Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
"Wa-Da-Da" is a scat song that was performed by Baby Esther Jones. In 1934, early soundtrack footage[1] of Esther Jones performing her unique "Wa-Da-Da" scat song in 1928 was used in court to prove the origin of Helen Kane's "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" technique. Including a backstory directly from Esther's ex-manager Lou Bolton who stated that he taught Esther Jones how to scat sing in the early 1920s and that Esther had interpolated a variety of scat sounds in her performances.
Trivia
- Can also be known as "Wha-Da-Da," "Wa-Da-Dah," and "Wah-Dah-Dah".
- Animated cartoon character Betty Boop uses this "scat singing" technique in A Language All My Own, The New Deal Show, and Betty Boop and Grampy.
- Margie Hines, the original voice of Betty Boop also used this technique in songs, in which she dubbed hot licks. Hines can be heard using these techniques in the "Van Beuren Studios" cartoon recordings, especially the 1932 animated cartoon A Cat-Fish Romance in which she starred as Countess Cat.
- To hear the cartoon character Betty Boop's interpretation of this scat singing technique check out the page "Betty Boop Using Alternative Scat Rhyhm".