Italian Americans like to imitate drum beats when they talk. Capeesh? Kapow! Badumcha. They speak a kind of Percussionese dialect, refusing to integrate into their host country.
Such is the phrase “Bada Bing Bada Boom” which means a “job well done” and according to my dictionary, is diminutive of a drum roll. But I ain’t never heard no drum roll sound like this. Drag over the black stemmed noteheads.
Clearly, the phrase is diminutive of the above beat: two semiquavers of snares followed by a bell-and-kick quaver, another two semiquavers on the snare, and finally, a tom-tom flam. A very uncommon drum fill that no drummer would ever play. I doubt it’s ever been played before, until now, when you just dragged over my widget. The “bing” is on Beat 1, following the anapest groove in poetry, like the canter of a horse, or the common hand jive.
Nobody really knows the etymology of the phrase “Bada Bing Bada Boom”, but it was popularized in the ’70s by The Godfather.
Compare the Bada Bing! to the mystic drum beat which haunts me lo these many years.
Sometimes the phrase has extra Italian syllables thrown in, like grace notes on the snare drum: “abada bing abada boom.” Try it now at home on your lap and mouth!
