Talkin’ Music with Jack 8/28/13

Talkin’ Music 8/28/13

     Back in 2008, Donna and I were traveling across the country and don’t ask me how, but we rode into a one traffic light town, turns out we were in Erick, Oklahoma.  At this intersection we noticed the Roger Miller Museum sitting right on the corner, I’m not a big Roger Miller fan, but I thought hey, we’re here, we gotta see the Roger Miller Museum.  Who would have thought Roger Miller came from this little town in the middle of nowhere.  So we pay our two bucks or whatever it was, and I was rather surprised at what I found inside.  I think a lot of us are somewhat familiar with Roger Miller, “Dang Me,” “Chug-A-Lug,” one of my favorites “DoWacka-Do,” “England Swings,” and of course “King of The Road.”

     What I didn’t know was that the Roger Miller Museum was shared by another Erick native named Sheb Wooley.  The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t seem to connect it.  Sheb Wooley was an actor for many years and played Pete Nolan on the hit TV series “Rawhide,” of course he co-starred with Clint Eastwood.  He also appeared in the movies “High Noon” with Gary Cooper, in “Rocky Mountain” he played the bad guy alongside Errol Flynn, in “Giant” he played a rancher and was in the movie “Hoosiers”.  If that wasn’t enough he appeared in over 50 films and also wrote the theme song for “Hee Haw”.

     Wooley was raised on a cattle ranch and when he was eleven years old he talked his dad into trading in a shotgun for an old guitar. Sheb, born Shelby, formed his first band in high school called the Plainview Melody Boys which played at local dances.  After high school Sheb packed his bags and headed for Nashville with a suitcase full of songs.  Before long big stars like Hank Snow and Jimmy Dean began recording his songs

     Somehow I believe up to this point I failed to get your attention as far as his contributions to the music world.  Well for Sheb it came easy, his biggest hit record came to him over dinner with a friend.   He was having dinner with a guy named Don Robertson who was also a songwriter. Don was telling Wooley his young son had come home from school with all these weird jokes like, “What has one eye, one horn, and flies and eats people,” “A one eyed, one horned flying people eater.”

     So Wooley says to Don you know we should write a song about that, Don shook it off and told Sheb no, you go ahead and write it, it’s more your style.  A few days later Wooley was at MGM Records to convince a few executives to record a few of his songs.  He sang a few ballads, one or two up-tempo songs and wasn’t getting much of a response.  When Sheb was finished the President of the company said is that all you got?  Sheb looked down in his guitar case and said, “Well I got one more but nothing you want to hear,” and the President said, “Let’s hear it.”

     By the time Sheb got to the chorus it was sold,

It was a one- eyed, one- horn, flyin’ purple people eater

One-eyed, one-horn, flyin’ purple people eater

One-eyed, one-horn, flyin’ purple people eater

Sure looked strange to me.

In the summer of 1958, “The Purple People Eater” went to number one on the billboard charts and stayed there for six weeks.  Other artists tried to capitalize on the Purple People Eater with songs like “The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor,” but it only hit number 47 on the charts.

So Here We Go

The Purple People Eater

Well, I saw the thing a-comin’ out of the sky

It had one big horn and one big eye

I commenced to shakin’ and I said “Ooh-wee,

It looks like a purple people eater to me.”

It was a one eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people eater

One eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple eater

One eyed, one-horned, flying purple eater

Sure looked strange to me.

Well, he came down to earth and he lit in a tree

I said, “Mister purple people eater, don’t eat me.”

I heard him say in  a voice so gruff,

“I wouldn’t eat you ‘cause you’re so tough.”

Chorus

I said, “Mister purple eater, what’s your line?”

He said, “eatin purple people and it sure is fine

But that’s not the reason that I came to land

I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band.”

Well, bless my soul, rock’n roll, flyin purple people eater

Pigeon-toed, under-growed, flyin’ purple eater

He wears short shorts, friendly little people eater

What a sight to see.

And then he swung from the tree and he lit the ground

And he started to rock, a-really rockin’ around

It was a crazy little ditty with a swingin’ tune

Singa bop bopa loop a lap a loom bam boom.

(Do we really need to continue, hey this was a number one hit for six weeks and sold over three million copies worldwide, OK, let’s rap this thing up)

Well bless my soul, rock’n roll flyin purple people eater

Pigeon-toed, under-growed, flyin purple people eater

He wears short shorts, friendly little people eater

What a sight to see.

Well, he went on his way and then what-a you know

I saw him last night on a T.V. show

He blowin’ it out, really knockin’ ‘em dead

Playin’ rock ‘n roll music through the horn in his head.

Tequila!

Triva answers from last week

#1     The Jaynetts, went to number 2 on the charts with “Sally Go Round The Roses.”

#2     The Pony Tails only hit number 7 on the pop charts but the song took them around the world, “Born To Late.”  A record about an older boy.

#3     “A Thousand Stars in The Sky,” make me realize. Was popularized by Kathy Young and the Innocents back in 1960

This week’s Trivia Question

Brian Hyland was tapped to sing this song, in 1959, songwriter Paul Vance took his two year old daughter to the beach. Watching her play in her bikini, Vance became inspired to write a song about her beachwear.  The song soared to number one for a week back in 1960, can you name the song.

Remember, no looking it up

Answer next week