Zigged, should have zagged (1949)

[George Thompson]

In the late 1940s Dizzy Gillespie made a recording with a comic vocal about a hopeless square.  Among this square's other shortcomings was that once he "beeped when he should have bopped".  I will check out my Dizzy CDs tonight and get a title and date, but it is most likely a year or two before 1949 and seems to me to play upon an existing expression "he zigged, when he should have zagged".

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bapopik at AOL.COM
Date: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:55 am
Subject: Rode hard, put away wet (1958); Zigged, should have zagged (1949)

> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------
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> ZIGGED, SHOULD HAVE ZAGGED
>
> SHOULD HAVE ZAGGED--964 Google hits, 1,010 Google Groups hits
>
>   Story of my life.
>
>
> (WWW.NEWSPAPERARCHIVE.COM)
> Portland Press Herald - 5/30/1948
> ...County Farm Day Zigged, He SHOULD HAVE ZAGGED THE DAY Around
> Day Farm With
> A Camera.....soon ---or too late. KUCSS I ziRged when 1 .SHOULD
> HAVE the
> mode.st vctrrah said, with n.....distributors of dairy products
> tnall lines, HAVE
> Joined, whole hearf.Pd.ly a program to.....surgeons and nurses
> combined to
> dec.ccc he SHOULD live. While bin body mended, the..
> Portland, Maine Sunday, May 30, 1948  728 k
>
> Harlan News Advertiser - 3/19/1957
> ...attendent; V-i IZiggedWhen I SHOULD HAVE ZAGGED In the summer
> and fall of
> 1957, lots.....of poultry reisers who don't HAVE new laying
> pulfets will feel
> 'this way.....with -new pullets; To buy early chicks. We HAVE What
> You Need:
> IDEAL CHICKS Topcross..
> Harlan, Iowa Tuesday, March 19, 1957  824 k
>
> Chronicle Telegram - 1/4/1968
> ...Maybe You Zigged When You SHOULD HAVE ZAGGED? So-o-oLots Of
> ChristmasBills to Pay.....HAVE won seven of nine season starts and
> SHOULD HAVE no problem
> making Findlay its.....Saturday nights. The two coming opponents
> HAVE a
> composite record of 13-2 for the year.....field a squad with ample
> height which
> SHOULD battle the Pioneers for those rebounds..
> Elyria, Ohio Thursday, January 04, 1968  1013 k
>