Rag Mop

---

title: "Rag Mop" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1949-songs", "number-one-singles-in-the-united-states", "ames-brothers-songs", "johnnie-lee-wills-songs"] description: "Song recorded by Ames Brothers in 1950" topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag_Mop" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Song recorded by Ames Brothers in 1950 ::

"Rag Mop" was a popular American song of the late 1940s–early 1950s.

This 12-bar blues song, written by Tulsa western swing bandleader Johnnie Lee Wills and steel guitarist Deacon Anderson, was published in 1949. Considered a novelty song, the lyrics consisted mostly of spelling out the title of the song; because of the spelling used in the song ("R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P") it is sometimes referred to as "Ragg Mopp". The Wills-Anderson song was adapted from a 1946 release by Henry "Red" Allen, "Get the Mop".

While Johnnie Lee Wills and his band recorded it for Bullet Records in 1950, the most popular version of this song was recorded by The Ames Brothers, and released by Coral Records in 1950 as catalog number 60140. The song was part of a double-sided hit; the flip side was "Sentimental Me". The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 6, 1950, and lasted 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at number one. | last = Whitburn | first = Joel | author-link = Joel Whitburn | title = Top Pop Records 1940-1955 | publisher = Record Research | year = 1973 }} It sold over one million copies.{{cite book | first= Joseph | last= Murrells | year= 1978 | title= The Book of Golden Discs | edition= 2nd | publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd | location= London | page= 49 | isbn= 0-214-20512-6 | url-access= registration | url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/49

Parodies

Lou Monte recorded an Italian-flavored version soon after the Ames Brothers' original, and, in 1963, Allan Sherman recorded "Rat Fink".

Covers

The song was featured as a musical number in Bob Clampett's original 1950s children's television puppet show Time for Beany, and in the later color animated program Beany and Cecil (in the 1962 episode "D.J. the DJ").

The song also appears in the first season episode of The Muppet Show with guest star Lena Horne, where a vocal group of rag mops sing it with Jim Henson as the lead singer, the only one whose handle is not seen.

Sharon, Lois & Bram recorded and performed the song in 1986 on the Season 2 episode "Clean Up" of their television series Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show.

References

| before = "I Can Dream, Can't I?" by The Andrews Sisters | title = U.S. Billboard Best Sellers in Stores number-one single | years = February 11, 1950 | after = "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" by Red Foley

References

1. [https://secondhandsongs.com/work/136205/all "Song: Get the Mop written by Henry Allen"]. SecondHandSongs.
2. [http://www.globaldogproductions.info/c/coral-60000-series-us.html Coral Records in the 60000 to 60999 series]

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::