Thomas Dorsey (Georgia Tom) is usually credited with writing this song but it may have it's origins in earlier songs. On the Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions CD the writing credits are Booker T Bradshaw. The online BMI database also lists a song called Beedle Um Bum with the writer given as Booker Talmadge Bradshaw Jr.
Beedle Um Bum is a sexual euphemism. In Screening The Blues Paul Oliver quotes blues singer Georgia Tom Dorsey;
Beedle-um-bum was an expression they used in the dance joints and creepy slip-in places, smutty dives in the red light district. The gals sings those kinds of suggestive words while dancing around with their fellows.Hence;
Oh my Beedle-um-bum, come and see if you ain't had none,The earliest recording, using the title Beedle Um Bum, appears to be that by the Hokum Boys who were originally Tampa Red and Georgia Tom but later included other musicians including Big Bill (Broonzy). The Hokum Boys recording was also released credited to the Harlem Dudes.
Make a dumb man speak, make a lame man run,
Sure miss somethin' if you don't get some,
Of my Beedle-um-bum, oh-boy, my Beedle-um-bum,
It's the best Beedle-um-bum that's made in Tennessee
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Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
Other recordings
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Single (Selling That Stuff / Beedle Um Bum), The Hokum Boys, 1929
