If you know, in Bye Bye Birdie, why does Ann-Margret sing Bye Bye "Bird-Hee" instead of just Birdie?

[rachel776]

we've asked all the king's horses and all the king's men who we know in the music industry and no one knows why

also interesting, the director George Sidney wanted to showcase Ann-Margret at the beginning of the movie but the studio wouldn't pay for any additional production. So Charles Strouse wrote this song just for her and the director paid for it out of his own pocket and it made Ann-Margret a star

Dick Van Dyke, who starred in this and the original Broadway show, told all his friends on The Dick Van Dyke show not to bother going to see the movie because it was just the Ann-Margret show.

[AyChingao]

Some might call this a flaw in technique, but singing is a very individual thing and if you pay attention would almost always sound very odd if enunciated the same way in your speaking voice. Air flow can equal consistency and volume, my guess is that she's using that H to get an initial air push, some singers you'll also see put a sort of phantom consonant such as M if the phrase starts with a vowel... sort of verifying the pitch and getting the vocal chords going instead of jumping in from a dead stop.

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

This song has been brought to my attention last month, my reaction was empathetic. This girl looks really in distress, she's performing emotions in a very weird way lol. I can't tell if she's happy, sad or undergoing a mental break down 😬

So, that "heeeee" might be part of the disorder I'm feeling...

[Friendlybro79]

I wonder if it’s part of the accent that she decided to do… like an artist’s choice? lol. In old school NY accents, certain words are absolutely butchered them. Especially when it comes to stereotyping our accent. Oil is earl. Toilet is Terlit. Pearls are poils.

This is an absolute guess of course. Very interesting and I love that you bring up old school stuff. This seems familiar and I wonder if it’s something my Grandma made me watch as a kid ha.

[Anonymous]

my guess is she was doing it to stress the separation between the two parts of the word. Possibly she had a spitting problem when she sang the "D" so she broke it up into bird, and hee. Similar to how radio dj's do so it doesn't make a crazy popping noise into the mic. That's my final answer, Regis. 😁

[NathanDavis]

hmm... maybe something to check with the sound engineer instead...

[AviatorTom]

I've seen the movie many times. She is just emphasizing the the name has two syllables.

[Staximus]

I haven't heard that stupid song in about 40 years. It's more terrible than I remembered, thanks for reminding me

[Panthero80]

It's probably to maintain correct pronunciation and not slur syllables together, kind of like we would say we ate an apple rather than "a apple."

[Dongie]

Because hee is a boy.

[rachel776]

[Dongie]

Thank you, thank you very much! 🕺

[DCVsMarvel2]

I don't know, ask seth mcfarlane

[Anonymous]

I never heard of that song.

[Frida_]

She quoting Lorena Bobbit.