The Name Game
| "The Name Game" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Shirley Ellis | |
| from the album The Name Game | |
| Released | 1964 |
| Genre | R&B, Novelty |
| Length | 2:39 |
| Label | Congress |
| Writer(s) |
|
| Producer(s) | Charles Calello |
"The Name Game" is an American pop song written and performed by Shirley Ellis as a rhyming game that creates variations on a person's name.
It was written by U.S. singer Shirley Ellis with Lincoln Chase, and Ellis's recording, produced by Charles Calello, was released in late 1964 as "The Name Game." That record went to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 on the magazine's R&B charts in 1965. The record was re-released in 1966 and again in 1973. While Ellis' stock in trade was novelty hits, she was not a one-hit wonder. A serious R&B singer for 10 years before that hit, Ellis also charted with "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" (#8 pop and #16 R&B), and "The Nitty Gritty" (#8 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box R&B chart). Ellis performed "The Name Game" on major television programs of the day, including Hullabaloo, American Bandstand and The Merv Griffin Show. The song later became a popular children's singalong.
"The Name Game" has been recorded by dozens of recording artists in the years since, notably Laura Branigan, whose version produced by Jeff Lorber, appearing on her 1987 album Touch, features a classroom of third-grade schoolchildren singing along to the tongue-twisting game. Often covered by relative unknowns on collections of songs for children, other cover versions have been recorded by artists as diverse (and campy) as Dean Ford and the Gaylords (1965), Divine (1980), and Soupy Sales (2002). The Brazilian singer Xuxa recorded a song using the same play and same sample in the song "Jogo da Rima". In 1965, singer Olivia Molina recorded a Spanish version, "Juego De Palabras". In 1975, recorded "Un jeu d'fou" in French. In 1982, Stacy Lattisaw took her "rap" recording of "Attack of the Name Game" to #79 on the Hot 100. In 1993, this song was used on television as an advertisement for Little Caesar's Pizza. Stacy's version was sampled by Mariah Carey on her 1999 single "Heartbreaker", from her album Rainbow. Character Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) sang her version of the song in season 2 episode 10 "The Name Game" of American Horror Story.
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