the question is: what IS a manah manah?

It is time.

And some fascinating trivia about the song, via a comment here from Christefano. Given the shape of those muppets, it’s quite interesting to note that the song was written to score a Swedish porn film.

Mah Nà Mah Nà” is a well-known pop music song, written by Piero Umiliani. It was a hit in many countries, including the USA, in 1968–1969. The song’s lyrics contain no actual words, only nonsense words resembling scat singing. The original version interpolates melodies from “Swedish Rhapsody” (“Midsommarvaka” (“Midsummer Vigil”)) by Hugo Alfvén, “Santa Lucia“, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy“, the jazz standardLullaby of Birdland“, and others.

“Mah Nà Mah Nà” debuted as part of Umiliani’s soundtrack for the Italian softcore pornography movie Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell) (1968), a pseudo-documentary film about wild sexual activity and other behavior in Sweden (“Mah Nà Mah Nà” accompanied a scene set in a sauna). A soundtrack album, “Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso” was released in 1968. The movie was also released under the English title Sweden Heaven and Hell.

 

4 thoughts on “the question is: what IS a manah manah?

  1. This was popular on Sesame Street, but I believe the version here was the first sketch shown on The Muppet Show.

    The pink critters are called “Snouths”, a contraction of “snout” and “mouth” and delightfully porn-sounding all by itself.

    Don’t you wish more porn scores were available on CD?

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.