Speaker 1: Pudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Have you ever put butter on a pup?
Speaker 3: Don?
Speaker 2: You're so freakin good? Have you ever put butter on.
Speaker 4: A pop time?
Speaker 2: If you haven't bet, I thank you?
Speaker 5: Should everybody come along with us?
Speaker 2: Have you ever put butter on a hot It's so
freakin good? Have you ever butt butterer? If you haven't
bet a bank.
Speaker 6: You should?
Speaker 7: How does sassa?
Speaker 8: Jonathan Disberry Jukes?
Speaker 9: Hey, this is Tom Chapin.
Speaker 10: Hello, just preaching in rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 7: You're listening right now.
Speaker 10: Hello, everybody, Welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Show on Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. Tonight we're
going super super super intellectual with the hokey pokey. But
before we hop in, allow me to introduce all the
cranbones who were joining us here tonight. First and foremost
from the Richter Observatory. He said everything can be a
pinata if you hit it hard enough. Neil Richter is here.
Speaker 11: That's absolutely true.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to figure out.
Speaker 8: I hope.
Speaker 10: We'll get to that, and we may have to do
some editing depending on how that plays out. And the
host of Paranormally Yours she wants to know why toilet
paper needs commercials because who's not buying it?
Speaker 12: Well, you know what, though, I think you can tell
who's not sham Probably.
Speaker 10: They probably aren't watching TV either.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah?
Speaker 13: You know you know how so many people get these
scam emails from Nigerian princes who want to give you money,
but you have to give them your bank.
Speaker 4: Account from versus they can send it YadA YadA.
Speaker 8: Hi there scams.
Speaker 4: Well, I got one from an Egyptian pharaoh.
Speaker 1: Coo a real barrel? Oh boy, yeah, but it turns
out it was just a pyramid scheme.
Speaker 10: Such a long walk. Sorry, well, welcome back anyway. Gail
and the host of silver Screen. She saw a five
dollar bill walk into a bar and the bartender says, sorry,
this is the singles bar. Mercedes Kent is here.
Speaker 9: That four five dollar bill.
Speaker 10: Everybody, and last but not least, the host of Shaving Cream.
She thinks it's amazing that somebody came up with a
cereal so bad that adding two scoops of raisins made
it better. Barb Reveal is here.
Speaker 4: Everyone.
Speaker 10: Sorry if you likes, but what can I say?
Speaker 9: Okay, yeah like golden raisins.
Speaker 14: Yes you don't like golden raisins. Oh my gosh, I
actually like those better. Okay, Yeah, And in Britain they
call those sultanas.
Speaker 4: I don't know why.
Speaker 10: It's a better name for an inferior product. All right.
So the assignment for the Crambones this week was to
find a tune about a body part that you can
stick in, stick out, and shake all about while still
keeping this a family friendly show. So hokey pokey it
is the song itself. Let's talk about the origins of
the song itself. Like a lot of folks songs, the
origins are a bit ambiguous, but we're gonna go way back.
We start with a line from an old Catholic mass
hak corpus mayem this is my body that more morphed
into hocus pocus that we hear more recently. That's where
that phrase came from, and hocus pocus supposedly turned into
hokey pokey, so supposedly. Maybe the earliest documented evidence of
a song similar to the one that we know goes
back to eighteen fifty seven. Two sisters who were visiting Bridgewater,
New Hampshire from Canterbury, England, taught the locals a song
that they brought with them from England called right Elbow
In that had several verses along with accompanying movements. It said,
I put my right hand in, I put my right
hand out. I give them a hand to shake, shake, shake,
and turn myself about. Sounds familiar, right, a little bit similar,
So that's another. Maybe similar songs have been found around
Scotland from even earlier, again, who knows. In nineteen forty two,
during World War Two, an Irish songwriter and publisher named
Jimmy Kennedy wrote a song and dance called the Hokey
Kochie cook e Y to entertain Canadian troops. Also in
nineteen forty two, also in England, and also to entertain
Canadian troops who apparently needed a lot of entertaining, songwriter
named Al Tabor wrote a song and dance called the
Hokey Pokey, which wound up being similar to Kennedy's. Tabor
said he named it after ice cream vendors known as
the Hokey Pokey men that were apparently in England. I
had never heard of them me neither, I don't know.
In nineteen forty six, two musicians in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Robert
Degan and Joe Brier wrote and recorded the Hokey Pokey Dance,
which was written for guests at Pocono Mountain Resorts. But
it's not the one that we know, not yet. The
real one, the real hockey Pokey that we know was
generally credited to Charles mccac Taft Baker and Larry Laprize,
who wrote it in nineteen forty nine to entertain skiers
at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho. They made a
recording as the Sun Valley Trio. It was a hit
with guests, so Laprize took it upon himself to copyright
it without telling the other two, and then when they
found out, they sue and wound up ultimately sharing a
piece of the copyright in nineteen fifty. So for a
little while, Larry Lapriez was the sole owner of the
entire Hokey Pokey.
Speaker 4: Oh my.
Speaker 10: Somehow, just for a little bit, their record flopped and
it wasn't until you know what I have it. Let's
just play just a little bit of the first recording
of the Hope to Poke, not the whole thing.
Speaker 15: Right, you're right, you're right, and it's all your left.
Speaker 2: Foot, all right.
