Ging Gang Goolie

"Ging Gang Gooli(-e)" or "Ging Gang Goo" (below “Ging Gang”) is a gibberish Scouting song, widely spread around the world. It is popular among Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.

Origin

In 1920, for the first World Scout Jamboree, Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting) decided that a nonsense song was needed, one that everyone would have just as difficult of a time learning. He borrowed the tune from Mozart’s Symphony No.1 in Eb major and penned the words to the song which became an instant hit among the Scouts and Scouters.^[1] In 1991, Dorothy Unterschutz, a Canadian Scout Leader from Edmonton published a story about the song entitled The Great Grey Ghost Elephant which was published in Scouts Canada's "The Leader" magazine in 1991 (June–July issue, Page 7) which is a public domain^[2] dramatization^[3] of the song.

Recordings

“Ging Gang” in various forms (and its close cousins) has been recorded by a number of artists and become hits during nearly a century in various parts of the world, many in the UK. Several are available on the internet. The very first recording was made in New York, USA: “Kinkan” (1926) with two Swedish-American men´s choirs, Lyran and Svenska Gleeklubben. Other examples are “Nick-O-Deemo” in USA (1948) with ex-City Slicker Red Ingle, “Kiliwatch” (1960) with The Cousins from Belgium, “Shin Gan Goo” (1961) with Karl Denver, The Scaffold (1969), a reggae version (1969) with The Megatons The Rudies, The Tremeloes (1977) and "Dirk and Stig" (1978) (Eric Idle and Rikki Fataar, assuming their identities from The Rutles). Further, there was a reggae mix (1993) with German Inner Kneipe and “Ding Dong Golly” (around 2006?) with Philippine star actresses Kim Chiu and Sandara Park. The song has also been used in movies and TV shows; for example sung by Eric Rapton & B.O.D.G. in the animated TV series Victor and Hugo - Bunglers in Crime episode "Scout's Dishonour" (1991), included in the animated movie Asterix Conquers America (1994) and in the episode "Ging Gang Goolie" of Boardwalk Empire (2012).

References

1. "Shally Wally, Shally Wally, Shally Wally etc etc...". St Margarets Community Website. St Margarets, London. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 15 Nov 2016.
2. "We (= Scouts Canada) approach the story of the "Great Grey Ghost Elephant" as a free resource in the public domain and invite members of the public to disseminate or utilize it freely." Reference: John Petitti, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications, Scouts Canada, 2015-05-21
3. Great Grey Ghost Elephant "a true-to-original variant" Check |url= value (help). Scouting Resources UK. Retrieved 2015-05-23.

External links