Shave and a Haircut

In music, the call "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" is a simple, 7-note musical couplet, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comic effect. It is used both melodically and rhythmically, for example as a door knock.  Play 

"Two bits" is an archaism in the United States for 25 cents, a quarter. "Six bits" is occasionally used. The final words may also be "get lost", "drop dead" (in Australia), or some other facetious expression. In England, it was often said as "five bob" (slang for five shillings), although words are now rarely used to accompany the rhythm or the tune.

An early occurrence of the tune is from an 1899 Charles Hale song, "At a Darktown Cakewalk". Other songs from the same period also used the tune. The same notes form the bridge in the "Hot Scotch Rag", written by H. A. Fischler in 1911.

An early recording used the 7-note tune at both the beginning and the ending of a humorous 1915 song, by Billy Murray and the American Quartet, called "On the 5:15".

In his 1933 novel, Hizzoner the Mayor, Joel Sayre wrote of boats "tooting the official Malta welcome blast to the tempo of 'Shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits, shave- and-a-haircut-two-bits, shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits,' which was soon taken up by every craft in the harbor that had a boiler," indicating that the tune was already associated by that time with the lyric.

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