Who Put the Benzadrine in Mrs Murphys Ovaltine? - Harry "The Hipster" Gibson (1944)

Harry (the Hipster) Gibson blends jive & barrelhouse as he pounds out his boogie woogie like Jerry Lee Lewis pounding out rock n roll. A hipster poet precursor to the Beats & even the hippies, his daring lyrics occasionally got him into trouble. "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?" is an updating of an old Irish folk song "Who Put The Overalls In Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" that ended up getting Harry "The Hipster" Gibson black listed from radio play, and put his career on a downward slope it wouldn't recover from until the seventies. While the lyrics now seem tame and humorous, the far stiffer morality of 1944 considered it as taking things just a little too far.

The animation is from the 1938 Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoon classic titled "Sally Swing," courtesy archive.org.

Lyrics:

Mrs. Murphy couldn't sleep,
Her nerves were slightly off the beat,
Until she solved her problem,
With a can of Ovaltine.

She drank a cup full most every night
And oooh, how she would dream,
Until something rough got in the stuff,
And made her neighbors scream...

"Oh! Who put the benzedrine
In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?"
Sure is a shame, don't know whose to blame
Cause the old lady didn't even get his name.

Where did she get that that stuff,
Now she just can't get enough
It might have been the man who wasn't bad
Not Jack, that guy's a square.

She never ever wants to go to sleep.
She said that everthing is reet.
Now Mr. Murphy don't know what its all about
So she went and threw the old man out. Clout.

(HOPEFULLY UNECESSARY DISCLAIMER:

Ovaltine does not actually contain Benzedrine. It contains: Sugar, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Barley Malt Extract, Sweet Dairy Whey (Milk), Beet Extract, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Molasses, Natural Caramel Flavor, and Vanillin. )

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Boggie
• Woogie
• Jazz
• Swing
• Jive
• Hep
• Harry
• the
• Hipster
• Gibson
• Betty
• Boop
• Max
• Fleischer
• 1930s
• 1940s
• Drug
• Barrelhouse

[JAMES500BURNT]

I think Charlie Sheen put the Benzadrine in the Ovaltine.

[geofbrit59]

The song and cartoon are great together. I use to hear this on the "Dr. Demento Show" back in the 1970's.

[Raford146]

Man, I love amphetamines.

[jenzeppelin]

wow!

[MerleOberon]

Even today, there's controversy over the shortage of Adderall, that contains amphetamine...

[WytZox1]

I'm still trying to find "I'll Be Waiting For You, Bill, When You Come Back From San Juan Hill" ...

[TommiGrlx3]

wooooww... I am sooo clueless... or is it sheltered?

No, pretty much unaware and uneducated!

[somersetdc]

A parody of "Who put the overalls in mrs. murphy's chowder." My grandfather used to sing that one.

[IManNML]

@The1nosmo SoTrue.!. I have heard from plenty of vets that there is free access to uppers in a jar by the door in most every camp in Afganastan . Tho I used to love them , then disapprove, But -If your getting shot at ,You are old enuff to decide if you need to have a boost to protect your life. Especially if the war noise prevents restful sleep.

[MattReynaFilms]

@swafo2u No, it is Gibson himself.

[The1nosmo]

For the edification of those too young recall the leading pusher of bennies was your US govt via the war dept. They passed out the benzedrine as a way to prevent sleeping during long hours on duty. Sentry duty, take a bennie, night watch, take a bennie, long shifts at the defense plant, no prob, see the nurse and get a benzadrine. They were still being passed out by the army as late as 1958 of my own exp. in the Lebanon intervention. They didn't get a bad rap till the sixty's.

[egyptianminor]

The lyrics were probably too extreme for 1944 - unlike Cab Calloway who talked about marijuana, Gibson is talking about uppers & downers - speed and nembutals, which were probably becoming a real problem for American by then -unlike reefer, so that probably contributed for him being ostracized.