I shall go and find out what that means."Īnd the general of the division, commander-in-chief of the cavalry of the guard, trots- badaboom! badaboom! badaboom!-until he has found the general of brigade, chief of the general staff. "H-s fire marshal! I had not remarked it. "Sacrebleu! General, explain to me what that blackguard of a lancer is doing oin the middle of the empress' dragoons.
With the result that while Daudet, the composer L'épine, and Morny himself, wearing the skull-cap and the long dressing gown in which he aped Cardinal Richelieu, were all three of them jumping about on stools and singing: ' Zim boum, zim badaboum' at the top of their voices, the Ministers of the Interior and Police sat twiddling their thumbs outside.įrom " A Decoration Won" The Elocutionist's Journal, (autumn 1877): waiting in the anteroom, were completely forgotten. From an excerpt from The Goncourt Journal dated 1873, translated and quoted in Paris and the Arts, 1851–1896: From the Goncourt Diaries (1971) :Īnd there they were, Daudet, Lépine the musician, and Morny himself in the skull cap and big dressing gown in which he liked to play the Cardinal-Minister, jumping on footstools and beating out loud sounds of " zim boom, zim badaboom" while the Ministers of the Interior and of the Police chewed their nails!Ī different translation, from 1962, by Robert Baldick, appears in Edmond & Jules de Goncourt, Pages from the Goncourt (1971) concurs on the "zim boom, zim badaboom" wording, and dates the incident to early (before March 18) 1873 : "Bada boom" likewise has a track record in French as an imitative sound, in this case going back to at least the 1870s. In English language version of the song, Becaud uses the phrase "bada bing bang bong" to indicate the sudden appearance of things seemingly out of nowhere. This is an excellent record with quite a new sound, and amongst his best tracks are Don't look back Bada Bing Bang Bong, My little light and The show is over for tonight. Another instance from France pops up in The Gramophone (1969), in a song title by Gilbert Becaud :īecaud's talent doesn't stand still, and his latest album "GB-Gilbert Becaud" (Decca SKLR4997 | LKR4997) he offers his latest image, singing in the most up-to-date French style, but in English.
BIM BADA BOOM SERIES
It is at least possible that the young artist Johns really did voice a series of sounds that resembled "bing bada bing" as he danced, and that he was a native English speaker.Īlthough it isn't a clearcut instance of English language usage, the example does link "bada bing" to France in 1927. Obviously, this is a French occurrence, not an English one, but I think it is nevertheless noteworthy in two ways: (1) it is significantly older than the 1965 instance attributed to Pat Cooper, and (2) there is no evident Italian-American influence on the usage.
This odd instance appears to be a French writer's rendering (in French) of a nonsense syllabification by a young artist with an English last name who has studied the dance moves of "les nègres de Broadway" and is demonstrating them to Maurice Chevalier. This professor is conscientious he calls to the aid of his demonstration this language of durations, whose approximate noise is reduced: Bing, bada, bing. It seems, at times, that he mows with his feet at other times he skims the ground and seems ready to fly away. An artist, Johns, a young boy who has seen and listened to the Negroes on Broadway and whose eye locks in the steps to reproduce them with his legs, dances in front of him. In the hall of the Palace, Maurice studies English dances. This passage translates roughly (that is, by way of Google Translate) into the following English: Ce professeur est consciencieux il appelle au secours de sa démonstration ce langage des durées, dont le bruit approximatif se réduit : Bing, bada, bing.
On dirait, à certains moments, qu'il fauche avec ses pieds à d'autres instants, il rase le sol et semble prêt à s'envoler. Un artiste, Johns, un jeune garçon qui a vu et écouté les nègres de Broadway et dont l'œil enferme les pas pour les faire reproduire par les jambes, danse devant lui. Dans le hall du Palace, Maurice étudie des danses anglaises. "bada bing" from André Rivillet, Maurice Chevalier: De Ménilmontant au Casino de Paris (1927): Of possible interest to the question of phrase origin is this French instance of
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