Speaker 10: You get the idea right. So that record flopped maybe
because it starts with the accordion.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I can't believe no comment, I can't believe it, right.
Speaker 1: I like the way he yells out the next body.
Speaker 10: We're at the on the tipping point of and roll.
So starting with the accordion may not have been the
best option at that time. So three years later, nineteen
fifty three, Ray Anthony's Orchestra recorded it as a double
a side single with the Bunny Hop on the other
side another song dance combo there. That one made it
to number thirteen, and that would be the version that
we know today. And I know I heard it at
a bunch of bar misss and stuff growing up. They
were still playing this recording, So I'll play you just
a little bit of this What's happen?
Speaker 4: Did not have a lot else to amuse themselves.
Speaker 10: That is true. That's true. Plus, you know what, if
you have a song that gives you the instructions as
you're going along, everybody can participate. That's the whole idea.
That's why I was used to entertain people and all that.
So see if this recording sounds a little bit more familiar.
Speaker 4: Bud you're right, you're run, Bud, you're right.
Speaker 11: Jot, same idea.
Speaker 10: They give you the instructions for what's coming up next,
which someone like me I would need that because I'm
not allowed to dance. I'm very bad at it. So Laprize,
Larry Laprize, the brief sole owner of The Hokey poke
died in nineteen ninety six, and comedian Craig Robinson, who
we would know best from the Office, one of the
guys from the Office, wrote an excellent joke about it
about having a hard time getting Laprize into the casket.
You could see where that was leading. Yeah, all right,
I'm just gonna let that hang.
Speaker 4: Those poor morticians.
Speaker 10: They tried to put the left leg in. What happens?
So there you go. All right, So let's see where
the show takes us and how much edit we have
to do at the end. I generally went from head
to toe except for mine. Then we're going to go
back to the top. So Neil, you're gonna lead us
off this week?
Speaker 8: All right? Well, heads up, everybody, heads up, It's time
to get ahead. And I don't mean no calm down,
calm down. This is the Hokey Pokey not the Hanky panky.
Speaker 10: Or murder in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 8: Yeah, because my hockey pokey body part extremity is the head.
So it's time to get ahead, and I could certainly
use one. But that's beside the point. Let's talk about
the song hold Your Head Up by the band Argent.
So first of all, let's talk about the man who
started the band and then named it after himself. English
musician keyboardist Rodney Terrence Argent, but you can call him
Rod was born in nineteen forty five and his career
has spanned over fifty years. Rod Argent first rose to
fame in the mid nineteen sixties as the co founder
and leader of the rock band The Zombies. Along with
lead vocalist Colin Blunstone. Rod Argent was one of the
Zombie's main composers, and he also wrote many of the
lyrics as well. Now The Zombie signed a record contract
and recorded their first and only UK Top forty hit,
She's Not There, in nineteen sixty four. They then released
a number of popular singles, including Tell Her No, also
written by rod Argent, in nineteen sixty five, but the
sales never matched the initial success of she's not there.
Speaker 10: So.
Speaker 8: Frustrated by their continuing lack of success and a decline
in the demand for their live concerts, the Zombies split
up in nineteen sixty seven, but not before recording their
final out album called Odyssey and Oracle, that was released
in the UK in April nineteen sixty eight, several months
after the band had broken up. Now, of course, the
irony here is that one of the LP's tracks, Time
of the Season, also written by Rod Argent, was released
it as a single and eventually became a huge hit
here in the US in nineteen sixty nine, and it
is perhaps their best known song, and it peaked on
the Billboard Hot one hundred at number three. Now let
me take a little side note here, because this is
kind of interesting here in the US. You got a
top top forty number three single, but no band to
go out and promote it. Well, what do you do?
You get together, like four guys from Texas, dress them up,
and they go out as the Zombies around the United
States playing there songs. What's wrong with that? Nothing except
that's not the Zombies And two of the members, drummer
Frank Beard and bass player Dusty Hill, would go on
to have a little more success on their own in
a band called Zizy Top. Now, if you see a
picture of this Arizette's Zombies, you see two guys wearing
cowboy hats. That's the giveaway the Zombies. The English Zombies
would never have been wearing cowboy hats. But hey, the
gigs the gig, right Anyway. After the Zombies broke up,
rod Argent went on to form the band Argent in
nineteen sixty nine. This new band had a much heavier sound,
but still had traits like using minor keys and using
complex lyrics that had also been found in The Zombies
as well, and this is probably due to the fact
that wrote a lot of their material with former Zombie
band mate Chris White, so there was some lineage there.
Guitarist and vocalist Russ Ballard, who will talk about in
a little bit. Bassist Jim Rodford and drummer Bob Henritt
completed the lineup, and the vocals were shared between both
Russ Ballard and Rod Argent. In their initial incarnation, which
was from between nineteen sixty nine until nineteen seventy six,
the band Argent had three UK Top forty singles, including
the one we're about to hear right now, hold your
head up.
Speaker 10: And any its b.
Speaker 3: A you that you contain name and the store and
see you cry. You can lay your head up up
before your oh joy, oh ya.
Speaker 1: And anything stand.
Speaker 3: Just like bad as all you artifaction don't change than
you do. O your head, your head oh yoah cook
com oh yo. Everybody said, just let.
Speaker 8: Them so you.
Speaker 3: Shut dot change that you do. Bung your hand off,
bug your head.
