Many Hatty Returns » Hat Songs

Johnny (or Johnnie) Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet

hatrevivalist — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:46:03 +0000

A Love Story featuring two hats

Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet is a Walt Disney Cartoon about two hats that fall in love in the window of a department store. It’s all set in the 1890s or early twentieth century. They dream of a hat box made for two and promise lifelong love.

Disaster strikes when Alice is bought for $23.94 (quite a lot of money circa 1900).

Johnnie becomes “gay” once more when he is bought (price unknown). When he is out he looks for Alice far and wide and briefly encounters her singing their song.

One day Johnnie is lost by his owner and gets into some seedy adventures. At one point he is picked up by a shady character and worn during a brawl in a bar. At this point he is desperately seeking Alice and goes back to the old department store haunt. Then ……………….

hey, nonny, nonny, a nice man found Johnnie
And he cut him to fit on his horse’s ears
‘Twas done without malice
For beside him was Alice
And they lived on for years and years

The moral of the story:

You Johnnie Fedoras, you Alice Bluebonnets
Whenever you find yourself blue
You’ll find it’s June in December
If you just remember that true love will come smiling through

Hats on horses were popular at one time here is a picture of one (you can buy reproductions of it on my Cafe Press store)

There are a number of bootleg posts of this cartoon on You Tube (apparently without sanction from Disney). You can get your own copy of the cartoon in the Make Mine Music 1946 movie and reissued in 1954 (it’s on DVD and a great item for kids today although a bit dated perhaps?). There were some very cute cartoons in this compilation.

The song was written by Ray Gilbert and Allie Wribel (copyright MCA). You can find the lyrics here.

The song was sung by the Andrews sisters in the Cartoon, they were very popular then. You can download the song from iTunes as well as a couple of other versions.

Top ten songs about hats

hatrevivalist — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:09:09 +0000

Here are my nominees for the top ten songs about hats. Please let me know if you have a favorite that is not on this list or you have a particular liking for a song. The songs are not presented in any particular order of preference but you might like to weigh in on an order of preference.

Check out the songs on iTunes.

Where did you get that hat?

by Several Artists

Top hat white tie and tails

by Fred Astaire (originally) and others

You can keep your hat on

by Joe Cocker (and others)

Mexican Hat Dance

by Several Artists

Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat

by Bob Dylan (principally)

Without a hat

by the Fraggle Rock people

The bird on Nellie’s Hat

by Maidie Scott and others

I have a bonnet trimmed with blue

by Kathleen Ferrier (and others like Hattie Jaques)

Any Place I hang my hat is home

by Sammy Davis Junior and others

All Around My Hat

by Steelye Span

Top Ten List added at the following link.

The Easter Parade

hatrevivalist — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:18:23 +0000

It is Easter and time for Easter Parades with Glorious Hats.

Here is a video of the Easter Parade with crazy hats in New York 2008.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ySVAIzIuMw

The 2009 Easter Parade in New York City will be this Sunday April 12, 2009.

There was a great movie starring Fred Astaire called Easter Parade here is the trailer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-NpGRrAbq0

Check out the great hats in the movie. Oh also check out the smoothie Peter Lawford.

OH if you want to get into the mood for Spring check out the hats for Spring 1949 (sixty years ago) from the blog Couture Allure Vintage Fashion.

If you want to see some more Easter Parade material please go to the British Pathe site and search for Easter Parade. You will find a wealth of old newsreel clips that can be viewed in low resolution. When I was a kid in England I saw a lot of British Pathe newreels. We used to call it “Pathetic News”but we did not appreciate the role it played especially during the Second World War at bring news to the masses. This was before TV and the Internet.

Perhaps you will be having an Easter Parade in your town or city and can share pictures with the readers of this blog? Please contact me. I used to love the Easter Parade in the Town of Luton England where I grew up. This was and still is a place where hats are made. My Mother worked as a machinist in the industry and I visited the little cottage type factories where she worked quite often.

Happy Easter everyone!

Get Happy!

hatrevivalist — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:06:43 +0000

Forget your troubles come on get happy -- or is that Get Hatty!

The wonderful Judy Garland appeared in a 1950 movie called “Summer Stock“. This sequence featured Judy Garland in an iconic performance. She wore a fedora and a Jacket and left her pants at home! If you got the legs show them off. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, also did a great number that was sort of similar -- Mein Herr from “Cabaret” - all hat and minimal clothing!

Judy appeared with the incomparable Gene Kelly in the movie. It was to be her last musical at the studio.

Here it is forget your troubles come on get happy. “Get Happy” (by) Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler.

Other artists who performed this number were Doris Day and Ella Fitzgerald.

Forget your troubles c’mon get happy
Ya better chase all your cares away
shout Hallelujah, c’mon get happy
Get ready for the judgment day

Do we ever need this uplifting after 2008 -- the year from hell -- unless of course your name is Barack Obama. May your dreams come true in 2009. Good luck to Barack by the way we wish him the best.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw

Here is the URL for RSS readers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw&eurl=&feature=player_embedded

Hat Songs: You can leave your hat on

hatrevivalist — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:31:23 +0000

You can leave your hat on is the perfect Stripper Song by Joe Cocker and it is a lot of fun. Buy the song and do a private dance for your honey, male or female, gay or straight or whatever. A real spice up for the holiday season.

Information about Joe Cocker can be found on his site.

The lyrics of the song include the chorus “You can leave your hat on” a lot of times. The implication is that you should take everything else off.

Deleted You Tube Video removed from You Tube

Where did you get that hat? Er “tile”

hatrevivalist — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:32:49 +0000

You have heard this song. Did you know that it was written in the latter half of the 19th Century and rewritten in 1901?

Here is the chorus:

Where did you get that hat,Where did you get that tile,
And isn’t it a nobby one,
And what a proper style.
I should like to have one
Just the same as that;
Where’er I go they shout, Hulloa,Where did you get that hat?

Translations:
Tile = Hat and in particular a tall silk hat
Nobby = Stylish

Yes they spoke funny then but I suppose they would think we speak funny too. Don’t forget that “gay” was happy and in a party mood then (as in Gay Paris) now it’s completely different. (Well perhaps not that different).

Although the words are taken to refer to a gentleman’s hat one can take it as referring to any hat without gender.

There is more information about the song (including a copy of an old broadsheet of the words) on the National Library of Scotland site.
http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15063/transcript/1

There looks to be a great deal of historical information for history buffs like me on that site.

Re-posted from Hat Nostalgia as per transition plan.