“Makin’ Whoopee” is a song first popularised by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical. The musical was based on Owen Davis’s play, “The Nervous Wreck”. Donaldson was a prolific and popular American songwriter, composing many hit songs during the 1910s right through the 1940s.
The title refers to celebrating a marriage. Eventually “making whoopee” became a euphemism for intimate sexual relations. The song has been called a “dire warning”, largely to men, about the “trap” of marriage. The song’s lyrics, however, depict a more nuanced view of marriage, starting with the celebration of a wedding and honeymoon, then moving to the realities of married life with babies and responsibilities, and ultimately exploring potential infidelity and divorce and ending with a judge’s advice. The original lyrics and music of the song entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.
Since its first release, the song has never gone out of style as it has been constantly used in cinema and intensively covered by leading artists including Bing Crosby who recorded the song in December 1928 with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. It made No. 8 on the Billboard charts. In 1980 Yoko Ono recorded a version under the title “Yes, I’m Your Angel” and with altered lyrics, Double Fantasy. Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones performed “Makin’ Whoopee” on Dr. John’s album In a Sentimental Mood. It was released by Warner Bros. Records, earning a Grammy Award in 1989. Branford Marsalis performed a cover in 1989 for his album Trio Jeepy. It would later be the first song that was ever played on VH1 Smooth on August 1, 1998.
Pepsi used the melody of “Makin’ Whoopee” with new lyrics, sung by Joanie Sommers, for its advertising campaign “Now It’s Pepsi — For Those Who Think Young” starting in 1961. Heinz created a 1993 commercial in which a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of salsa “make whoopee” in a refrigerator, resulting in a salsa-style ketchup.
