What is "ja-da"

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

Carleton penned the 16-bar tune when he was club pianist in Illinois and first popularized it with singer Cliff Edwards. The sheet music for "Ja-Da" was published in 1918 by Leo Feist, Inc., New York. The tune was briefly famous, and then spent 35 years as a well-known standard.

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