Speaker 8: And hold your head up. Spent twelve weeks on the
charts in nineteen seventy two, reaching number five in the US,
the UK and in Canada, all three of them number five. Now.
Another Argent song, God Gave Rock and Roll to You
was another hit that happened the next year, in nineteen
seventy three. Now. That song was also later covered by
Kiss in nineteen ninety one. That song was written by
Russ Ballard, who I mentioned before, who really had a
post Argent career mainly songwriting for other artists. That's where
he really made his mark, he wrote. Speaking of Kiss,
he wrote the song New York Groove that Ace Frehley
had done in nineteen seventy eight, when all the members
released solo albums. That was the only that was like
the only hit out of all four albums. I think
and you still hear it around today. He wrote, always
wrote for so many people, I can't even go through
the whole list. The band America he wrote you can
do Magic and I Think another song for them. So yeah,
he really he was like a go to guy almost.
If you needed a hit, you talk to Russ Ballard. Now,
as far as rod Argent, he went on to write
music for TV and he worked as a session musician
and a producer, and as a result, he was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a
member of the Zombies in twenty nineteen. Now, speaking of
the Zombies, rod Argent and Colin Blunstone would reunite and
perform as the Zombies over the years. Now I got
a chance to actually see them play together as the Zombies.
This is back in the mid two thousands, sometime down
in New York City at Irving Plaza, and it was
part of a tour that was put together by Little
Stephen van zandt He of course of the underground garage Sopranos,
East Street Band, you know that guy and the band,
along with the Argent and blunt Stone, also included former
Argent bassist Jim Rodford, who had also in the meantime
spent a lot of time playing for The Kinks, I
think from the late seventies to the when they split
up in the early nineties. Now at the show, in
addition to Zombies hits, they also included two Argent tunes,
the one we heard hold Your Head Up and God
Gave Rock and Roll to You. Maybe a contractual obligation,
I don't know, but it was still pretty cool that
to hear them play that along with the with the
Zombies hits. The unusual part of this particular show was
that the relatively younger and newer members of the band,
who for some unknown reason insisted on like kind of
adding a more modern style to the you know, the
sixties the mid sixties hits of the Zombies and maybe
the ones you know from Margin too. But by that,
I mean the guitarist was like kind of using hammer ons,
you know, that kind of you know, it's a technique
Eddie van Halen type thing, you know, an eighties It
was an eighties sound, and I don't know a lot
of people in the audience. It didn't go over well
with them. They were like I could see them all
looking like shaking their head. No, no, not, there's anything
wrong with playing like that. It just didn't fit what
was going on. And for purists like myself included, you know,
it was kind of you know, he could have done
without that. But hey, I'm still glad I went. It
was still a lot of one. It was still good.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 8: Rod Argent about a year ago then he was seventy
nine years old, unfortunately suffered a stroke and he's now
since retired from touring. He I think he just turned eighty,
not too long ago. I think Colin Blunstone is still
out there. Russ Ballad is still out there. Unfortunately, the
bass player, Jim Rodford, he sadly passed away in twenty eighteen. Finally,
there is a documentary film chronicling the career of the zombies.
It's called Hung Up on a Dream and it just
came out last month and it's in theaters here across
the US, so and catch that. I'm keeping an eye
out for it. But the thing again about you know,
if there were no zombies, there'd be no Argent. But
the zombies were kind of a sleeper group. I mean,
they really didn't have the impact of as a lot
of the British invasion until afterwards. I think people started
discovering their songs, and like I said, the Time of
the Season was a huge hit. And you know, they'd
already on their separate ways by that point, and enough
so that they ended up in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. But so, yeah, you never know that's true.
What's gonna happen. So anyway, keep holding your head up
there and put your left foot in and your right
foot out, and put your head wherever it fits.
Speaker 10: And yeah, one stuck anywhere.
Speaker 8: Uh huh.
Speaker 10: Yeah. I can make a few suggestions for some people,
but we're just gonna do that. I know where mine is,
all right, Thanks Neil, excellent excellent lead off there. We're
going to take a quick break and see see what's next.
I don't know. Stick around, we'll find out. Hudson River Radio,
Your dog likes us.
Speaker 9: This concludes the first part of this cassette. Please turn
the cassette over and begin again.
Speaker 10: On side to.
Speaker 1: This is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3: A y.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 10: Welcome back, Gail. What do you have for us?
Speaker 12: Related I just realized not only does the title of
the song I chose, which is called Catch These Fists,
fits the topic, but the artist name fits the topic
also because I chose the song by the band wet Leg.
Wet Leg or an English indie rock band from the
Isle of Wight w I g h T founded in
twenty nineteen by Rihan Teesdale and she's on vocals and
guitar and Hester Chambers, who is on just guitar. Also
in the band are Josh Mabaraki, Ellis Durand and Henry
Holmes on the drums. Now the two co founders, Cheesdale
and Chambers, first met at Platform One College of Music
on the Isle of Wight while studying. After ten years
of being friends, they formed a band in twenty nineteen
under the name wet Leg and later signed with Domino
Recording Company. Now, how did they come up with the
band name? There are several different theories. In a December
twenty twenty one interview, they said that they chose the
name by picking different emoji combinations okay, and in in
April twenty to twenty twenty two YouTube interview, they said
it came from an isle of White slang to describe
non locals on the island. Those who had crossed the
over to the island were said to have had a
wet leg from getting off the boat.
