The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down is a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin. It is best known as the theme tune for the Looney Tunes cartoon series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, used from 1937 to 1969.

The original version contains an introductory verse that leads up to the main part of the song, as a young man tells of his date with a young woman, in which they go to an amusement park and find time to "spark" while riding the malfunctioning carousel. Although there are no verified connections, the tune closely resembles the traditional fiddle tune "Chinese Breakdown".

An adapted instrumental version of the song's main tune became the staple opening and closing credits theme for the Looney Tunes series, most memorably featuring Porky Pig stuttering "Th-th-that's all, folks!" over the tune at each cartoon's end. A different vocal version, sung by Daffy Duck (voice of Mel Blanc), was heard in Daffy Duck and Egghead, a 1938 entry in the Merrie Melodies series, a sister series to the Looney Tunes, at about five minutes into the cartoon. Daffy also sang a specially-modified version of the song in the 1950 Looney Tunes short Boobs in the Woods. The tune made a "cameo" appearance in the 1941 Merrie Melodies cartoon Aviation Vacation.

In 1962, a more modern, atonal variation of the theme was arranged by William Lava for use with the updated opening sequences of new Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts.

In 1983, the song was recorded by the British folk band Pyewackett with vocal by Rosie Cross, on the LP The Man in the Moon Drinks Claret. The liner notes read, "'Finding love for only a dime' . . . A 'Looney Tune' based on a Roy Fox recording from the 1930s."

The song was revived for the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), an animation/live-action blend based upon the cartoons of the 1940s. "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is performed twice in the film: first by cartoon character Roger Rabbit (voice of Charles Fleischer) and later by his human partner Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), as Eddie is trying to force Judge Doom's weasel henchmen to laugh themselves to death. The lyrics in both sequences were written specifically for the film. An instrumental version of the tune also appears in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which opens and closes with Looney Tunes cartoons characters interacting with each other, and at the end of Space Jam (1996) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). It is also the intro to The Looney Tunes Show.

During the late 1960s and early 70s, The Grateful Dead -- who, incidentally, were signed to Warner Bros. Records during that time -- occasionally used this piece as filler material while one or several members of the band were tuning up.