Related music and lyrics appeared as early as 1835, in the art song "La Danza" (tarantella napoletana) by Gioachino Rossini and Carlo Pepoli.

In 1927, New York City's Italian Book Company arranged and recorded a version by Sicilian sailor Paolo Citorello (sometimes spelled Citarella), and an American court upheld their copyright in 1928.

[5] Monte's version was initially banned from British broadcasts for undesirable innuendo,[6] but has been played to a family-filled baseball stadium during the seventh-inning stretch at almost every New York Mets home game since the mid-1990s, as the result of a fan survey.

[7] The humorous lyrics center around a young woman wondering about marriage with various tradesmen (butcher, fisherman, fireman, etc.

[2][3] The song was also included in the 2010 videogame Mafia II, as part of the fictional radio station Empire Classic.