I'm a Little Teapot

Last updated
"I'm a Little Teapot"
Teapot song sheet music cover.jpg
sheet music cover
Song by George Harry Sanders and Clarence Kelley
Released1939
Genre Children's music
Label Kelman Music Corporation
Songwriter(s) George Harry Sanders and Clarence Kelley

"I'm a Little Teapot" is an American novelty song describing the heating and pouring of a teapot or a whistling tea kettle. The song was originally written by George Harry Sanders and Clarence Z. Kelley and published in 1939. [1] By 1941, a Newsweek article referred to the song as "the next inane novelty song to sweep the country". [2]

Contents

Creation

Kelley and his wife ran a dance school for children, which taught the "Waltz Clog", a popular and easy-to-learn tap dance routine. This routine, however, proved too difficult for the younger students to master. To solve this problem, George Sanders wrote The Teapot Song, which required minimal skill and encouraged natural pantomime. Both the song and its accompanying dance, the "Teapot Tip", became enormously popular in America and overseas. [3]

The song was recorded and made famous by Art Kassel and His Kassels in the Air orchestra with featured vocalist Marion Holmes singing the tune. It was published in 1941 by Bluebird Records. [4] (Marion Holmes soon after married Broadway, film, and TV star Don DeFore.)

The lyrics begin "I'm a little teapot, short and stout..." and go on to further describe the appearance and actions of the singer-as-teapot. [5] The song may be accompanied with actions: extending one arm in a curve like the spout, placing the other arm like the handle, and bending sideways to pour.

A piano recording of "I'm a Little Teapot", in which the vocals are played by the higher melody

Recordings

"I'm a Little Teapot" has been recorded by a number of artists, particularly on children's albums. [6] It's been released as a single by various artists besides Kassel, including Horace Heidt (1941), [7] Lawrence Duchow's Red Raven Orchestra (1956), [8] and Two Ton Baker (1947). [9] It's included on Leonard Bernstein's 1973 album Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf plus 10 More Great Children's Favorites. [10]

The song is played extensively in the 1999 horror film miniseries Storm of the Century. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Carney</span> American actor and comedian (1918–2003)

Arthur William Matthew Carney was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom The Honeymooners (1955–1956).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teapot</span> Vessel for preparing and serving tea

A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea bags or as loose tea, in which case a tea infuser or tea strainer may be of some assistance, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured. Teapots usually have an opening with a lid at their top, where the dry tea and hot water are added, a handle for holding by hand and a spout through which the tea is served. Some teapots have a strainer built-in on the inner edge of the spout. A small air hole in the lid is often created to stop the spout from dripping and splashing when tea is poured. In modern times, a thermally insulating cover called a tea cosy may be used to enhance the steeping process or to prevent the contents of the teapot from cooling too rapidly.

<i>Peter and the Wolf</i> 1936 composition by Sergei Prokofiev

Peter and the Wolf Op. 67 a "symphonic tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's story, which the orchestra illustrates by using different instruments to play a "theme" that represents each character in the story.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Miller Orchestra</span> American swing dance band

Glenn Miller and His Orchestra were an American swing dance band formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and commercially successful dance orchestra of the swing era and one of the greatest singles charting acts of the 20th century. As of 2024, Ray Anthony is the last surviving member of the orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Boy Williamson I</span> American blues musician

John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of recordings by many pre–World War II blues artists. Under his own name, he was one of the most recorded blues musicians of the 1930s and 1940s and is closely associated with Chicago producer Lester Melrose and Bluebird Records. His popular songs, original or adapted, include "Good Morning, School Girl", "Sugar Mama", "Early in the Morning", and "Stop Breaking Down".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Berry</span> American actor (1933–2018)

Kenneth Ronald Berry was an American actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop (1965–1967), Mayberry R.F.D. (1968–1971) and Mama's Family (1983–1990). He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.

