Da ba dee da ba daa
September 26, 2013 10:14 AM   Subscribe

 
No lie, I love this stupid song for some reason. It's still my default ringtone.

(I also still listen to Savage Garden's original eponymous album all the time, so I'm probably just musically defective.)
posted by kmz at 10:15 AM on September 26, 2013 [4 favorites]


i like this song a lot too! In fact, I really like the whole album - some rather poignant tracks, tbh.
posted by rebent at 10:19 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


A girl in my 10th grade math class asked me to make her a mix CD with this song on it.

It didn't work out.
posted by helicomatic at 10:19 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


GOD DAMN IT I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS SONG THANKS A LOT
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:20 AM on September 26, 2013 [12 favorites]


The whole album is one gigantic glow-in-the-dark raspberry flavored ring-pop: So sugary, and gimmicky, and faddish, and garish, and sticky and goddamned if it doesn't make you happy-bounce every single time.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:21 AM on September 26, 2013 [6 favorites]


Oh crap, now it's back in my head.
posted by figurant at 10:23 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


Still in rotation in my music collection! I hadn't seen the music video since college, though.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:24 AM on September 26, 2013


I will bleed I will die I will bleed I will die I will bleed I will die

(The link is not working for me. In fact, it looks like the entire Verge is broken. Nooo!)
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:24 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


i love that song and that album! so glad to find i'm not the only one!

i sing my console at least once a week. and then i bust out dancing. and then my husband looks at me all weird because no music is playing.
posted by nadawi at 10:25 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


If I was green, I would die.
posted by yellowbinder at 10:26 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]


Verge is back.
posted by nadawi at 10:26 AM on September 26, 2013


On a related sad note:

Man with blue skin dies at 62: Unlikely his condition was responsible
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:32 AM on September 26, 2013


My YouTube-fu has failed to locate the relevant trashy flashback party scene from Iron Man 3. But my store's been playing IM3 on endless repeat this week to celebrate the DVD release. Rest assured, "Blue" has lost none of its POWER TO ANNOY.


the after-credits stinger is still beautiful every time
posted by nicebookrack at 10:38 AM on September 26, 2013


The whole album is one gigantic glow-in-the-dark raspberry flavored ring-pop: So sugary, and gimmicky, and faddish, and garish, and sticky and goddamned if it doesn't make you happy-bounce every single time.

Are you somehow getting it confused with Aqua: Aquarium? Too Much of Heaven was some pretty deep shit, dude.

But this? Nothing gets more bouncy happy ring pop than this.
posted by phunniemee at 10:39 AM on September 26, 2013


I'm blue, in Aberdeen I will die...
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:40 AM on September 26, 2013


GOD DAMN IT I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS SONG THANKS A LOT

It could be worse.

posted by phunniemee at 10:41 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Someone made a post about this song? How bizarre!

How bizarre, how bizarre!
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:43 AM on September 26, 2013 [24 favorites]


I'm coming for you, Atom Eyes.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:46 AM on September 26, 2013 [5 favorites]


Huh. Somehow I missed this song. I don't think I've ever heard it, at least in its entirety. It sounds a bit familiar, but it seems to come from a pretty simple dancey pop template so maybe I've never actually heard it before.
posted by zsazsa at 10:46 AM on September 26, 2013


Will someone at least give me a heads up if the Vengabus is coming so I can get out before it's too late?
posted by yellowbinder at 10:49 AM on September 26, 2013 [18 favorites]


In college, I had a friend from Malaysia who used to come to me for help identifying the names of songs so that he could find them and download them. Somehow, when he thought of this one, he couldn't remember the "I'm blue" part or the "da-ba-dee" part, just the "He ain't got nobody to listen" part. So all I can think of when I remember this song is my friend Soon singing that part over and over with mounting frustration, like a broken record, stuck on that one lyric.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:53 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]


That was a hit my last year in college, I think. I know there are a ton of great songs from the nineties but it's always terrible dance tunes like this that vault me back to being in dodgy pubs and clubs with friends and hit me right in the feels, as the redditors say. Myabe it's because I hear them so rarely.

