Mah Nà Mah Nà

Lately, there has been a rash of commercials and television references to the Mah Nà Mah Nà song. And I can't help it: I sing it all day long. But the history of the song is pretty amazing.

It was written and originally performed by Piero Umiliani, but it has since appeared in several venues that injected it into the collective unconscious. Take these two (nearly identical) puppet performances:

The Muppet Show:


Sesame Street:


Here's the original version (my favorite):




Here's the band Cake doing Mah Nà Mah Nà "For The Kids":



Now consider that Mah Nà Mah Nà, according to Wikipedia, "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."

These are the kinds of sketchy Wikipedia details that one hopes are wonderfully invented.

While we consider this possibility, let's listen to Piero Umiliani's song, "Crepuscolo Sul Mare (Twilight On the Sea)":