Shirley Ellis Sings "The Name Game"

Great song from long ago! Now let's try and rhyme Chuck...

"The Name Game," or "The Banana Song", is a children's singalong rhyming game that creates variations of a person's name. It was written by singer Shirley Ellis with Lincoln Chase, and Ellis' recording, produced by Charles Calello, was released in late 1964 as "The Name Game." That record went to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 on the magazine's R&B charts in 1965. The record was re-released in 1966 and again in 1973. While Ellis' stock in trade was novelty hits, she was no one-hit wonder. A serious R&B singer for 10 years before that hit, Ellis also charted with "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" (#8 pop and #16 R&B), and "The Nitty Gritty" (#8 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box R&B chart). Ellis performed "The Name Game" on major television programs of the day, including Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, and Merv Griffin.

"The Name Game" has been recorded by dozens of recording artists in the years since, notably Laura Branigan, whose version produced by Jeff Lorber, appearing on her 1987 album Touch, features a classroom of third-grade schoolchildren singing along to the timeless tongue-twisting game. Often covered by relative unknowns on collections of songs for children, other cover versions have been recorded by artists as diverse (and campy) as Dean Ford and the Gaylords (1965), Divine (1980), and Soupy Sales (2002). In 1982, Stacy Lattisaw took her recording of "Attack of the Name Game" to #79 on the Hot 100.

Ellis told Melody Maker magazine that the song was based on a game she played as a child. Children can often be seen chanting this rhyme:

Using the name Jack as an example, the song follows this pattern:

Jack, Jack, bo-back,
Banana-fana fo-fack
Fee-fi-mo-mack
Jack!

A verse can be created for any name, with X as the name and (X−1) as the name without the first consonant sound, as follows:

(X), (X), bo-b(X−1)
Banana-fana fo-f(X−1)
Fee-fi-mo-m(X−1)
X!

And if the name starts with a b, f, or m, that sound simply is not repeated. (For example: "Billy" becomes "Billy Billy bo-illy"; "Fred" becomes "banana fana fo-red"; "Marsha" becomes "fee fi mo-arsha".)

Playing the game with names such as "Buck", "Mitch", "Rich" or "Richie" results in profanity.