Why it's there: Banana Co.

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Thursday, September 06, 2007
Matt Hochberg

There is a small outdoor store at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards that sells hats called Banana Co. It's themed with a Caribbean island motif, with an aluminum shingle roof, turquoise window shutters and a sandy wooden frame. However, if you look at it long enough, you may start to wonder why does this building that is themed like it should be at the Caribbean Beach resort and doesn't have the word hats in the name (in fact, it mentions bananas) selling hats?

The store is a reference to a hit song from 1923 called "Yes! We Have No Bananas" by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn. Believe it or not, this song was one of the top songs of the 20th Century and was later covered by a number of artists including Benny Goodman and his orchestra, Spike Jones & His City Slickers and more. Its a song about a grocery store that has everything but bananas because of a shortage that occurred in the US in the 1920s.

So in this case, the store is selling everything except for bananas, which in this case is hats. There are two recordings of this song available for you to listen to.  Don't worry, this song is now in the public domain so no laws are being broken by downloading or listening to it.

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