The familiar song is adapted into a cartoon short. Abdul The Bulbul-Ameer, a rotund Arab, gets into a brawl with Ivan Skavinski Scavar, a preening Russian Cossack, over an offense to Abdul's pride. Groucho Marx and a newsreel crew provide running commentary as the pair pummel each other and the surrounding square.

A cartoonist falls asleep at the drawing board and into the clutches of his own villains, until Beans the Cat comes to the rescue.

An owl teaches his class full of birds about melody. It's all around in nature. Only birds and man can sing; man "sings" even when he speaks. We see a quick survey of the stages of life, as captured by songs: the alphabet song for primary school, Here Comes the Bride, The Old Gray Mare, etc. Some inspirations for song are outlined in song: love, sailing, trains, the West, motherhood, etc., but "we never sing about brains." Finally, an example of how a simple melody can be expanded into a symphony: an elaborate version of the simple tune that opened the lesson