Great googily moogily

[Wilson Gray]

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Great googily moogily
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>
>Michael Quinion:
>>A WWWords subscriber from Poland asks me about "great googily
>>moogily". Can somebody put both him and me out of our respective
>>miseries and tell us where it comes from?
>
>John Baker:
>>I would say it goes back to the song "Good Googa Mooga," which I believe
>>was by the Magic Tones in 1953.  It seems to be best-known for Frank
>>Zappa's use in "Nanook Rubs It," There's a discussion of the term at
>>http://www.1960sailors.net/05c1_googamooga.htm.
>
>As that website notes, "great googly moogly" appeared in Howlin' Wolf's
>"Goin' Down Slow" (1961).  It's in a spoken part by Willie Dixon:
>
>-----
>http://www.furious.com/perfect/wolf/lyrics1.html
>
>Now looky here.
>I did not say I was a millionare.
>But I said I have spent more money than a millionare.
>Cause if I had kept all of the money I had already spent,
>I'd woulda been a millionare a long time ago.
>And women? Well, great googly moogly.
>-----
>
>
>The "great googa mooga" variant also appeared in the Cadets' version of
>the Jayhawks' "Stranded in the Jungle" (1956) and in the Temptations'
>"Ball of Confusion" (1970).
>
>--Ben Zimmer


The "great googly moogly" version also occurs, I'm *almost* certain,
in a song by the Spaniels. I can't think of the title, offhand. I'll
have to check my collection. In any case, the Spaniels' use of this
version of the expression postdates its use by the Magic Tones and
and antedates the version spoken by Wilie Dixon, IIAC. The first
version that I heard is the one used by the Cadets. "I smelled
somethin' cookin' / An' I looked to see / That's when I found out /
They was cookin' me! / Great googa mooga! / Lemme outta here!"

-Wilson Gray