 It was originally credited to Henry J. Sayers, who was the manager of Rich and Harris, a producer of the George Thatcher Minstrels.Sayers used the song in the troupe's 1891 production "Tuxedo", a minstrel farce variety show in which "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" was sung by Mamie Gilroy.However, Sayers later said that he had not written the song, but had heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known St. Louis brothel run by "Babe" Connors.