Bumble Boogie

For the first time, a peer-reviewed comprehensive discography of US-based apical musical recordings has been assembled. (Think : bees, hives, honey, buzzing, stingers, &etc). Professor William Lewis Schurk (Sound Recordings Archivist of the Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, US) and colleague professor B. Lee Cooper, (presently at the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, US) have co-authored 'Bumble Boogie: 100 Years of Bee Imagery in American Sound Recordings—A Discography'. (Popular Music and Society, Volume 34, Issue 4, 2011)

"This discographic study explores several bee themes featured in more than 200 commercial recordings released in the United States during the past century. Themes cited include references to scent, terms of endearment, analogies to bee-related structures and hive-oriented treasures, allusions to romance, sexuality, and reproduction, and fears of physical pain and emotional rejection."

For some examples, see/hear these bee-centric musical excerpts via Youtube.

• Muddy Waters – I'm A King Bee

• Flight of the bumblebee

• Eric the half a bee

Note: The same team have also compiled : 'Odes to Obesity: Images of Overweight Men and Women in Commercial Sound Recordings: A Discography' (Popular Music and Society,Volume 34, Issue 2, 2011)

Coming soon: Cookin' lobsters.