I’ve been checking some of Tadd Dameron’s compositions. The definitive biography Dameronia lists “Cream Oil Charlie” as one of them, composed by Tadd in 1946.
If you’re old enough to have been around in the 1950s or 1960s, you’ll remember the “Wildroot Cream-Oil” jingle. Here it is, as sung by Nat Cole:
So Dameron wrote this? Really? That was quite a surprise to me. TV viewers in the 1950s and 1960s were bombarded with this jingle. Reading this attribution reminded of when I learned that “Down by the Station (Early in the Morning)” was composed and copyrighted by Slim Gaillard.
But upon reading more carefully, it turns out that Tadd did not write the famous jingle. The piece that Tadd copyrighted as “Cream Oil Charlie” was a bebop melody played over "Perdido" changes. He wrote it for Woody Herman in 1946, when Wildroot Cream-Oil was a sponsor of Woody’s radio show. Tadd’s tune was never actually used, because Woody changed sponsors. It was later recorded by Babs Gonzales in 1947, with the title “Dob Bla Bli.” Here are two versions - the Babs recording, and a recent one from Paul Combs, the author of Dameronia:
Bars 3-4 of "Do Bla Bli" include the same bop lick as bars 7-8 of Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody'n You." The Dizzy tune was written in 1942; it was either a tribute to Woody Herman, or was commissioned by Woody. Tadd and Dizzy were good friends; it’s probably not a coincidence that Tadd wrote that quote into the song. BTW, a similar lick shows up in Dizzy’s “Groovin’ High.”
According to Combs' book, there are copyright deposits at the Library of Congress for both "Cream Oil Charlie" and "Do Bla Bli"; they apparently differ in the bridge. Gonzales' recording does not use either of the copyrighted bridges, but rather leaves the “I Got Rhythm” bridge open for improvisation (as in some other bop tunes.)
On the level of extreme trivia, I noticed that the label on the Gonzales record spells the first syllable "Dob," while Combs in his book spells it "Do." I'm guessing that Combs spells it that way because that's how it appears in the copyright.
I don’t know who actually could take credit for the famous Wildroot jingle (if "credit" is the right word), but that melody didn’t take much work. It’s the same melody as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” which is also the melody of The Eyes of Texas are Upon You.
The Wikipedia entry for I’ve Been Working on the Railroad has some notes about the origins of the song. It can be traced back to at least 1894. The main melody resembles a melody in Franz Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant Overture” (1846). The part that goes, “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah” is also very close melodically to “Goodnight Ladies” (1847).
As for Slim Gaillard's Down by the Station, the melody is pretty much the same as “Alouette,” as well as “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” According to both Wikipedia and this writeup, the lyrics appeared in a children's magazine in 1931. Slim did, however, register the copyright. Here’s Slim’s 1947 recording. It's cute. I guess the intro is original; not sure if that part was in the copyright.