Speaker 9: Wait, it has nothing to do with a dog.
Speaker 10: That's interesting. I thought that, or not wanting to give
up your line.
Speaker 12: For tickets, oh, or being in Times Square in New
Year's Eye.
Speaker 7: Would do that.
Speaker 9: That's cold wet leg.
Speaker 8: Off.
Speaker 12: But I don't want to know DM I people. Former
drummer Doug Richards, in a July twenty twenty three interview,
alleged that the name stemmed from a list of stupid
band names that was added to anytime they would think
of a funny combination of words, which is something I
do in my head. I come up with funny band
names all the time. He also said that the original
stupid band name was wet Book, but was misheard as
wet leg.
Speaker 4: How do you mistake leg? Must be yeah, I guess
or something.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 12: Their first album came out in twenty twenty one, and
the first time I heard the lead single from that,
it really amused me because it's called Chez Long, and
I misunderstood what they were singing. They were singing actually
on a Shaise Long. I thought they were singing I'm
a Chez Long, so that to me sounds even better personally, but.
Speaker 4: That's just me because I'm twisted.
Speaker 12: And that came out on their first album, which was
Eponymous and At That album debuted in twenty twenty two
at number one on the UK Album's Chart and on
Australia's Area Albums Chart. The album was shortlisted for the
twenty twenty two Mercury Prize. At the sixty fifth Annual
Grammy Awards, wet Leg won Best Alternative Music Album for
their debut and Best Alternative Music Performance for Chez Long,
and they were nominated for Best New Artist. They also
won Best New Artist and Best British Group at the
twenty twenty three Awards. So the album that Catch These
Fists is from isn't even out yet. I happen to
hear the song on the radio and looked it up
because I love their style.
Speaker 4: Their style of music is a lot of fun.
Speaker 12: Actually, they remind me a lot of Mercedes' daughter has
a band, and they actually remind me of New Myths
by the Sands, So I think you'll kind of recogn
is a similar sound when you hear the song and
it's funny because when they were announcing that they were
going to come back with new music.
Speaker 4: This was in March of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 12: This year, they played a secret show under the name
Uma Thurman at the Green Door Store in Brighton in England,
and they performed several of the unreleased songs. The band's
new single, Catch These Fists, which we Will Hear in
a Moment, was released on the first of April twenty
twenty five, coinciding with the announcement of their second album
called Moisturizer and that will come out on the eleventh
of July. Alongside the release of Catch These Fists, they
announced a UK tour and a North America tour on
their Instagram. The song itself rebukes late night pickup artists.
How can you catch a medical medicine ball? Can you
catch yourself when you fall? You should be careful? Do
you catch my drift? Because what I really want to
know is can you catch these fists? I know too
well just what you're like. I don't want your love.
I just want to fight.
Speaker 10: And I it seems like the opposite of the hokey pokey.
Speaker 4: Pretty well maybe yeah, but it seems like Doctor Seus's
the dark side. Anyway, Let's have a listen, and you guys,
let me know what you think.
Speaker 16: Can you catch yourself?
Speaker 7: You fall?
Speaker 1: You should be careful.
Speaker 16: Do you catch my drift? Because what I you want
to know is can you catch things?
Speaker 10: Fist man.
Speaker 3: Can blow up? Show up? I want.
Speaker 16: Really to the club. Stupid is stupid? Does lisy? I'm
gonna get some means get up?
Speaker 3: Yeah, ye ye ye kept nd yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah up.
Speaker 16: He took it seek to do. I saw him sit
in and I through the saw as happens like at night.
Some guy comes up says almost time. I just threw
up in my mouth when I just tried to ask
me how it approads me. I just wanted to tons
with my friends.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 17: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: Well I.
Speaker 4: Well, okay, guys, what do you think I like it?
Speaker 2: It does?
Speaker 9: It is reminiscent of New Myths, isn't it though?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: It sounds like the other song you know that the
long not exactly the same, but the same. It kind
of breaks down and and female kind of like it's
going on here. It's intriguing. I think they're very intriguing.
Speaker 9: Are we saying Shay's lounge ses.
Speaker 8: Long, isn't it It's spelled like lounge right, No, it's.
Speaker 12: Yellow andy ses long mm hmm.
Speaker 8: And that means.
Speaker 4: Literally a long chair.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, that's well like.
Speaker 4: It's that. It's that piece of piece of furniture that
Mercedes used to have.
Speaker 11: You don't have it, no, and have it all right,
it exists.
Speaker 10: At least I took my Christmas card photo.
Speaker 9: It's being held for me. Not to worry.
Speaker 1: It's like the best photo I ever took in my life.
Speaker 12: So wet Leg have cited various bands and artists as influences.
Speaker 4: You know, there's some there's one that I haven't heard
of that somebody else in the group will probably have
heard of. Bombay Bicycle Club.
Speaker 9: I've heard of them. Okay, I don't know anything about them,
but I knew one of.
Speaker 4: You would have at least heard of them. PJ.
Speaker 12: Harvey, I've heard her. The White Stripes I love them,
the Strokes I love them, and the Kings of Leon
I love them as well. So that's I guess one
of the reasons I like wet Leg.
