Ja-Da

Ja-Da

"Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!)" was a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton (surname is often misspelled as Carlton). The title is sometimes rendered as "Jada." Ja-Da has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard.

Carleton penned the 16-bar tune when he was club pianist in Illinois and first popularized it with singer Cliff Edwards. The sheet music for "Ja-Da" was published in 1918 by Leo Feist, Inc., New York. The tune was briefly famous, and then spent 35 years as a well-known standard.

In his definitive American Popular Songs, Alec Wilder writes about the song's simplicity:

... It fascinates me that such a trifling tune could have settled into the public consciousness as Ja-Da has. Of course it's bone simple, and the lyric says almost nothing, except perhaps the explanation of its success lies in the lyric itself. "That's a funny little bit of melody—it's soothing and appealing to me." It's cute, it's innocent, and it's "soothing." And, wonderfully enough, the only other statement the lyric makes is "Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing."