"Wooly Bully" | ||||
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Single by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs | ||||
from the album Wooly Bully | ||||
B-side | "Ain't Gonna Move" | |||
Released | March 12, 1965 | |||
Recorded | 1964 | |||
Studio | Phillips Recording, Memphis, Tennessee | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:20 | |||
Label | XL 906, MGM K13322 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Domingo Samudio | |||
Producer(s) | Stan Kesler | |||
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs singles chronology | ||||
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"Wooly Bully" is a song originally recorded by rock and roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1964. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's frontman, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the small Memphis-based XL label (#906) in 1964 and was picked up in 1965 by MGM. The song was recorded at Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, the successor to Phillips' original Sun Studio. [3] It proved to be the only recording made at the studio to achieve national success.
"Wooly Bully" was the band's first and biggest hit. It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the American Hot 100 chart on June 5–12, 1965, kept off the top by The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" [4] and The Supremes' "Back in My Arms Again". [5] "Wooly Bully" went to No. 31 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. [6] The song also reached No. 2 on the Canadian CHUM Charts. [7] The song was the first American record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion and was influenced by the British rock sound which was mixed with traditional Mexican-American conjunto rhythms. [8] [9] It stayed in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest time for any song in 1965, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. It was named Billboard's number-one song of the year despite never reaching No. 1 on a weekly Hot 100; this feat was achieved again by Faith Hill's "Breathe" in 2000, Lifehouse's "Hanging by a Moment" in 2001 and Dua Lipa's "Levitating" in 2021 (all four hits peaked at #2). [10] [11] On August 5, 1965, the single was certified as gold by the RIAA. [12] It was later included on the band's 1965 album Wooly Bully , MGM SE4297.
"Wooly Bully" is a reworking of the 1962 tune "Hully Gully Now" on the Dallas-based Gay Shel label by Big Bo & The Arrows (vocal by Little Smitty), which was based on Junior Parker's "Feelin' Good". The song was given the green light after Samudio rewrote the lyrics to replace "Hully Gully" with "Wooly Bully" and a few additional lyrical changes. Samudio retained the "watch it, watch it now" refrain from the original version. [13]
The lyrics of "Wooly Bully" were hard to understand, and some radio stations banned the song.[ citation needed ] The lyrics describe a conversation between "Mattie" and "Hattie" concerning the "Wooly Bully" (a creature which Mattie describes as "a thing she saw [that] had two big horns and a wooly jaw" – that is, an American bison) and the desirability of developing dancing skills, although no attempt is made to synthesize these divergent topics. The warning "Let's not be L-7" means "Let's not be square", from the shape formed by the fingers making an L on one hand and a 7 on the other. [14] Sam the Sham underscores the Tex-Mex nature of the song by counting out the rhythm in Spanish and English ("Uno! Dos! One, two, tres, cuatro!"), and the characteristic simple organ riffing, with a tenor saxophone solo in the middle. According to Samudio: "The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it." [15]
Eddie and the Hot Rods released a version of the song as a single in the UK in 1976, but it did not chart. [16] The song is referenced by Joe Strummer in the live version of The Clash hit "Capital Radio" featured on their album Live: From Here to Eternity . The song is also heard in a number of films: Bandits in Milan (in the opening titles), [17] More American Graffiti , The Hollywood Knights , Big Bully , The Rookie , Fast Times at Ridgemont High , Full Metal Jacket , The Shrimp on the Barbie , Splash , Scrooged , Happy Gilmore , Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Monsters vs. Aliens , Religulous , Monsieur Ibrahim , Encino Man , Made in Dagenham , Mr Holland's Opus starring Richard Dreyfuss, and The Chipmunk Adventure , in which it is performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks. The song is also heard in The Wire during a scene in Delores' bar in the season 2 episode Ebb Tide . Bachman–Turner Overdrive performs a cover of the song on the soundtrack for the 1989 Canadian film American Boyfriends (#80 in Canada [18] ).
Gonzo the Great, Rizzo the Rat, and Fozzie Bear covered the song for the 1993 album Muppet Beach Party . The Tubes included a song on their final album from 1985, Love Bomb , entitled "Theme from a Wooly Place," a mashup in which the string arrangement for "Theme from A Summer Place" was played over "Wooly Bully" for 46 seconds. Another cover of the song was made by Canned Heat. The Iranian musical group Zinguala Ha covered the song, renamed "Atal Matal"; it is featured on the Raks Raks Raks – 27 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60s Scene compilation. Ace Cannon recorded an instrumental version for his 1967 album Memphis Golden Hits. Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes released a version of the song on their 1977 album, A Piece of the Rock. [19]
In 1985, the British-based Ghanaian Afro rock band Osibisa released their version as a non-album 7 and 12" single. [20]
In 1966 Yugoslav beat band Tomi Sovilj i Njegove Siluete released "Vule bule", a Serbo-Croatian version of the song. [21] Their version was covered in 1991 by Serbian alternative rock band Bjesovi on their debut album U osvit zadnjeg dana . [21]
In the Philippines, a cover version was sung during EDSA II at EDSA Shrine for a protest to impeach Joseph Estrada who resigned as president two days later.
