The music was written by Walter Donaldson and the lyrics by Gus Kahn.

According to one source, the song was written when Donaldson and Kahn were visiting Eddie Cantor.

Cantor's daughter Marjorie brought out one of her favorite toys, a walking mechanical pig.

She wound it up and it started walking in rhythm while two notes kept coming from the little creature.

Kahn was inspired and started working lyrics to these notes in rhythm with the pig, coming up with the title and opening line of the chorus in short order.