Mah Nà Mah Nà

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a well-known pop music song, written by Piero Umiliani. It originally appeared in the film Sweden: Heaven and Hell, but its most famous version was on the first episode of The Muppet Show.

Contents

[edit] Debut version

"Mah Nà Mah Nà" debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian softcore pornography movie Svezia, inferno e paradiso (Sweden: Heaven and Hell) (1968), a pseudo-documentary film about wild sexual activity and other behavior in Sweden ("Mah Nà Mah Nà" accompanied a scene set in a sauna). A soundtrack album, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso" was released in 1968. The movie was also released under the English title Sweden Heaven and Hell.

It was a hit in many countries in 1968–1969. In the U.S. it peaked at #55 in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #44 on the Cash Box magazine chart in October 1969. The song's lyrics contain no actual words, only nonsense words resembling scat singing. The original version interpolates melodies from "Swedish Rhapsody" (Midsummer Vigil) by Hugo Alfvén, "Santa Lucia", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland", and others.

[edit] Other early versions

In 1969, Henri Salvador recorded a variation titled "Mais Non, Mais Non" ("But No, But No" or "Of Course Not, Of Course Not"), with lyrics he had written in French to Umiliani's tune.

The song became familiar to many from its renditions by the Muppets on television. On November 30, 1969, "Mahna Mahna" was performed on the The Ed Sullivan Show by a Muppet also known as Mahna Mahna, and the Snowths. Also in 1969, "Mahna Mahna" was performed on Sesame Street by a character that was later known as Bip Bipadotta, along with two Anything Muppet girls.

During its 1969-70 season, "The Red Skelton Show" used the Umiliani recording as background music for a recurring blackout sketch. The otherwise silent bits featured Red and another performer, dressed as Moon creatures, playing with equipment left behind by the Project Apollo astronauts.

In 1973, a rendition of "Mah Nà Mah Nà" on the Moog synthesizer was released on the album More Hot Butter (Musicor MS 3254) by Hot Butter, best known for the pop tune "Popcorn". It was re-released on CD in 2000.

[edit] Versions by the Muppets

In 1976, the first episode of The Muppet Show to be recorded (featuring Juliet Prowse), used "Mahna Mahna" as the first sketch. It was performed by the Muppets "Mahna Mahna and the Snowths". As a result, the original Piero Umiliani recording finally became a hit in the UK, where the Muppet Show soundtrack album featuring the Muppets' version went to number one. [1]

The Muppets' comeback series Muppets Tonight (1996-1998) revisited it as a parody using the word phenomenon in place of the title. Kermit the Frog and actress Sandra Bullock appeared in place of "Mahna Mahna" to provide the lyric phenomena. The Muppets filmed a new version of the song in 2005, for a New Zealand charity called CanTeen. In the ad, an updated version of the Mahna Mahna puppet was performed by Bill Barretta, and the lyrics were changed to "Bandanana", supporting CanTeen's "Bandanna Week".

[edit] Versions by others

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Giorgio Moroder covered the song in 1968. Irma Records began compiling it in the late 1990s.
  • Former Pizzicato Five member K-Taro Takanami covered it as Sweden, Heaven, and Hell, which was compiled in 1996 on Bungalow Records' Sushi 3003 series covering Shibuya-kei.
  • The song was sung in Arabic by Samir Ghanem (Egyptian Comedian) saying "ana 3ayez anam" ("I want to sleep"). (1990s)
  • A cover was performed in 1996 by the hard rock band Skin.
  • A cover of the song was performed by Cake and titled "Mahna Mahna". It was the opening track of the 2002 album For The Kids, a CD whose sales proceeds went to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. The cover also appears on Cake's 2007 album B-Sides and Rarities.
  • A parody by Mr. Devious was released during the Pittsburgh Steelers' NFL playoff run and eventual Super Bowl XL victory. Titled "Puhlamalu" (a reference to Steelers safety Troy Polamalu), it featured the singer mumbling the names of many Steelers.
  • The bonus track at the end of The Smugglers' Rosie includes a version with the chorus changed to "penis", pronounced with a lisp. The "announcer" then proclaims it a "terribly evil song". The song begins at 18:24 of the bonus track.
  • The song was used by the Brazilian Pop Band Pato Fu in their song "Made in Japan". The song is almost entirely in Japanese. It was written in Portuguese and translated by a Japanese teacher. Its video clip is a tribute to old Japanese Sci-Fi movies and a satire against Americanization which won a VMB. The song uses Manah Manah, except that it replaces it for the words in English "Made in Japan".
  • Another shortened version, titled "Muh Nuh, Muh Nuh," was recorded by members of the cast of Space Ghost Coast to Coast on a CD based on the show called "Space Ghost's Musical Barbecue" Released in September of 1997.

