I first heard this song when I was a small child-- didn't understand the lyrics, but loved the beat! Later, when I grew old enough to understand the lyrics, I loved those as well. Rosemary Clooney was truly an original.
The song was written by Ross Bagdasarian (AKA David Seville)and his cousin, the Armenian American Pulitzer Prize winning author William Saroyan, (both natives of Fresno, CA) in the summer of 1939, while driving across New Mexico. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song.