Wooly Bully was written and first recorded by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs in 1965. It was supposed to be called Hully Gully but since the Olympics already released a song called Hully Gully the record label wasn't comfortable with the title and implored them to change it. They called it Wooly Bully after Domingo Zamudio's cat.
And here's a bit of trivia...by the 50s kids would use the insult "square" to describe somebody who doesn't fit in. A square peg doesn't fit into a round hole. This was from the 1873 book Kenelm Chillingly, His Adventures and Opinions by the British writer Edward Bulwer Lynton who also first wrote "It was a dark and stormy night...". Over time the origin of the phrase was lost and kids just accepted that 'square' was an insult. Much like calling someone a loser by putting your finger and your thumb in the shape of an "L" on your forehead, kids back then would make the shape of a square with their fingers and thumbs (as seen in The Sandlot). This was called L-7.
One of the lyrics in Wooly Bully is "Hattie told Maddie let's not take no chance, Let's not be L-7 come and learn to dance".
Out of the 4 million bands that have covered Wooly Bully this is the lyric that they always get wrong. Bad Manners got this line right but they fucked up a few others.
Thankfully this day and age we have the internet to look up the lyrics.
If you are in a band and you want to cover Wooly Bully please get the lyrics right.
And here's another bit of trivia...the world doesn't exactly need another version of Wooly Bully. If you do play it just stick to playing it live. It's a fun live song but the original Sam the Sham and the Pharoah's version is the only version that should be played out of speakers.
A - Wooly Bully
B - Chicken Part
Sharebeast -or- Zippyshare
1 comment:
late autumn 2012 my wife & i latched onto the original and played it nearly nonstop for a good month or so...great song, dunno why covers always get the lyrics wrong.
Post a Comment