It's still my default ringtone.


This is hysterical. Why?!
posted by jamesonandwater at 10:59 AM on September 26, 2013


I think the real question is why isn't it my default ringtone. This clearly needs to be rectified.
posted by phunniemee at 11:01 AM on September 26, 2013 [4 favorites]


So all I can think of when I remember this song is my friend Soon singing that part over and over with mounting frustration, like a broken record, stuck on that one lyric.
Arg, I hate when this happens! It's like your brain gets stuck trying to figure out what the next line is, and if it repeats the one that you know enough, it will magically remember it. Broken record is exactly right, yech. I pretty much have to go find whatever song is stuck in this way and listen to it before it will go away.

Also, I love Blue, and the cheese-tastic video for it. It doesn't hurt that one of the band-dudes looks like a guy that I used to know, and we could totally see him getting high and punching at invisible (to us) blue dudes, which was kind of hilarious.
posted by ashirys at 11:02 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh god. This was the sound of fall 1999 to me. I can't turn this song off if it comes on; I might actually be physically incapable.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:02 AM on September 26, 2013


I'm blue, I believe I'm alive, I believe I'm alive; I believe I'm alive!
posted by Juffo-Wup at 11:03 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Will someone at least give me a heads up if the Vengabus is coming so I can get out before it's too late?

We like to party but I think we're waiting for Tarzan and Jane to show up. She takes the elephant, so she's sloooow.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:07 AM on September 26, 2013


We had a big fight in my family over what the words of the song were.

I always maintained it was gibberish, just "da ba dee da ba die" over and over.

My brother insisted it was "I believe I will die."

My mom thought it was "if I was green I would die," because she really wanted it to be clever.

My dad was reluctant to get involved with "that horrible noise you've all been listening to lately," but we forced him to sit down and listen to it. He concentrated really hard, then said "obviously he's saying, 'it was me not the guy.' Now please turn that down and come help me paint the house."

Eiffel 65 really brings folks together.
posted by phunniemee at 11:09 AM on September 26, 2013 [8 favorites]


But I was able to look past the poorly rendered polygons on my fourth viewing and discover a fish-out-of-water tale that Tim Burton would be proud to direct.

Objection, Your Honour -- these findings are not in evidence.

Well, maybe the 2013 Tim Burton. Tim Burton in the 1990s was still the guy making Ed Wood and Batman movies. The at-least-passable Sleepy Hollow came out the year "Blue" was released and the Walhbergeriffic Planet of the Apes was still in the next millennium.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:13 AM on September 26, 2013


I had heard Eiffel 65's song "Move Your Body" soon after "Blue" back in college, but I never saw the video. I am happy to say that it's the obviously necessary sequel to the "Blue" video.
posted by ashirys at 11:15 AM on September 26, 2013


We like to party but I think we're waiting for Tarzan and Jane yt to show up. She takes the elephant, so she's sloooow.

Wait, what? I've never heard of Toy-Box before, so I watched and I'm like, oh, an Aqua parody, that's neat. Do some googling to find they were just Aqua contemporaries. Huh.
posted by yellowbinder at 11:20 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Did this seem incomplete to anyone else? Like, they said there would be a story behind it, but all they did was describe the song with the barest explanation of its construction, and then described the music video and. . . that's it. Am I missing something?
posted by Think_Long at 11:33 AM on September 26, 2013 [10 favorites]


The Vengaboys are still touring and partying and that makes me really happy.
posted by Drexen at 11:47 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


My mom thought it was "if I was green I would die,"

This was the widely accepted wisdom at my suburban Australian high school.

I hadn't thought about this song in 14 years until I went to see Iron Man 3, but the article is correct: nothing could have better transported me back to 1999.
posted by retrograde at 11:48 AM on September 26, 2013


Course y'all realise that htese blue aliens were the inspiration for the Asari in Mass Effect?

No lie, I love this stupid song for some reason.

