Here's one for election day.
I'm not big on politics. Anyone who knows me knows this. In fact, there's not much else that other folks get all hot and bothered about that i find more boring- except maybe football. It's not that i don't care about what's going on in the world, i just don't... well.....
Sorry.
Politics just aint my bag.
Never has been, never will be.
Democrats, Republicans, or Independents- If you turn them upside down, they're all the same to me-- Assholes.
It being election day and all, how about a musical representation of my thoughts on politicians old and new- Some silly nonsense.
"Senator Bobby Kennedy" and his rendition of Wild Thing.
I don't know why the record says 1962 on the label. Part of the 'joke' that i don't get perhaps? Maybe it's just a typo. The song Wild Thing was written in 1965, and the Troggs hit version that everyone knows was recorded and released in the summer of 1966. Robert Kennedy was assassinated June 6, 1968, and had only announced his intention to run for president in March of that year. So that's roughly a two year window in which this could have been released. On the flip side is the same song done in the same style by Illinois "Senator Everett McKinley" Dirksen who died in 1969 of natural causes.
get it
.
.
6 comments:
Hi Rockin' Jeff - My guilty secret: I feel the same way about politics as you do. The rare person might go in nice and clean, but by the time they come out they've also been corrupted by . . . sorry . . .
You're right about Senator Bobby's Wild Thing - I checked the date in the discog - 1966. Marie
Huh- I would have guessed late '67 or very early '68. Shows what i know...
The '62 copyright is for the label design. The original label owner found it cheaper to do that than register the trademark.
Quite a bit of his "business" advice came from Swan Records next door, which was then-co-owned by Dick Clark and the Producer of American Bandstand.
Dick Clark really knew how to maneuver the music business.
KL:
Something like that never would have occured to me. I figured it was just a mis-print. Pretty cool. Thanks for the bit of trivia.
12/18/10
RobGems.ca wrote:
Senator Bobby was really comedian & voice impersonator Bill Minkin In disguise. In 1966 he teamed up with a comic group of musicians & comics named The Hardly Worthit Players along with Dennis Whoreley, Steve Baron, & Carol Morley. They were signed to Cameo/Parkway by Neil Bogart, & put out a mild-selling all-comedy LP titled "The Hardly-Worthit Report", which mocked then- NBC TV newscasters Chet Brinkley & David Huntley, right down to the two-headed Peacock drawing on the sleeve. The album caught the attention of fledgling songwriter/singer Chip Taylor, who just hit the big time with the Troggs from England covering his "Wild Thing" earlier in the year, & decided to do a musical parody of "Wild Thing" mimmicking a few popular politicians. Chip Taylor wanted a young-vs.-old generation approach to his song, & singled out two targets for his song: 70-something Everett Mckinley, who made the Top 40 Surprisingly with the ultra-patriotic "Galliant Men" on Capitol Records, & still in his early-30's Democrat Bobby Kennedy, who was popular with the under-40 crowd. Bill Minkin could do a good impersonation of both Kennedy & McKinley,& Whorley was in the song as the imposing announcer/studio engineer, with guitar playing & Hand whistling (not an ocarina) by Chip Taylor Himself. Released October 1966, the single reached the top 20 at #20 in Billboard's charts, and plans were made for a second Lp, this one titled "Boston Soul With the Hardly Worthit Players", this time filled with musical Parodies of popular songs from 1965-67.This Lp yielded another top 100 single with a cover of Donovan's "Mellow Yellow"(#99 in the Billboard charts), a new contract wiyh RCA Victor at the end of 1967. RCA issued a third single, a cover parody of Mitch Ryder's "Sock it To me Baby", as "Sock It to Me Bobby", but as it was released, tragedy struck. Soon As the May 1968 single started to Bubble Under the Top 100, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on June 5th, 1968, thus killing the single's chance to become a hit.The Hardly Worthit players Dissolved after that, 7 Chip Taylor went on to write more pop songs like "Angel Of the Morning", first by Evie Sands, then covered for Top 10 success by Merilee Rush & the Turnabouts (Much to Taylor's chagrin, BTW, he preferred the Evie Sands original, but her label, Cameo-Parkway went bankrupt, soon to be sold to Allen Klien,who never re-issued it.) Bill Minkin went on to commercial acting & comedy stage troupes, Baron & Morely went on to film & TV commercials as well as voice acting, & Dennis Wholey wound up with the highest profile of all: relocating to Michigan in the late 60's, he set up shop as a political TV talk show host on NET, later PBS Public Broadcasting, eventually taking a shot as Michigan Politician in the 1980's Today, he can still be seen on Michigan PBS stations, still running his local TV show well into his 70's, sometimes debating with another Michigan Political Talk Show Host, Tim Skubick.
Hi! Just discovered your blog today, and I've been quickly downloading stuff.
That's more than enough, but the fact that you solved a mystery for me? Well, that's even better.
http://shellgrowback.blogspot.com/2009/12/silly-sundays-bobby-poet-white.html
is a post from my now-defunct MP3 blog, featuring a follow-up Christmas-y recording from the same artists.
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