Dance of the Hours

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Dance of the Hours is a ballet from the opera La Gioconda composed by Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886).

The ballet was used in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia, albeit with ballet-dancing hippos, ostriches, alligators and elephants, complete with tutus. The piece was expanded slightly; The "ostrich" music was repeated with altered scoring for the "hippo" section.

The piece may best be recognized from one segment of it that formed the basis for the hit song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" and its sequel "Return to Camp Granada" by Allan Sherman. That same segment has also been used in television advertisements (Velveeta, et al.) as recently as 2005. It is also the source of the tune for the song "Like I Do", a hit for Maureen Evans in 1962.

The rendition by Spike Jones and His City Slickers included several segments of the melody, although presented out of order to suit the presentation of the record, a parody of the Indianapolis 500 that was effectively a sequel to their William Tell Overture. The portion recognizable as the basis for "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" is executed by banging pipes and honking bicycle horns, with each individual "clang" or "honk" producing the proper pitch of the note.

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created a new rendition of Dance of the Hours for his ballet company, Morphoses [1]. The work was featured in the company's New York debut, on October 17, 2007.

The music also appeared in an episode of Garfield and Friends entitled The Garfield Opera, in which Garfield and the others sing to the music's tune.

Yet again, Wakko from Animaniacs belches Dance of the Hours.