[edit] Sampling

  • It formed the basis for a 1997 UK hit single, "No Way No Way" by Vanilla.
  • Pato Fu, a Brazilian pop group used the melody of "Mah Na Mah Na" as a basis for their song "Made in Japan", the chorus uses a vocoded voice singing "Made in Japan" instead of "Mah Na Mah Na".
  • That Handsome Devil, a Boston-based punk/alt band, samples "Mah Na Mah Na" in their song "Hey White Boy."
  • The Demigodz, an alternative rap/hip-hop supergroup, sampled "Mah Na Mah Na" in their song "The Demigodz" on the Godz Must Be Crazy EP

[edit] Other Media

  • The song is used as the background music for one of the weekly segments on The First Team on Fox radio show. It is used for the Thursday morning segment, "This Might Be a Dumb Question".
  • Oxhorn made a parody of the Muppets version of this song, called "ROFLMAO."[2]
  • The song was used many times in the 1970s and early 1980s in The Benny Hill Show. It usually formed part of an instrumental medley, which also contained the 1970s UK hit Gimme Dat Ding, a jazzed-up 4/4 arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise, and Yakety Sax.
  • The original Piero Umiliani recording was regularly featured on the J.P. Patches children's television show on KIRO-TV channel 7 in Seattle between 1970 and 1981. When this program ended it was the longest running locally produced children's television show in the United States (1958-1981.)
  • In 2004 a children's music radio show on WEFT 90.1fm (a community radio station in Champaign, Illinois) called "Mah Na Mah Na" began. The show features the song as its theme song.
  • In 2004, the German film Sommersturm used a version of this song when the QueerSchlag Team plays a prank on Georg.
  • The song was sung by Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook), David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and Ben (Ben Bradshaw) in the first episode of the second series of BBC's The Office.
  • The song was used for a 2005 ad introducing the Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper soft drink, with the Jim Henson's original recording from The Muppet Show.
  • The song was sung by Jennifer Finnigan in the pilot of the short-lived NBC sitcom Committed in 2005. Later episodes revealed that it was also the ringtone on her cell phone.
  • In the winter of 2006-2007, a version in which the phrase "you never know" replaced the title lyrics was used as background music for Big Lots TV advertisements.
  • Also in the winter of 2006-2007, a straightforward version of this tune was used in Saturn automobile commercials.
  • For a period of time in Australian TV a sunscreen company called Banana Boat used the music and substituted the words "Mahna Mahna" into "Banana Boat" and substituted its do-do-do-do-doos with the sunscreen's attribute, such as being having an SPF of 30+ and lasting for several hours.
  • Currently being used in a Saturn "Aura" commercial.
  • In the May 7, 2007 episode of As the World Turns, the song plays in the background while characters Brad Snyder and Katie Kasnoff clean up a woman's house during an on-location shoot in Brookfield, Illinois.
  • In the spring of 2007, BOB 95.1 FM radio started advertising commercials with muppet-like puppets, singing "turn your knob to BOB" as replacement for "mahna mahna"
  • In the Spring of 2007, the song was used as the background music of a commercial for Menard's home improvement stores.
  • Jam had a bizarre sketch which featured two elfin figures prancing around and lipsynching to the song, before proceeding to play a bass clarinet using a corpse. [3]
  • The DVD release of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company contains a brief reference to the song when two sock puppets are acting out The Murder of Gonzago.
  • A slightly differentiated version was made for a TV commercial for a snack called BN,with the lyrics replaced by "BN BN".
  • Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru uses the song in a television ad campaign, substituting the word "phenomenal" for the title lyric. [4]

[edit] External links