November 17, 2002
A friend in high school taught me this song back in the 1970s. It was already old then. He got it from a TV show—I think it was The Flintstones but I’m not positive. If so, the little boy was probably Bamm-Bamm.[1]
Anyway, the little boy put his nickel into the slot on the gumball machine (the “gum slot”) and was frustrated because no gum came out. He was too little to say “gum slot” clearly, so the words came out as “dum tot.” It may have been Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble who then sang this song:
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum tome out.
The nickel in the tot go ding—
But I didn’t det a tingle ting!
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum tome out.
So you’re down to your last cent,
Not clear broke—just badly bent;
Don’t ask me just what to do,
’Cause I’m so bent, I’m broke in two!
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum tome out.
The nickel in the tot go ding—
But I didn’t det a tingle ting!
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum tome out.
So you see those blue suede shoes,
Got those can’t-afford-’em blues;
Don’t ask me to float a loan,
’Cause I’ve got problems of my own!
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum tome out.
The nickel in the tot go ding—
But I didn’t det a tingle ting!
I put a nickel in the dum tot,
But there didn’t any dum,
There didn’t any dum,
There didn’t any dum tome out.
[1] Visitor Joe Cabrera, of Boston, Massachusetts, sent me this comment via email on August 25, 2003:
I can’t believe it was on your site! Actually it was from the Flintstones but it was from their first album, Songs of the Flintstones, which came out in 1961, before Pebbles or Bamm-Bamm. I may be able to locate a copy of it if you’re curious to hear the original.