On the Good Ship Lollipop

"On the Good Ship Lollipop" was the trademark song of child actress Shirley Temple. Temple first sang it in the 1934 movie Bright Eyes. Contrary to popular belief, the ship in the song is an aircraft. In the song, the "Good Ship Lollipop" travels to a candy land. There is a direct reference to an airplane in the song: "Someday I'm going to fly/I'll be a pilot, too...". The song was composed by Richard A. Whiting and lyrics were supplied by Sidney Clare. 500,000 copies of the sheet music were sold. A recording by Mae Questel (the cartoon voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl) reputedly sold more than 2 million copies.^{[citation needed]}

The aircraft in Bright Eyes was an American Airways (before it was airlines) Douglas DC-2.

The rapper Khia made a reference to the song in her remix of Lil' Wayne's single Lollipop.

The song was ranked at #69 on the list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.

Cultural references

• The song has been parodied twice on The Simpsons. In the Season 4 episode "Treehouse of Horror III", a King Kong parody has Homer as the big ape. He is captured and brought to the United States, whereupon he escapes into a theatre where Shirley Temple is performing the song. King Homer listens for a few verses, and then eats her. In the Season 11 episode "Last Tap Dance in Springfield", Lisa enrolls in a tap dancing class headed by the Temple-esque Lil' Vicky Valentine. In a big finale dance number, the class performs to the song "On the Spaceship Lollipop", a parodical version of the song.
• In a scene of Family Guy episode Road to Rhode Island, Stewie sings a portion of the song at the airport to distract them from seeing his bag being X-rayed, due to all of the ammunition in it.
• On a penultimate episode of The Brady Bunch in 1974, Cindy accidentally performs the songs to one of Mike's architectural clients, thinking that they were a talent scout.
• In Shrek the Third, when threatened by Prince Charming and Captain Hook, Gingerbread man begins singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop"
• In an episode of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai Gilmore gets herself a Shirley Temple Black and her daughter Rory Gilmore a Shirley Temple. After allowing her Rory to sniff the Shirley Temple Black, Lorelai remarks, "I got your good ship lollipop right here, mister."
• In Episode Number 115, Season 5 of the Brady Bunch, entitled, “The Snooperstar,” (aired Friday, February 22, 1974), Marcia plants a bogus story in her diary to bait Cindy after she gets fed up with Cindy's nonstop snooping. The bait is a story about Marcia contacting a talent scout after submitting a picture of Cindy and the talent scout wants Cindy to be the next Shirley Temple. 11-year-old Cindy then tap-dances and sings “On The Good Ship Lollipop” to a talent scout (played by Natalie Schafer).
• The Gateway Clipper Fleet of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania consists of 5 riverboats, one of which is the "Good Ship Lollypop".
• In the episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks, "My Fair Chipette", Alvin tells Jeanette that she will perform "The Good Ship Lollipop" while tap-dancing at a beauty contest. Brittany overhears this and performs for her act, while Jeanette twirls batons.
• An early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Arsenal of Freedom," has Commander Riker feed false information to a hologram, claiming that his ship is not the Enterprise but rather, the USS Lollipop. When pressed, he admits that it's "a good ship."
• It was mentioned in a Soprano's episode by the character Phil Leotardo
• Also mentioned on M*A*S*H episode "Deal Me Out".
• The song is sung on a That 70's Show episode "Going Mobile".
• Eddie Izzard refers to the song in his stand up comedy show Stripped (Eddie Izzard) which toured the world between 2008 and 2010.