Harry The Hairy Ape
Composer(s): Ray Stevens
Performer(s): Ray Stevens



Well, a strange thing happened the other night
You won't believe it, but I swear it's true
Harry the hairy ape made his escape from the city zoo
And under cover of darkness he made his way
To the middle of the municipal park
And he hid in the bushes and waited for somebody to come
Walkin' along by hi'self in the dark
Then along come somebody not suspectin' nothin'
Harry jump out of the bushes all of a sudden
Beat on his chest 
Jump up and down and he say
Wooo-hoo-hee-hee-hoo-hoo...
Which is Harry-Ape talk for "Boo, I betcha I scared you, ha ha!"

Waaa! Scared that poor cat so bad his eyes bugged out, his hair turned white!
He ran off through the municipal park, screamin', hollerin', diggin' up the lawn
tearin' up the shrub and knock down the "Keep off the grass" sign 
run through the hurricane fence 
fell into the municipal park swimming pool and drowned hi'self! 
Woo hoo!

Well, Harry thought this was the funniest thing that he had ever seen
And he laughed "Ha ha," jumped back in the bushes and got ready to do it again
The next guy to come along was the near-sighted local DJ
Just boppin' down the sidewalk on his way to work 
with a box of records on his arm that he was gonna play
So here he come, not suspectin' nothin'
Harry jump out of the bushes all of a sudden
Beat on his chest
Jump up & down & he say
Wooo-hoo-hee-hee-hoo-hoo...
Which is Harry-Ape talk for "Smile, you're on candid camera!"

Man, that DJ was so near-sighted he thought Harry was a rock 'n' roll singer!
So he gave him the old glad hand, smiled, slapped him on the back, sayin'
"Don't worry, baby, I'm gonna play the record 'cause you're too cool, too cool, too cool!" 
And he said bye, bopped on off down the sidewalk 
every 4 or 5 steps he'd stop and turn around, doin' a little boogaloo-shing-a-ling!
Well, this really shook Harry up 
I mean it blew his whole bit, you know, ruined his whole day 
So he run back to his cage as fast as he can go, jump up on his little swing
put both hands over his eyes and didn't look for 3 hours & 45 minutes
But that's not the end of the story
Here's what happened

The DJ played Harry's record (What record?) Shut up!
It was a hit and he became a star
Got him some tight britches, got him a manager
Went on a promotion tour, combed his hair back and took up playin' the guitar
And every Sunday afternoon you can go see Harry at the zoo
And the girls will scream and he'll sit on his swing and pick and sing his hit record for you

(Shoo-be-doo-wa-shoo-be-doo wa, shoo-be-doo wa-shoo-be-doo wa
(Shoo-be-doo-wa-shoo-be-doo wa, shoo-be-doo-be-doo-wah)