Oh By Jingo!

See also: By Jingo.

"Oh By Jingo!" is a 1919 novelty song by Albert Von Tilzer with lyrics by Lew Brown. The song was featured in the Broadway show "Linger Longer Letty", and became one of the biggest Tin Pan Alley hits of the post-World War I era.

While the song lyrics say it is set in "the land of San Domingo", no geographic nor anthropological accuracy is found nor intended in the silly lyrics, set in a generic "exotic" and "primitive" location. The song was much imitated over the next decade.

In the era of its initial popularity, phonograph records of the number were recorded by such popular artists of the era as The All Star Trio, The American Quartet, Nora Bayes, Frank Crumit, Billy Murray, The Premier Quartette, Esther Walker, and Margaret Young.

Later recorded revivals of the number include those by Chet Atkins, Bo Grumpus, Eddie Condon, Stéphane Grappelli, Clancy Hayes, Keith Ingham, Spike Jones, Danny Kaye, Jeannie Carson, Lu Watters, and The Reverend Horton Heat.

It is performed by Betty Hutton in the film Incendiary Blonde. It is sung in the I Love Lucy TV show episode #102, "Mertz and Kurtz", and by Hugh Laurie in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster.

Contents

Lyrics

Verse

In the land of San Domingo
Lived a girl called Oh By Jingo
(Ta da, ya da da da da da, um-pa, umpa um-pa um-pa)
From the fields and from the marshes
Came the young and oh by goshes
(Ta da, ya da da da da da, um-pa, umpa um-pa um-pa)
They all spoke with a different lingo
But they all loved Oh By Jingo
and every night, they sang in the pale moonlight

Chorus

Oh by gee by gosh by gum by jove
Oh By Jingo won't you hear our love
We will build for you a hut
You will be our favourite nut
We will have a lot of little Oh By Gollies
And we'll put them in the follies
By Jingo said "By gosh by gee
By Jiminy, please don't bother me"
So they all went away singing
Oh by gee by gosh by gum by jove By Jingo
By gee, you're the only girl for me.

Reference