Speaker 8: That's really intriguing as well as the song is that
their influences are not that at least from my point
of view, are not that long ago. They're like from
the two thousands. Obviously, the two thousands have been around
for twenty five years, right, you know, to say somebody
is your influence, you think, well, somebody you know from
fifth years ago, or one of the pioneers of rock
from the nineteen fifties yea, or from the sixties. So
it just kind of blows my mind a little bit that, oh,
we're influenced by the early two thousands. I'm like, I guess,
I guess it's possible, but.
Speaker 12: It makes you think we'll considering they started the band
in twenty nineteen, they're young, Neil, Yes.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well that's no. I think I'm old. See that's
that's more than them.
Speaker 12: I wasn't going to say that, but your prenching of
the choir Neil literally no.
Speaker 8: No, I not know this. I know. I'm laughing at
myself for like going oh wow, And I'm like, of
course it's entirely possible. Yep. Why wouldn't it be so?
Speaker 4: Between the fists and the wet leg those are my
body parts.
Speaker 9: You have a lot of things to put in and out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and shake all about.
Speaker 10: Be careful. Well we're punching you while you're shaking it
all about.
Speaker 18: I think the wet leg is an after you put Oh, okay,
I guess there will be some editing of this.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, thank you, Gail and Barbara. We're up to you.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 1: Well, if you ask me, the hokey pokey is his
practice for later on when you want to play twister.
So anyway, the song I chose for tonight's topic is
Legs by zz Top that we mentioned before. They formed
in Houston in nineteen sixty nine, as we mentioned before,
by founding members Billy Gibbons on vocals and guitar, drummer
Frank Beard and bass his vocalist Dusty Hill. They formed
after Gibbons's previous band, Moving Sidewalks, disbanded that same year.
Gibbons came up with the name zz Top while observing
concert posters in his home, and two posters in particular
got his attention, one for BB King and one for
ZZ Hill. He thought of combining the two names to
zz King, but then he was looking at their placement
on the wall and said, well, King is at the top.
So he came up with zz Top and there you
go with that. So during the band's early years there
was a marked lack of interest from American record company,
so they signed with London Records, which was a British
label that marketed records for Decca Records from nineteen forty
seven to nineteen eighty. They released their first album in
nineteen seventy one, entitled Wait for It. Zz Top's first album.
Speaker 12: Nice so meta, very very straightforward, doesn't leave you guessing.
Speaker 1: So this was followed by albums tace Ombrace in nineteen
seventy three and fan Nango in nineteen seventy five, and
their singles lak Range and Tosh, also a potential hokey
pokey buddy part, gained extensive airplay. Their nineteen seventy six
to seventy seven North American tour was wildly successful and
got the band even more extensive airplay, especially with the
eventual influence of MTV. Their song Legs was released on
the nineteen eighty three album Eliminator. Gibbons was inspired to
write it after he saw a woman on the side
of the road while driving during a downpour and taking
notice of her legs turn the car around to go
back and offer her a ride, but she had somehow vanished,
So no, she.
Speaker 10: Ran away because she got creaked out.
Speaker 1: So let's listen to Legs, which we will do with
our ears. Maybe not such a popular hope pokey body car,
but great for appreciating rock and roll.
Speaker 3: She got no, No, she never bed. She knows how to.
Speaker 5: Shell.
Speaker 3: They want.
Speaker 19: You the.
Speaker 3: You know the bad. She's not bad.
Speaker 18: She got.
Speaker 3: To the bed. She kind of chance.
Speaker 2: And what is it that?
Speaker 3: Doverybody want to said? She gave you? She's a she's
a she got she not, she do.
Speaker 17: Not.
Speaker 3: She gotta die on the tidy up.
Speaker 2: The wh.
Speaker 3: Shad come.
Speaker 1: She The Legs was released as a single in nineteen
eighty four, a year after the release of the Eliminator album,
and reach number eight on the Billboard holl one hundred.
The band is known for Gibbons and Hill's long beards
and sunglasses, cowboy hats. The whole thing zz Tops sound
was based on gibbons bluestyle and Beard's rhythm section, and
also for their amusing lyrics, which I find ironic coming
from a band who called their first albums zz Tops
first album. But since they're way more successful than I'll
ever be. Who am I to judge the.
Speaker 10: Spinny guitars, Yeah, there the whole story behind that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, if I were to pick a band from the
seventies the least likely to translate into the eighties like
on MTV, to the MTV generation, I would have said,
zz Top will not be that band. Yeah, But lo
and behold they did it perfectly, Yes, and it was perfect.
Speaker 10: They they did high quality videos. They didn't do the
typical standing there lip syncing kind of stuff that most
of them were doing. They they took like a film
ish kind of approach.
Speaker 8: And yeah in the heyday of new wave, with you know,
all the bright colors and you know, it was like
these older guys with long beards and big cowboy hats,
but they made it. Yeah, with the fuzzy guitars spinning
around and of course that car beat that the car
I was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was getting to that, but yeah, the car
was probably. I think the Eliminator album actually could have
been known as a concept album, and all the videos
had the car in that for I think there were
like six videos in a row that had that. So sadly,
Dusty Hill passed in twenty twenty one. There have been
a few lineup changes over the years, and I had
the pleasure of attending one of your concerts in twenty
nineteen with some of my fellow Cranbones, and the band
really rocked and we had a great time. Does anybody
want to add anything?
Speaker 6: I can't.
Speaker 18: I can't think about them without thinking of the movie
Tough Turf, which was in nineteen eighty five, James Spader
Kim Richards movie.