In 1988, the French band Au Bonheur des Dames recorded a parody song. The title "Roulez Bourrés" (Drive Drunk) is a play on words with "Wooly Bully", which sounds similar in French.
British actor and former footballer, Vinnie Jones (as Vinnie Jones and the Soul Survivors) recorded a cover of the song in 1993, which was released as both a CD single and a 7 inch record in the United Kingdom.
English ska band Bad Manners also recorded a version on their debut album Ska 'n' B . Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos included it on their album Live in San Francisco, recorded in 2011 and released in 2013.
The 1972 song "C Moon" by Wings was inspired by the lyric "Let's not be L-7" from "Wooly Bully." Paul McCartney created "C Moon" to contrast the L-7 neologism featured in "Wooly Bully" as a different signal to be made on the hands, meaning "cool" rather than "square." [22] The phrase "L-7" is also referred to in the lyrics to "C Moon."
In mid-2018 Woolworths in Australia commenced using the music in the "Why I shop at Woolies" TV advertisements for the company.
The final episode (14) of season 4 (1987–88) of the TV series Moonlighting features a skit performance of “Wooly Bully” by character Herb Viola (Curtis Armstrong), based on the pretense that the writers’ strike left the show 10 minutes short. [23] [24]
In a promotion for an upcoming episode of the sitcom Frasier that saw Woody Boyd (the character portrayed by Woody Harrelson on Cheers) visit the title character (played by Kelsey Grammer on both shows) in Seattle, NBC played a re-recording of the song, under the title "Woody Woody".
In 2009, the original 1965 release of the song on the MGM label by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [25]
"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter, and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 3, 1957, for RCA Victor Records. It was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Oh, Lonesome Me", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists, most notably by Ray Charles, whose recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
The Gentrys were an American band of the 1960s and early 1970s, best known for their 1965 hit "Keep On Dancing". A cover by the Bay City Rollers charted No. 9 in the UK in 1971. Follow-up singles charted outside of the Top 40: "Every Day I Have to Cry" (1966), "Spread It on Thick" (1966), "Cinnamon Girl" (1970), "Why Should I Cry" (1970), "Wild World" (1971), and a 'Bubbling Under' Billboard chart entry, "Brown Paper Sack".
Robert Stanley Crewe was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons.
"Hanging by a Moment" is a song by American alternative rock band Lifehouse. It was the first single released from their debut studio album, No Name Face (2000), issued through DreamWorks Records. The track was written by lead singer Jason Wade, who said that he wrote the song in about five minutes without thinking about what would happen to it. It was produced by American record producer Ron Aniello and was mixed by Brendan O'Brien. Musically, "Hanging by a Moment" is a post-grunge song that contains influences of alternative rock.
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"Breathe" is a song written by Stephanie Bentley and Holly Lamar and recorded by American country music artist Faith Hill. Warner Bros. Records released it on October 4, 1999, as the first single from Hill's fourth album of the same name (1999). The song was produced by Byron Gallimore and Hill. "Breathe" became Hill's seventh number one on the Hot Country Songs chart in the United States, spending six weeks at number one. It also peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 2000. Despite not peaking at number one, it was the number-one single of 2000.
"Heaven's on Fire" is a song by the American rock band Kiss. Written by vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley and songwriter Desmond Child, it was the first single released from the group's 1984 album Animalize.
Domingo Samudio, better known by his stage name Sam the Sham, is a retired American rock and roll singer. Sam the Sham is known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains. As the front man for the Pharaohs, he sang on several Top 40 hits in the mid-1960s, including the Billboard Hot 100 runners-up "Wooly Bully" and "Li'l Red Riding Hood".
"Under the Boardwalk" is a pop song written by Kenny Young and Arthur Resnick and recorded by the Drifters in 1964. It charted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on August 22, 1964. The song has since been covered by many other artists, with versions by Bette Midler, Sam & Dave, Tom Tom Club, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joe Royal, The Beach Boys, Bruce Willis, Bad Boys Blue, John Mellencamp and Lynn Anderson all charting in the United States or overseas. The song ranked number 487 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004 and number 489 in 2010.
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Wooly Bully is the debut studio album by the band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, released in 1965 on MGM Records SE-4297 (stereo). It was released following the success of their hit "Wooly Bully", and contains a mixture of cover songs and original compositions. It is an early example of Tex-Mex music that was also being popularized by groups like Sir Douglas Quintet, Freddy Fender and? and the Mysterians.