Does this song still turn up on children’s albums? When I was a kid, back in the Pleistocene, you heard it frequently because its sarcastic lyrics encourage little ones to go to school, exhibit good manners and not be a sneak. As an adult, I identify more with the last verse, especially when I read the news: “All the monkeys aren’t in the zoo, every day you meet quite a few.”
The tune actually grew out of remark Bing Crosby made one night when composer Jimmy Van Heusen came to Crosby’s house for dinner to discuss material for their upcoming film, “Going My Way.” When one of the Crosby kids whined that he didn’t want to go to school the next day, Crosby told him, “If you don’t go to school, you may grow up to be a mule.” Van Heusen thought it would make a great line for a scene in the movie in which Crosby, playing a priest, admonishes a group of unruly children. Lyricist Johnny Burke did the rest, and the song won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1944 and spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the charts that summer.
Fun trivia: The backing vocals are by the Williams Brothers, a singing group signed to MGM. The youngest of the quartet, better known for his solo career, was Andy Williams of “Moon River” fame.