Speaker 1: I love James.
Speaker 4: Spater, me too. I like, look that up. I've never
seen that.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, it's so bad, it's so good.
Speaker 1: Well, the funny thing is the backdrop during this concert, Yeah,
I show us about to say that. Yeah, they have
shown us like little snippets from these B horror movies
and B science fiction movies, and we were hysterical because
we recognized a lot of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we both yelled out Jan and the pan
from the fraying of the wooden tie.
Speaker 1: Like I remember my Facebook post. I took a picture
and I just said, we're at the Seasies Hop concert
and they're showing us Jan in the pan for some reason.
Speaker 18: Well, you might be disappointed them because this is a
nineteen eighty five, like High School movie where James Spader
is the new kid in school and they it's really.
Speaker 9: You know, take it out on him. Should I say?
Speaker 1: Cool? No, thank you for that, and I appreciate it.
All right, that's all I got.
Speaker 4: Very cool good stuff.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it is all right. We're gonna take a second,
real quick break, and we're gonna be back with even more.
So stick around.
Speaker 5: Let'son River Radio dot com.
Speaker 10: Hudson River Radio dot com. Okay, Mercedes, I am so
ready come up with it. I'm not allowed to call
you Nana. I'm not allowed to call you grandma. Oh no,
congratulations again. But we haven't come up with a good
We need something.
Speaker 9: Don't call me hokey pokey.
Speaker 10: Okay.
Speaker 18: So in the hockey pokey, you put your right foot in,
you put your right foot out, follow it by your
left foot.
Speaker 9: But what if your feet are just too damn big.
Speaker 18: I'm talking about a song made famous by Fats Waller
in nineteen thirty nine, although Leon Redbone, the Ink Spots,
Chubby Chucker, and even the Beatles have recorded their own
versions of it. I saw eight misbehaving on Broadway with
by the Way, which Nell Carter wanted tony four in
maybe nineteen seventy eight with my mom. We had a
tradition of buying each other at theater tickets. And when
I heard this song, I'm telling you, I about fell
out of my seat.
Speaker 9: I left so hard. I mean, well, you'll see.
Speaker 4: This song was.
Speaker 18: Composed in nineteen thirty six by Fred Fisher with lyrics
by Ada Benson, but Fats Waller definitely adds his own flair.
Speaker 9: So let's just hear it, and I dare you not
to smile?
Speaker 6: Who's not walking around here? Sounds like baby padder? Baby
elephant padder, That's what I calls it.
Speaker 17: Say up and hollow At a table for two, there
were four of us me.
Speaker 2: You're big, feeting you from your.
Speaker 7: Ankle up, I'll say you show a sleep from that down.
Speaker 17: There's just too much feet. Yes, your feet's too big.
Don't want your cause your feets too big. You can't
use your cause your feets too big. I really hit
you cause your peach too big. N come around where
you get them? Ain't hotam yo?
Speaker 7: Girl?
Speaker 10: She likes you.
Speaker 7: She thinks your nice.
Speaker 2: God what takes to being paired?
Speaker 10: She said?
Speaker 7: She likes your face, she likes your rig.
Speaker 17: Man, oh man, and things are too big. All your
feet stupid. You don't want you cause your feet stupid.
Speaker 7: Mad at you because your feasts too big.
Speaker 6: I hate you because your feet's too bad.
Speaker 17: My goodness, gun the gunboats, ship, ship, shift. All your
pedal extremities of colossal.
Speaker 2: To me, you look just by my fossile. You got
me walking, talking, and swalking because your feet to me, yeah,
I'm on and walk that thing. Oh I never heard
of fox walking.
Speaker 7: Mercy, your your pedal extrematy is really obnoxious. One never knows.
Speaker 9: I mean.
Speaker 12: So.
Speaker 18: According to the Portland Center Stage website, not only was
Fat swell Er one of the greatest pianists jazz has
ever known, he was also one of the most exuberantly
funny entertainers, and, as so often happened, one facet tends
to obscure the other. His extraordinary light and flexible touch
belied his ample physical girth. He could swing as hard
as any pianist alive or dead. In his classic James P.
Johnson derived stride manner and Brian, you're going to explain
that later with time stride okay, of no of playing
piano okay, or maybe you won't with a powerful left hand,
delivering the octaves and tents in a tireless, rapid, seamless stream.
While Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ
and Hammond organ and jazz, he called the pipe organ
the god box, adapting his irresistible sense of swing to
the pedals and a staccato hand, while making imaginative changes
of the registration. Fats Waller born in nineteen oh four,
birth name Thomas Wright Waller was the seventh of eleven children,
five of which survived childhood. He was called Fats because
he became a very big man, about three hundred pounds.
His mother was a musician organist at the family church.
His father was a trucker and pastor in New York City.
He started playing the piano when he was six, and
began playing the organ at his father's church at the
age of ten.
Speaker 9: He was a child prodigy.
Speaker 18: He left school at fifteen for work as an organist
at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. He also studied composition
at Juilliard. Waller's first recording first recordings Brian were Muscle
Shoals Blues Excellent and Birmingham Blues, were made in October
nineteen twenty two for Okay Records and that's ok e eight.
Speaker 9: So I think I'm okay okay.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 18: Weller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes Barbara
in the nineteen twenties and thirties and sold them for
small amounts and attributed them to other composers and lyricists.