I love it because it was everywhere in Holland in '99 and so my brother and father and I used it in one scene of the video we shot for my mother's fiftieth birthday, touring around the little villages she'd grown up in. Hearing it puts me immediately back there.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:24 PM on September 26, 2013


I.predict this song enjoys a huge resurgence starting Sunday, when it is used as the end credit music for.Breaking Bad's finale.
posted by mannequito at 12:32 PM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Am I missing something?

It's a trap!
posted by grog at 12:37 PM on September 26, 2013


I.predict this song enjoys a huge resurgence starting Sunday, when it is used as the end credit music for.Breaking Bad's finale.

If the release of Avatar and two separate Smurfs movies in the past few years weren't enough to bring it back, nothing will.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:59 PM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


I.predict this song enjoys a huge resurgence starting Sunday, when it is used as the end credit music for.Breaking Bad's finale.

Oh god, I so hope that Aaron Paul gets a scene where he gets to bust down Uncle Jack's crew like they're the little blue alien men in that music video.
posted by phunniemee at 1:21 PM on September 26, 2013


i always heard "I believe i will die" and i'm loving these other ideas for what that gibberish could be.
posted by nadawi at 1:22 PM on September 26, 2013


Seriously, Blue was so huge, it eclipsed many a song that year. I remember a few months after its height I said to my then girlfriend, god help me, that DJ Jurgen's Higher & Higher was going to be the new Blue.

In retrospect, there was nothing to be proud of in that era of my life.

Although I will say that Higher & Higher holds up surprisingly well for what it is after all these years.
posted by Muddler at 1:35 PM on September 26, 2013


If you hear "Yo, listen up, here's a story about . . ." and think ". . . how my life got flipped, turned upside-down," you're not alone (give it a minute).
posted by knuckle tattoos at 1:42 PM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


This song always, always reminded me of a shaggy-dog joke I heard at Girl Scout camp when I was twelve or so. I loved this joke so much, and told it to all my friends. I don't remember every single detail, but it involved a blue man who lived on a blue planet, in a blue house with blue windows and doors. This man had blue eyes, and blue hair, and blue skin, and blue hands and feet and lungs and intestines, and even the three tiny bones in his ear were blue. His kitchen was full of blue foods: blue apples and bananas, blue cereal, blue ramen noodles, blue free-range organic beef from blue grass-fed blue cows. He worked in a blue auto body shop, servicing blue cars and trucks of all makes, and he himself drove a blue sedan to and from work, along a blue highway through blue suburbs and blue forests.

On another planet, this one pink, there lived a pink man. He lived in a pink house with pink windows and doors. He had pink eyes, and pink hair, and pink skin, and pink fingers and toes and kidneys and teeth, and even his blood was pink. His kitchen was full of pink foods: pink grapefruit, pink guava, pink cereal, pink cheetos, pink vegan sausages made with pink soybeans and pink barley. He worked in a pink factory that produced pink paper products and pink cardboard boxes, and he drove a pink SUV with pink fuzzy dice hanging from the pink rearview mirror.

On a third, green planet, there lived a green man, in a green house with green windows and doors. This man had green eyes, and green hair, and green skin, and green ears and nostrils and nipples and tonsils, and of course all of the bodily fluids he produced were green. His kitchen was full of green foods: green carrots and tomatoes, green microbrew beer, green fruit pies individually packaged in green wax wrappers, green otter pops in a variety of flavors such as green cherry, green orange, and green grape. He worked in a green office in the green financial district of his green city, and he drove a shiny green convertible with a top-of-the-line green stereo system.

Now, one fine blue morning, our blue protagonist woke up, got out of his blue bed, drank a cup of blue coffee with blue milk and two blue sugars, put on a blue shirt and blue pants and blue shoes, walked out of his blue house, got into his blue car, and drove to the blue auto shop to start his blue day of blue work. Today was like any other blue weekday for the blue man; he had no blue plans and expected no blue surprises.