"Blues in the Night" is a popular blues song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night. The song is sung in the film by William Gillespie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennie Benjamin</span> Musical artist

Claude August "Bennie" Benjamin was a Virgin Islands-born American songwriter. He had particularly successful songwriting partnerships with Sol Marcus, with whom he wrote "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire", "When the Lights Go On Again ", and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"; and with George David Weiss, with whom he wrote "Oh! What It Seemed to Be" and "Wheel of Fortune". Most of his songs were in the traditional pop idiom.

Al Hoffman was an American song composer. He was a hit songwriter active in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, usually co-writing with others and responsible for number-one hits through each decade, many of which are still sung and recorded today. He was posthumously made a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. The popularity of Hoffman's song, "Mairzy Doats", co-written with Jerry Livingston and Milton Drake, was such that newspapers and magazines wrote about the craze. Time magazine titled one article "Our Mairzy Dotage". The New York Times simply wrote the headline, "That Song".

"Deep in the Heart of Texas" is an American popular song about Texas.

Moe Jaffe was a songwriter and bandleader who composed more than 250 songs. He is best known for six: "Collegiate", "The Gypsy in My Soul", "If I Had My Life to Live Over", "If You Are But a Dream", "Bell Bottom Trousers", and "I'm My Own Grandpa".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goin' Down Slow</span> Blues standard written by St. Louis Jimmy Oden

"Goin' Down Slow" or "Going Down Slow" is a blues song composed by American blues singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden. It is considered a blues standard and "one of the most famous blues of all".

Wee Sing is a songbook series published by Price Stern Sloan. It would also inspire a series of children's CDs, cassettes, coloring books, toys, videos, and apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Terran</span> American trumpet player

Anthony Terran was an American trumpet player and session musician. He was part of the Wrecking Crew, a group of largely uncredited session musicians in Los Angeles, California, who helped famous artists record hit records in the 1960s.

<i>Disney Childrens Favorite Songs 4</i> 1990 compilation album by Larry Groce and the Disneyland Childrens Sing-Along Chorus

Disney's Children's Favorites Volume 4 is the fourth and final entry of the Disney's Children's Favorites series. The album contains 27 classic children's songs.

<i>David Bowie Narrates Prokofievs Peter and the Wolf</i> 1978 studio album by the Philadelphia Orchestra with David Bowie

David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is a classical music album originally released by RCA Red Seal Records on 2 May 1978. Produced by Jay David Saks, the first side contains a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (1936) by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with narration by the English musician David Bowie, who contributed to the project for his young son. The second side contains a music-only recording of Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945), also performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and conducted by Ormandy.

"The Hut-Sut Song " is a novelty song from the 1940s with nonsense lyrics. The song was written in 1941 by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael and Jack Owens. The first and most popular recording was by Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights. A 1941 Time magazine entry suggests the song was probably a creative adaptation of an unpublished Missouri River song called "Hot Shot Dawson".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moonlight Cocktail</span> 1941 song by Glenn Miller

"Moonlight Cocktail" is a 1941 big band song recorded by Glenn Miller during World War II. The music was composed by Luckey Roberts and the lyrics by Kim Gannon.

Johnny Standley was an American musician, actor, and comedian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Samuels</span>

Milton Samuels was an American pianist, composer, and music publisher.

References

  1. Sanders, Ronald (January 1972). Reflections on a Teapot, the Personal History of a Time. Harper & Row, New York. ISBN   978-0-06-013754-0.
  2. Newsweek (1941), Vol. 18, p. 10.
  3. Clark, Garth (October 2001). The Artful Teapot. Watson-Guptill. ISBN   0-8230-0319-1.
  4. view Bluebird Record label
  5. "George Harry Sanders - the Teapot Song (I'm a Little Teapot) lyrics".
  6. "Exploring i'm a little teapot". Discogs. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  7. "Horace Heidt And His Musical Knights - 78 RPM - Discography". 45 Worlds. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  8. " I'm A Little Teapot / Hey, Diddle Diddle " at Discogs
  9. " I Wuv A Wabbit / I'm A Little Teapot " at Discogs
  10. Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf plus 10 More Great Children's Favorites at Discogs
  11. "Storm of the Century (TV Mini Series 1999)". IMDb. 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-13.