Speaker 1: Okay, delca.
Speaker 18: So let's jump to al Capone, and yes there is
a connection. Just to hear me out well then Alcatroz.
Speaker 9: Nope.
Speaker 18: Al Capone was born in New York City, joined the
Five Points Gang and became a bounder in brothels. Later,
he moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard for Johnny Torio,
head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol during Prohibition.
Torio went into retirement after being almost killed in an
incident and handed the business over to Capone, who expanded
the business. Capone, who was a fan of jazz, enlisted
the help of black jazz musicians in his clubs. In
around nineteen twenty five, Fat Swaller was making a name
for himself. Maurice Waller, Fat's son, tells this story. At
twenty one, fat Swaller left New York for a series
of gigs in the Sherman Hotel in the Windy City.
He was a huge hit, and his fame spread quickly.
There After a performance one evening, Fats felt a gun
in his side and a couple of thugs breathing down
his neck. They pushed him into a black limousine and
told the driver to head to East Cicero. After they arrived,
they prodded him into an exclusive club and demanded that
he play for the party when that was already in
full swing. Some accounts say Fat heard him laughing, others
say that he saw the infamous scarred face, but either way,
the party was four al Capolm Capone's boys had decided
to surprise Al Capone with Fats Waller as a birthday present.
Speaker 9: You know, as you do, I guess.
Speaker 18: According to one account, excuse me that that claims to
be from Fat's son, He was paid one hundred dollars
a song and given limitless expensive champagne and food, and
partied with Capone for three full days.
Speaker 14: Oh boy.
Speaker 9: He slept at his.
Speaker 18: Piano between sets. When he was set free and pushed
back into the limo, Fats not only wet, excuse me
went home with his life. He was several thousand dollars richer,
and like Compone, Fats was a preacher's son and never
got into trouble with the law himself, although he did
like a good gallon of bootleg whiskey, and he once
joked that he wrote the song ain't misbehaving in a
jail cell because he forgot to pay some almony.
Speaker 4: Oops.
Speaker 18: Here's a quote from Louis Armstrong. I've seen Fats Waller
enter a place and all the people in the joint
would rave, and you could see the gladness in their faces, honest,
and Fats wouldn't be in the place a hot minute
before he would tell them a fine joke and have
everybody holding his side from laughter.
Speaker 9: Hah haha, he kills me.
Speaker 18: Some other songs written by Waller include I'm gonna sit
right down and write myself a letter, this joint is
Jumpin' You're a Viper, that's the reefer song, and Honeysuckle Rose.
Waller's son described his father's life as one big party
that could only be interrupted by music. After many years
of too much eating and drinking, too many women, too
much work, too much fun, and not enough rest. Willer
contracted pneumonia during a stand in calif California nightclub, shortly
after finishing Stormy Weather. It was on the train back
to New York that his condition worsened. The train was
in Kansas City on December fifteenth, nineteen forty three, when
Fatz Waller died at the age of thirty nine.
Speaker 4: Oh my God.
Speaker 18: According to the Kennedy Center website, if an exuberant stage
presence was Waller's trademark, musical innovation was his legacy. He
raised the Harlem stride stock Does that mean, I think
to you? He raised the Harlem stride style of piano playing,
characterized by an oompap beat in the left hand and
syncopation in the right to a fine art. Fusing elements
of blues, classical music's music, boogie woogie, and rag time
with stride, Waller fashioned a new sound that was uniquely
his own. So when it comes to the hokey pokey,
you can keep your big feet out because one another
never knows.
Speaker 10: Do what you're gonna trim Somebody next to you that's
had a lot of life in a short amount of time.
Speaker 18: Wow, if you've ever seen any of his YouTube videos.
They are absolutely amazing. Sure, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 9: So I love that song. It's hilarious.
Speaker 10: The word extremity in too many popular tunes.
Speaker 9: Your pedal extremities are colossal.
Speaker 10: That's great, excellent. So we went from top to bottom.
We're gonna go back to the top now with a
song by Paul Anka called put Your Head on My Shoulder.
Aw So Paul Anka. I don't know if we ever
talked about him. He was born in Ottawa July thirtieth,
nineteen forty one. He's almost eighty four years old. His
father was Syrian, his mother was Lebanese. He wrote his
first number one hit when he was fourteen. How are
you guys doing so far? I have not had a
number one yet. I have passed fourteen a long time ago.
It was a song called Diana, about a girl that
he saw in church. That was in nineteen fifty six.
He attended public school in Ottawa. The number of songs
he wrote is just absolutely mind blowing. Way too much
to cover now, but just a few examples. He wrote
the theme to The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson back
when Doc Severnson ran the band. Polanca wrote that he
translated the English lyrics to My Way that Frank Sinatra
made a giant hit. He wrote Lonely Boy, You're having
My Baby, which was expertly made fun of on WKRP
in Cincinnati, and then emotionally used the way it was
supposed to be on the Big Bank theory. I'm gonna
go with WKRP on that one. He's acted in a
whole bunch of stuff. He was famously recorded having a
meltdown in the nineteen eighties. I'll lah Casey casem if
you remember that way back when. So if you want
a little treat, go ahead and look that one up.
You're probably wondering did he make an appearance on The Simpsons,
And yes he did. He was in the Treehouse of
Heart season seven in nineteen eighty five, and he was
writing commercial jingles that was part of the gag I
won't blow It. Even though it's been out for many,
many years. He now has his own podcast titled My Way.
