In a 1960s television comedy sketch called "The Time Window", Mike Wallace interviews Victor Borge who is portraying composer and pianist Franz Liszt. During the segment, Borge (Liszt) states that his very first composition were two notes; which he plays on the piano. He next demonstrates that without these two notes "we would never have had this", and he plays "Shave and a Haircut".
• In the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo after the final celebrations have ended, the mass pipes and drums march off to 'The Black Bear' and right at the end it has become a tradition to end the drum beat with the rhythmic 'Shave-and-a-Haircut, Two Bits'.

Uses in other countries

The tune is used in Catalan with a different lyric: "Nas de barraca ... Sant Boi" ("Shack nose ... Sant Boi"). It is also tapped, as a door knock. The Catalan lyrics may come from Blanes, where it was sung twice with Nas de barraca. Sant Boi. Cinc de carmelos pel noi (Shack nose. Sant Boi. Five candies for the boy).

Italy also has its own lyrics to the tune, intended as a joke: "Ammazza la vecchia... col Flit" (i.e. "Kill the old lady with Flit"); Flit was a 1960s brand of insecticide spray, and the joke implies that the 'old lady' is just as bothersome and annoying as insects.

In Irish barroom music, the tune is sometimes tagged at the end of a song. The performer sings the first part to the lyrics, "How is your aul' one?" (read: "old one", a slang term for mother), to which the audience replies, "Gameball!" (A slang term meaning ok).

References

References

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18. (27 November 2020). "Shave and a Haircut (Nokia "That's it!" ringtone) – Piano Quickie".
19. (25 September 2024). "Nardwuar on His Best and Most Uncomfortable Interviews".
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