Spanish Flea

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Music sample:

Spanish Flea (1965)

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"Spanish Flea" is a popular song written by Julius Wechter in the 1960s with lyrics by Cissy Wechter.

The song is best known from an instrumental version by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, released as a single and on their 1965 album Going Places, both of which were No.1 hits in America. The song featured Alpert's trumpet over a latin rhythm backing and was used as the "Bachelor’s Theme" on the long-running American television show The Dating Game.

"Spanish Flea" was also covered by Trudy Pitts on her debut album Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts (1967) and by the Doodletown Pipers on The Doodletown Pipers Sing-along '67 (1967). Even Julius Wechter himself, with his Baja Marimba Band, covered that tune on their (1971) album, As Time Goes By.

The tune has been featured in four episodes of The Simpsons - "The Otto Show" (with Homer Simpson singing the lyrics) and "Team Homer" (featuring Lunchlady Doris talking over a recording). In this episode the song is played in the background as Martin and Lisa model the new colorless school uniforms. In "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", the tune is played when Homer waits for his car to be fixed (the night that episode first aired, Julius Wechter died). In "Natural Born Kissers" as Homer and Marge are going to buy a new motor for the fridge, the radio airs an ad on divorce, the music for which is "Spanish Flea".

The tune has also been featured in the Japanese animated series Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, by studio Gainax, with its lyrics changed into a looping "paya pa pa".

In the fingerprint scene in Rosewoods home, in Beverly Hills Cop 2, Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold improvised the idea of humming the tune, which they refer to Taggert as the theme of The Dating Game.