Here Come the "Scat" Singers

A new lunacy is on the air. It is called "scat singing." Radio listeners of average sound mind and understanding who have heard it declare "that it is worse than crooning, worse than 'torch' singing, worse than anything in the way of singingand so-called singing that has ever come out of a loudspeaker. 

Scat singing at its best is jungle stuff; at its worst it is a lunatic gibbering. Scat singers use a jumble of meaningless syllables instead of words, such as "Hi-De-De-Hi-Do-He-Hi-Dum-Dum-Dum," "Hye-Dehya-De-Ho," "Yum-Tiddy-Um-Tiddy-Di-De-Do," "Scat-N-De-Dat-N-De," and so on. Anything the singer happens to think of when having the frenzy before the mike.

Tanguay lifted a bit of it in her "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay," Blanche Ring did the same with her "Yip-Addy-I-Ay" and "Beddle-Um-Bum-Bum-Boo," and more recently Helen Kane with her "Boop-Boop-Boopy-Boomp," or whatever it was.