"Ja-Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing, Jing, Jing!)" is a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton. The title is sometimes rendered simply as "Jada." The song has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard.

In his definitive American Popular Songs, Alec Wilder writes about the song's simplicity:

... It fascinates me that such a trifling tune could have settled into the public consciousness as Ja-Da has. Of course it's bone simple, and the lyric says almost nothing, except perhaps the explanation of its success lies in the lyric itself. "That's a funny little bit of melody—it's soothing and appealing to me." It's cute, it's innocent, and it's "soothing." And, wonderfully enough, the only other statement the lyric makes is "Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Ja-Da, Jing, Jing, Jing."^[1]

Selected renditions

• Player piano roll, Vocalstyle Company, #11302. Vodvil Series, as played by Cliff Hess
• 1918 — Original New Orleans Jazz Band
• 1918 — Arthur Fields
• 1938 — Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet
• 1939 — Alice Faye sings it in the musical film Rose of Washington Square (1939)^[2]
• 1945 — Bunk Johnson and Don Ewell
• 1947 — Frank Sinatra & Peggy Lee
• 1947 — Muggsy Spanier
• 1954 — Big Chief Jazzband (on the 78 rpm record His Master's Voice A.L. 3401)
• 1955 — Marian McPartland - At the Hickory House
• 1957 — Pee Wee Hunt
• 1958 — Ted Heath Orchestra
• 1961 — Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
• 1982, 1986, and 1987 — Musical entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram & The Mammoth Band, recorded live and in studio
• Al Hirt
• Oscar Peterson
• Erroll Garner
• Louis Armstrong
• Al Jarreau
• Hot Tuna as "Keep On Truckin'"^[3]
• Johnny and The Hurricanes
• Bobby Hackett
• God-des and She
• The Fireballs, the band were singing that song, in 1966.
• Scott Walker chorus sung in song "Psoriatic" from 2006's The Drift
• Sonny Rollins 're-invented it' using the Ja-Da chords for his composition "Doxy" in 1954.^[4]

Comedy rendition

• In the 1970s, the tune was appropriated by the Canadian comedy duo Maclean and Maclean, who recorded it as their signature piece, with bawdy lyrics added.