He is still performing at almost eighty four because I
guess the eighty four is like the new fifty five,
which is the old seventy six, or I don't know
where that works. I have no idea, but he's still
going strong.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 10: A quote from Paul regarding the song, he said, put
your head on my shoulder. That was your objective that weekend,
to get her to get excuse me, to get her
to get the head on the shoulder, maybe get a
kiss and get your hand in her blouse. All that
I understood. So he was nice and sweet up until
one particular part in that stage, at which point, yeah,
at which point his feet's too big and he tripped
over himself. He wrote and recorded the song in nineteen
fifty eight at age seventeen, when he was at peak
teen idleness at the time, still going to public high school,
so still living kind of a normal life while being
this megastar. And how we put it at home at home? Yeah,
somehow he pulled it off. The song was released in
August of nineteen fifty nine. It hit number two. It
was blocked from the number one spot by Bobby Darren's
Mack the Knife, which we had talked about before. More recently,
clips from the song became popular in a TikTok thing
a couple of years ago, so that may be how
some people recognize the song. And supposedly the inspiration came
from going to a school assembly. Like I said, public school,
goes to a school assembly. Kids in front of him,
A girl leans her head on the boy's shoulder next
to her, and he comes up with a song that
has now endured for what sixty five years something like that.
I've seen lots of stuff. I haven't come up with squat.
So this guy goes to an assembly and comes out
with his mega hit. So I don't know else? Can
I say, let's check it out. Put your head on
my shoulder, by Paul, Anka.
Speaker 19: Put your head on my should, hold me in your arm, Bay, squeeze.
Speaker 17: Me also, Tie, show me.
Speaker 10: That you love me too.
Speaker 19: Put your lips next to my.
Speaker 4: Won't you kiss me once?
Speaker 3: Bay? Just a kiss?
Speaker 13: Good night?
Speaker 11: May you and I will fall in a.
Speaker 4: People say the.
Speaker 10: Long again again?
Speaker 5: You just can mes away. I'll find it someday. Rush,
put your head on my should, whisper.
Speaker 10: And my ear.
Speaker 3: Day words I want to hear.
Speaker 2: Tell tell me that you love me too.
Speaker 11: Dot Peter, put your head on my shout.
Speaker 4: Whisper and.
Speaker 2: What's I want to.
Speaker 4: Joy shoulder.
Speaker 10: I think that still kind of holds up. I think
you could perform that now and it would It will
go over.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's pretty.
Speaker 9: It is pretty, right, I'm just so jealous. We can
tell brother, I know.
Speaker 10: Oh, look at it. She put her head on his shoulder.
Speaker 12: Right, it's pretty unless you're a serial killer and you're
talking about like decapitation.
Speaker 10: Yes, but that's.
Speaker 1: Pretty as long as you know the person you're singing
it too.
Speaker 10: That's putting your head on someone else's shoulder, or someone
else's head on the third party shoulder. That's more of
a Halloween thing for a while.
Speaker 4: No, I'm just twisted.
Speaker 9: Put your head on my machete.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 10: Well, I think we were successful. Yes, I think we
had some good selections there, and and we maintain the
family friendliness that we are so well known for.
Speaker 8: That's what it's all about.
Speaker 10: Couldn't have said it, all right, So let's pull the
plug before we ruin it. Any final thoughts, crambones.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I have a question.
Speaker 18: Okay, So if you if you listen to the or
look at the words of the hokey Pokey, what is
actually the hokey pokey?
Speaker 9: So you do the hokey pokey.
Speaker 1: You're poking your body parts.
Speaker 9: In the but that you do all that true song?
Speaker 10: You know what the lyrics are implying that the actual
hokey pokey is another movement.
Speaker 9: That you should be different thing.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you're right, I didn't think of that. You stick
something in and then you got a hokey pokey it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 10: Oh my god, we're gonna have to come back and
do a part too.
Speaker 4: I think we're overthinking this.
Speaker 10: I need a shower, that's one, all right, something to contemplate.
We're actually taking two weeks off, believe it or not,
something we don't do very often. So that's going to
give us two weeks to come up with an answer
to this, which is now Mercedes problem. So I we
can't look we look forward to hearing your answer.
Speaker 9: I'll be out interviewing people on the street.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I good luck. What else can I say?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 10: With that, I think we really should actually pull the
plug and get out of here and do your own
little dance, and what else can I say?
Speaker 7: All right?
Speaker 10: Thank you crand Bones, Thank you all for joining us
here for the Rock and Roll History Show. Enjoy your
fourth of July weekend. Please be sayd please don't blow
off any body parts that can be stuck in and
stuck out and shaken.
Speaker 8: All of that.
Speaker 10: But if you do, shoot us an email, because we'd
love to hear the story. That's why not.
Speaker 9: You just went over the line, bro, I think I
just went.
Speaker 8: All right.
Speaker 10: Goodnight, Crambones, good night. Everybody. Will see you in a
couple of weeks we'll be back with another brand new episode.
Until then, peace out, everyone, a.
Speaker 17: Rock, cop Bottom and cram.
Speaker 13: Okay, Bye bye.
Speaker 10: Hudson River Radio dot Com a subsidiary of Glacier Entertainment LLC,
potentially successful multi hundred dollars corporation