Boola Boola

"Boola Boola" is a fight song of Yale University.

Origins

The song in its present form was composed in 1900 and is generally attributed to Allan M. Hirsh, Yale Class of 1901, who in a 1930 letter claimed to have written it in collaboration with his classmates F. M. Van Wicklen, Albert Marckwald, and James L. Boyce in the fall of 1900.^[1] Though the claim was disputed by Marckwald (who was credited with the tune in the 1901 Class Book) and others, the weight of the evidence (including several articles in the Yale Alumni Weekly from 1900 and 1901) supports Hirsh's claim.

However, the song appears to be based on an earlier one, "La Hoola Boola" (1898), by Robert Allen "Bob" Cole and Billy Johnson, "extremely popular African American singer-songwriters of the time."^[1] When the first piano edition of "Yale Boola" appeared in 1901, it included a notice "Adapted by permission of Howley, Haviland & Dresser" (the successor publisher of "La Hoola Boola"), and Hirsh himself said in his 1930 letter: "The song was not altogether original with us, but was undoubtedly adapted from some other song but we were unable to definitively designate this song, although later on we did discover that there had been published a song, which at that time was out of print, called 'La Hula Boola,' and the air was quite similar but the time was different."

The song immediately caught on,^[2] soon being played by John Philip Sousa. It sold more sheet music in the first half of 1901 than any other song in the country,^[3] and became indelibly associated with Yale athletics.

Recordings and Adaptations

Arthur Pryor's Band made an early recording of "Boola Boola" in 1910.^[4]

As one of Yale's most traditional fight songs, "Boola Boola" is frequently performed by the Yale Whiffenpoofs^[5] and the Yale Glee Club.^[6]

The tune of "Boola Boola" is used in the University of Oklahoma's fight song, "Boomer Sooner."^[7]

A brass-band arrangement of the "Boola Boola" tune accompanies the sequence in Peter Yates' 1969 film John and Mary in which Mary (Mia Farrow) imagines herself sitting on a bench wrapped in a blanket, watching John (Dustin Hoffman) play tennis with James (Michael Tolan) on a New York City court in the winter, both wearing Yale jerseys. Then John and James briefly sing the song in the shower while throwing wet towels onto Mary.^[8]

Notes

1 2 Shapiro, "You can quote them."
↑ “A small band of students on the Yale side of the ring sang their college songs. “More work for the undertaker and no hope for Pennsy” was the theme of one refrain, while the stately measures of “Boola-boola” were pleasing to the auditors.” New York Times, February 3, 1901
↑ Hirsh, "The Secret Source of that Silly Tune."
↑ Arthur Pryor's Band - Yale Boola March, 1910, Yale University (Boola Boola), YouTube
↑ Yale 50th Reunion -1963 Whiffenpoofs sing 'Boola Boola', YouTube
↑ Yale Fight Songs Medley - Yale Glee Club 2009, YouTube
↑ Oklahoma's "Boomer Sooner," YouTube
↑ John and Mary (1969) Full Movie - Mia Farrow, Dustin Hoffman, YouTube

External links

Fred R. Shapiro, "You can quote them," Yale Alumni Magazine, September/October 2009.
Philip Hirsh, "The Secret Source of that Silly Tune," Yale Alumni Magazine, October 2000.
mp3 files of "La Hoola Boola" and "Boola Boola."

Yale Bulldogs football

Venues	Hamilton Park (1872–83) Yale Field (1884–1913) Yale Bowl (1914–present)

Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Brown Dartmouth Harvard (list) Penn Princeton

Culture & lore	1968 Harvard game (Harvard Beats Yale 29-29) 2004 Harvard–Yale prank Handsome Dan "Boola Boola" "Down the Field"

People	Head coaches NFL draftees

Seasons	1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

National championship seasons in bold

Fight songs of the Ivy League

"Ever True To Brown" (Brown) "Roar, Lion, Roar" (Columbia) "Give My Regards to Davy" (Cornell) "Dartmouth's in Town Again" (Dartmouth) "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard" (Harvard) "Fight on, Pennsylvania!" (Penn) "Princeton Cannon Song" (Princeton) "Boola Boola" (Yale)

See also Ivy League alma maters

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