But on the pink planet, the pink man woke up early, drank a pink double espresso, put on a pink shirt and pink pants and pink shoes, grabbed the pink duffel bag that he had packed the night before, walked out of his pink house, and got into his pink spaceship parked in his pink driveway. For today was the first pink day of his pink vacation, and he was going to a different planet in another solar system. He strapped himself into the pink seat on his pink spaceship and blasted off, through the pink atmosphere, leaving the pink planet behind. He flew through space, listening to a pink CD of the greatest pink hits of the pink decade, when all of a sudden the "check engine" light started flashing bright pink. The pink man needed to land immediately! He saw a planet nearby and figured there would likely be someone to help him there. Just in time, he landed in front of the blue man's auto shop, on the blue planet. The pink man and the blue man were surprised, but they greeted each other warmly, and the blue man agreed to repair the pink man's pink spaceship, with the blue caveat that he was used to working on blue vehicles and had little experience with pink vehicles, or spacecraft for that matter.

Meanwhile, on the green planet, the green man woke up later than usual, drank a tall green glass of green orange juice, put on a green shirt and green pants and green shoes, grabbed a green briefcase and green rolling suitcase with little green wheels, walked out of his green house, and got into his green spaceship parked in his green driveway. For today, he had a green business trip to take, and he was going to a different planet in another solar system. He strapped himself into the green seat on his green spaceship and blasted off, through the green atmosphere, leaving the green planet behind. He flew through space, listening to green business podcasts on his green MP3 player, when all of a sudden he heard a rattling sound and started to smell green smoke. The green man was in trouble! He looked up the nearest spaceship repair station on his green intergalactic map and set his green course for the appropriate coordinates. Just in time, he landed in front of the blue man's auto shop, on the blue planet. The blue man and pink man were already there, looking at the pink spaceship and chatting. Both of them were surprised to see the green man in his green spaceship. The blue man agreed to look at the green man's green spaceship, but with two spaceships to repair it was likely that neither would be ready before tomorrow morning. Besides, it was nearly 6 p.m. on the blue clock, and everyone was tired.

The blue man was generous and trusting, and had a large blue house with two immaculate blue guest bedrooms with blue memory foam mattresses, so he invited the pink man and the green man to spend the night at his blue house, since they had nowhere else to go. Both men agreed.

The next blue morning, the blue man woke up as usual, got dressed in a clean blue outfit, went down the blue stairs to his blue kitchen, and brewed a large pot of blue coffee. He looked through his blue cupboard for breakfast foods to offer his guests. He found a box of blue Wheaties and a box of blue Cheerios. He looked in his fridge for blue eggs, blue bacon, or blue toaster pastries, but remembered that he had planned to pick all of those up at the blue supermarket last night. Of course, that was before the two visitors crash landed in front of his blue shop, so his blue menu would have to be limited. He poured himself a bowl of blue Cheerios and waited for the others to join him.

About five minutes later, the pink man entered the kitchen, wearing one of the clean pink outfits he had packed in his pink duffel bag, with his pink hair uncombed and tousled. The blue man wished him a good morning, apologized for the limited blue breakfast selection, and offered him a choice between blue Cheerios and blue Wheaties. The pink man chose the Wheaties, and poured himself a large blue bowl with extra blue milk.

Soon afterward, the green man walked into the kitchen, wearing a green outfit that he had packed in his green rolling suitcase, with green stubble on his green chin. The blue man and pink man greeted him, and the blue man said that he wished he had more to offer, but all he had were blue Wheaties and blue Cheerios. The green man reassured the blue man that he liked Wheaties, and helped himself to a blue bowl of blue Wheaties.

All three men finished their breakfast, put the blue bowls in the sink, got in the blue car, and headed to the blue man's blue auto shop. The green man and pink man chatted and worked on the blue crossword puzzle in the blue morning newspaper, while the blue man worked on the spaceships. Despite his lack of blue experience in spacecraft repair, he was able to fix the two spaceships good as new, and the repairs were much quicker and simpler than anticipated. The pink man and green man thanked the blue man profusely and offered to pay generously, but the blue man refused, saying it didn't matter since he only accepted blue dollars. The green man and the pink man insisted, but in the end the blue man persuaded them. The pink man got in his newly repaired pink spaceship and blasted off, and the green man got in his fixed up green spaceship and launched. Both men made it safely to their respective destinations and none of the three men ever saw each other again, though they remembered that experience forever and told it to their children and their children's children.

