A Symposium On Popular Songs

A Symposium on Popular Songs is a special cartoon featurette made by Walt Disney Productions in 1962. It features songs written by the Sherman Brothers with music arrangements by Tutti Camarata. The Shermans also co-wrote the screenplay but are not credited for this. Host Ludwig Von Drake invites his audience into his mansion where he tells all about popular music through the years, introducing several songs illustrated with stop-motion photography. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It was released on DVD in 2005 as part of the Walt Disney Treasures set Disney Rarities.

"The Rutabaga Rag", performed by Paul Frees as Ludwig Von Drake, was not written as a parody of ragtime, but rather as an authentic ragtime song. In the course of the film's narration, Von Drake claims to have invented ragtime music and, specifically, this song. During the song, a variety of stop-motion animated vegetables with faces appear and dance to the song.

"Charleston Charlie", performed by Betty Boopie Doop (Gloria Wood), makes direct reference to the singing style exemplified by Helen Kane in her flapper era iconic song "He's So Unusual", which was co-written by the Sherman Brothers' tin pan alley songwriting father, Al Sherman in 1929 (see 1929 in music). The subject of both songs is a male college student whom the singer desires. "Charleston Charlie" begins with the Betty Boop-esque lyric "Boop boop be doop".