Ray Stevens › Lyrics › Harry the Hairy Ape

Well, a strange thing happened the other night
You won't believe it, but I swear it's true
Harry the hairy ape made his escape from the city zoo
And under cover of darkness he made his way
To the middle of the municipal park
And he hid in the bushes and waited for somebody to come
Walkin' along by himself in the dark

Then along come somebody not suspectin' nothin'
Harry jump out of the bushes all of a sudden
Beat on his chest, jump up and down and he say
"Woo hoo hee hee hoo hoo"
Which is Harry ape talk for
"Boo, I betcha I scared you, ha ha"

Scared that poor cat so bad his eyes bugged out
His hair turned white
He ran off through the municipal park
Screamin', hollerin', tearin' up the shrub
Diggin' up the lawn and knock down the
Keep off the grass sign, run through the
Hurricane fence, fell into the municipal park
Swimming pool and drowned himself

Well, Harry thought this was the funniest thing
That he had ever seen and he laughed, "Ha ha"
Jumped back in the bushes and got ready to do it again
The next guy to come along was the near sighted local DJ
Just boppin' down the sidewalk on his way to work
With a box of records on his arm that he was gonna play

So here come, not suspectin' nothin'
Harry jump out of the bushes all of a sudden
Beat on his chest, jump up and down and he say
"Woo hoo hee hee hoo hoo"
Which is Harry ape talk for
"Boo, I betcha I scared you, ha ha"

Man, that radio announcer didn't even bad an eye
He was so near-sighted he thought
Harry was a rock 'n' roll singer
So he gave him the old glad hand
Slapped him on the back, smiled
Said, "Don't worry, baby, I'm gonna play the record
Then he said, "Bye", bopped on off down the sidewalk
Every 4 5 steps he'd stop and doin' a little mash potatoes

Harry just stood there watching till he got out of sight
Man he didn't know what to think I mean it really shook him up
He run back to his cage as fast as he can go
And jump up on his little swing put both hands over his eyes
And didn't look for 3 hours and 45 minutes
But that's not the end of the story, no
Here's what happened

Well the DJ played Harry's record
What record?
Shut up it was a hit and he became a star
He got him some tight britches, got him a manager
Went on a promotion tour, combed his hair back
And took up playin' the guitar
And every Sunday afternoon
You can go see Harry at the zoo
And the girls will scream and he'll sit on his swing
And pick and sing his hit record for you

Hoo hoo hoo
Hoo hoo hoo
Hoo hoo hoo
. . .