give someone a song and dance

Example: “He gave me a song and dance about traffic, but I saw him leave late.”

Origin: Entered English in the early 1600s meaning exactly what it says — a performance combining song and dance, with an early citation from a 1628 account of Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation. Vaudeville gave the phrase a specific professional identity by the 1870s, with an 1872 Chicago Tribune article referring to "song and dance artists" as a recognized category of performer. By the century's end, the phrase had turned figurative and faintly mocking: an elaborate, rehearsed-sounding excuse or explanation, borrowing vaudeville's polish and theatricality to describe a story that's clearly been performed rather than simply told, and probably isn't entirely true.