"Come Back To Erin", the sentimental tune song by the frog about a lover longing for his Colleen, who is far away in England), was written by "Claribel", the pseudonym of Charlotte Alington Barnard. She was a prolific and successful English poet and composer of ballads and hymns during the 19th century. In 1868, she had two popular hits: "I Cannot Sing The Old Songs" and "Come Back To Erin" ("Erin" is a traditional name for Ireland). "Erin" was her most popular song. Over time, it became thought of as an Irish folk song, and a generation later, it become popular on the American vaudeville stage where such Irish songs were common.
Steven Spielberg once described this as "the most perfect cartoon ever made".
Terence Monk and Thurl Ravenscroft have each been widely (and incorrectly) credited as the voice of Michigan J. Frog.
Due to the cartoon, "Dancing Frog" is now computer terminology for a computer problem that will not appear when anyone else is watching.
First (and, as far as many people are concerned, only) appearance of Michigan J. Frog.
In animation historian Jerry Beck's 1994 poll of animators, film historians and directors, this cartoon was rated the fifth greatest cartoon of all time.
In the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "August: Osage County," Barbara, the eldest daughter, compares a situation to "that cartoon about the guy and the frog that only sang for him."
No voice is heard except the frog.
Some believe that the story of this frog was at least partly inspired by a real amphibian. In Eastland, Texas they tell the story of one horned toad named Old Rip. He was placed in the cornerstone of the courthouse there in 1897. In 1928 the courthouse was demolished and the story is that they pulled Old Rip out and he was still alive (he did not get up and dance however). Eleven months later, Old Rip finally "croaked" and the citizens made him a fancy velvet-lined casket and put him on permanent display, where you can still see him today. In 1973, an anonymous person claimed that he wanted to come clean about Old Rip. He claimed that it was all a hoax back then and they had switched the dead "original" toad with a live one. No-one has ever come forward to verify this claim, but most think it is probably true that it was a prank. Whatever the real story, the legend of Old Rip has some interesting similarities to the frog in "One Froggy Evening".
The building in the closing scenes is the Tregoweth Brown building, a reference to film editor Treg Brown.
The main character's name, "Michigan J. Frog", was created long after the cartoon was produced. Michigan J. Frog later became the mascot of the Warner Brothers television network ("The WB").
The retrospectively-given name of Michigan J. Frog is derived from the one song he sings in this cartoon that Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese wrote especially for him, "The Michigan Rag". Jones came up with the middle initial after being interviewed by a writer named Jay Cox.
The singing voice of the frog is provided by Bill Roberts, a popular Hollywood nightclub singer of the 1950s. Many sources erroneously credit Terence Monk with supplying the singing voice of the frog. This error appears to be rooted in an interview in which Chuck Jones identified him as such. However, he was not the baritone heard in the film. The confusion may have been caused by the fact that Jones did use Monck in "The Cat Above and the Mouse Below", where he sang "Largo al factotum" (from Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia"/"The Barber of Seville").
The song "Michigan Rag" was invented solely for this short.
When the frog is released from the cornerstone, he starts singing ragtime tunes such as "Hello Ma Baby", leading some observers to speculate that he is singing tunes he remembers from before the time he was placed in the cornerstone. In the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection", the various commentaries and special features make this point. However, not all the songs are from before the time he was imprisoned, which according to the cornerstone and the documents placed within, was April 16, 1892. (Since "The Michigan Rag" was written for the cartoon, it can be credited as being older than 1892.) "Largo al factotum", "Come Back to Erin," and "Throw Him Down, McCloskey" were written before the frog's supposed entombment (in 1816, 1866, and 1890, respectively), while "Hello, Ma Baby", "Won't You Come Over to My House," "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" were written afterward (in 1899, 1906, 1921, and 1930, respectively).