I bet you remember this one! It hit the Billboard pop charts in 1958. It was performed and sung by Sheb Wooley.
"The Purple People Eater" is about a wierd looking alien who comes down to earth because it wants to be in a rock and roll band. The song was written in an hour based on a joke told by the child of a friend. This monster wasn't purple, but it eats purple people instead.
The voice on the record was sped up in the recording, sounding like the "The Chipmonk Song" and "the Witch Doctor", which were both songs of those times.
Once you start singing this song, it's going to be in your head all day!
Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh-eee"
It looks like a purple eater to me
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One eye?)
Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line
He said it's 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 and roll, flyin' purple people eater
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin' purple people eater
(We wear short shorts)
Flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me
And then he swung from the tree and he lit on the ground
He started to rock, really rockin' around
It was a crazy ditty with a swingin' tune
Sing a boop boop aboopa lopa lum bam boom
Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin' purple people eater
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin' purple people eater
I like short shorts
Flyin' little people eater
Sure looks strange to me (Purple People?)
And then he went on his way, and then what do ya know
I saw him last night on a TV show
He was blowing it out, a'really knockin' em dead
Playin' rock and roll music through the horn in his head
[Clarinet solo]
Tequila
5 comments:
Remember it well! Thanks for cheering me up today.
So do I...I also remember that Sheb Wooley played many a cowboy on film.
I remember seeing him in High Noon, with Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper (also starring Lloyd Bridges of Sea Hunt)
xhenry
In odd moments, I still find myself singing this under my breath. It's such a fun song, as many of those early rock songs were. Soul Merlin mentioned Sheb Wooley's cowboy roles. If memory serves, he was one of the four hooligans out to get Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Sure. I remember this one. Sheb Wooley was one of the cowpokes on Rawhide with Clint Eastwood. Your earlier commenters were right -- Sheb was in High Noon.
If I'm not mistaken, the refrain in PPE was "Ooh, eee, ooh, ahh-ahh/Ting, tang, walla-walla, bing-bang/Ooh, eee, ooh, ahh-ahh/Ting-tang, walla-walla, bang-bang".
(I watched Rawhide, autumn of 1958, in our panelled den, waiting for the next hour to pass before I went on my first 'date' -- a junior high school dance where I provided my 'date' with a corsage. Parents drove.)
Yeah, I remember this.
Post a Comment