I feel like, one way or another, we’re all Purple People Eaters. In my head I always imagined a rather cute, fuzzy purple creature who was somehow misunderstood, just trying to follow his dreams, who happened to have particular dietary restrictions. Maybe I simply will always identify with the underdog… And from the moment I pulled out this vintage plaid dress from my wardrobe this morning, I’ve had that song dancing between my ears ever since. Whenever Sheb Wooley started those first few familiar words, I couldn’t keep from bouncing around my living room. Now, I was never clear whether he was purple and ate people, or if he selectively chomped purple people exclusively, but it was a rather cheerful song despite the supposed grape-tinted carnage. It basically sings the tale of a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater who has a grand plan to come to earth and start a rock & roll band (go with me here – it all made sense a the time). That same year, the Big Bopper combined Seville’s and Wooley’s characters in the song “Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor,” which was the B-side of his signature single “Chantilly Lace.There was this rather whacky song I loved when I was a kid – “ The Purple People Eater” – which was really popular in the late 50’s. Under his stage name David Seville, songwriter Ross Bagdasarian first used this technique on his 1958 novelty hit “Witch Doctor,” which spawned the virtual band Alvin and the Chipmunks. Wooley made “The Purple People Eater”’s alien voice and saxophone solo (played through a horn in his head!) squeaky and high-pitched by recording a normal voice and sax solo and later speeding up the tape. And the one that took off had nothing to do with six-guns and spurs it was “The Purple People Eater,” which skewered the musical crazes of the time by envisaging a grotesque space invader taking the bait. (In 1953, he appeared as Private Wilhelm, a character who gets shot with an arrow and emits the scream in 1953’s The Charge at Feather River.)Īmid all his onscreen work, Wooley never stopped writing songs. The classic “Wilhelm scream” – the immortal “Aaaagh!” used in films from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to The Lord of the Rings – is believed to be Wooley. He appeared in Western films like 1950’s Rocky Mountain and 1952’s High Noon and TV series like The Lone Ranger. Here’s where it came from.įrom his 1946 recorded debut “Oklahoma Honky-Tonky Gal” up to “The Purple People Eater,” the public primarily knew Wooley for his cowboy songs and hillbilly tunes. That year produced a slew of foundational rock hits, like the Royal Teens’ “Short Shorts” and the Champs’ “Tequila.” Over an irresistible boogie-woogie rhythm, the extraterrestrial squeaks references to those two hits – “I like short shorts!” “Tequila!” – as well as the immortal gobbledygook from Little Richard’s 1955 barnstormer “Tutti Frutti.”Ībove all, “The Purple People Eater’s” purpose is to make bodies move and tickle funny bones. And it’s safe to say that in 1958, that was a fairly common desire. Well, we know one thing the Purple People Eater wants – to rock ‘n roll. The creature has “one long horn, one big eye.” He’s “pigeon-toed, undergrowed.” But when the narrator frets, “Looks like a purple people eater to me!” It begs the questions: To what other purple people eaters can he compare him? Does Wooley’s clarification that he eats purple people – that he’s not necessarily purple himself – mean we’re all off the hook? In 1958, Sheb Wooley unleashed “The Purple People Eater” from his imagination into the airwaves.
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