Now what's the moral of this story?

Wheaties are preferred two to one over Cheerios.


(deep breath)

Wow, okay, that is the stupidest joke in the entire blue world. I don't even like it anymore. I am not sure why I even bothered writing all that out, other than once I started I was determined to finish. The funny thing is that, as much as I loved the joke, I have never liked actually telling it. So, every time I would tell it, I'd try to skip over all the boring details that make shaggy dog stories work, so I'd be like "Once there was a blue man that lived on a blue planet with blue trees and uh a lot of other blue stuff, and there was a pink man who... anyway, there were three guys, and Wheaties are preferred two to one over Cheerios." And I'd wonder why no one else ever found the joke as funny as I did.
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:55 PM on September 26, 2013 [10 favorites]


Someone made a post about this song? How bizarre!

How bizarre, how bizarre!


Everytime I look around, it's in my face.
posted by WalkingAround at 2:01 PM on September 26, 2013 [4 favorites]


I owned the CD single and given that it was titled "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" I never thought the lyrics were anything else, and I am enjoying your mondegreens.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:06 PM on September 26, 2013


Does this have anything to do with Blue Man Group? I seem to remember one of the Blue Men (or an illustration thereof) appearing on the sleeve art for this...
posted by pxe2000 at 2:14 PM on September 26, 2013


oh yeah, i had the cd and i know they claimed it was nonsense - i just thought they had also maybe hidden a message.
posted by nadawi at 2:21 PM on September 26, 2013


I couldn't look at this song in quite the same way after Arrested Development's Tobias' "blue myself" moment.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:41 PM on September 26, 2013


When my teenagers were little, we got free tickets to an ice skating show where Brian Boitano did a routine to this. I can still picture parts of it. The kids sang it for years.
posted by artychoke at 3:00 PM on September 26, 2013


Did this seem incomplete to anyone else? Like, they said there would be a story behind it, but all they did was describe the song with the barest explanation of its construction, and then described the music video and. . . that's it. Am I missing something?

If the author was anything like the people in this thread, he just really liked talking about Blue (Ba Da Ba Da Ba Dee).
posted by Sebmojo at 3:10 PM on September 26, 2013


I heard this song on the radio the other day like it was just a normal thing for this song to come on between Bruno Mars and Adam Levine. I thought maybe I was having a stroke.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:08 PM on September 26, 2013 [6 favorites]


Thanks for nuttin'. Now I'll be forever singing the lyrics as "I believe I will die."
From a fun, bouncy song to a major downer.

Just great, you guys.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:08 PM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is also the song for my favorite Sailor Moon AMV. Note, I didn't say "best Sailor Moon AMV", just my favorite. Because Ami's blue, and the song is blue and...and...

geez I'm such a geek.
posted by happyroach at 10:18 PM on September 26, 2013


I hear: I'm blue/I will beat up a guy.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:07 AM on September 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


In the UK it was released as Blue (Da Ba Dee). It's pretty much what half of chart music sounded like from 1995-2002. The US got EDM without its awkward teenage years of Europop and Scouse House.

You're lucky you missed out on 3 of A Kind's Babycakes, which is what a polyphonic ringtone turning sentient would sound like.
posted by mippy at 7:39 AM on September 27, 2013


I always heard it as "I'm in need of a guy". I figured he was blue cuz he was in the closet. I remember the song and liked it too. And I was already over 40 at the time.
posted by Goofyy at 9:40 AM on September 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


I associate Blue with listening to mp3s on my cousin's computer in Sonique. That and the songs on Big Shiny Tunes 4. The animation isn't bad because it was 1999: you could do this in 1999! It's made because it's bargain basement animation, with as little distinct movement in the characters as possible. The SFII references are neat, though.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 5:33 PM on September 27, 2013


Zomg happyroach I had forgotten about that AMV! It is awesome!
posted by IndigoRain at 9:54 PM on September 28, 2013


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