| "Purple People Eater" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Sheb Wooley | ||||
| B-side | I Can't Believe You're Mine | |||
| Released | June 1958 | |||
| Format | 7 inch 45 R.P.M. | |||
| Genre | Pop/Novelty/R&B/Comedy rock | |||
| Length | 2:11 | |||
| Label | MGM | |||
| Writer(s) | Sheb Wooley | |||
| Sheb Wooley chronology | ||||
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"Purple People Eater" is a novelty song, written and performed by Sheb Wooley, that reached #1 in the Billboard pop charts in 1958.
Contents |
" Purple People Eater" tells how a strange creature (described as a "one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater") descends to Earth because it wants to be in a rock 'n' roll band. The premise of the song came from a joke told by the child of a friend of Wooley's; Wooley finished composing it within an hour.[1]
The creature isn't necessarily purple but rather the monster eats purple people, as shown in the following excerpt:
The ambiguity of the song was present when it was originally played on the radio. In responses to requests from radio DJs, listeners drew pictures that show a "people eater" colored purple.[1]
The voice of the purple people eater is a sped up recording, giving it a voice similar to, but not quite as high-pitched or as fast, as Ross Bagdasarian's "Witch Doctor", another hit from earlier in 1958; and "The Chipmunk Song" which was released late in 1958. (The Chipmunks themselves eventually covered "Purple People Eater" for their 1998 album The A-Files: Alien Songs.) The sound of a toy saxophone was produced in a similar fashion as the saxophone was originally played at a reduced speed.[1] (In the Chipmunks' cover version, there is a longer sax solo, and it was recorded and played at its normal speed.)
The song invokes phrases from several other hit songs from that era: "Short Shorts", by The Royal Teens, and "Tequila", by The Champs, both from earlier in 1958; and "Tutti Frutti" from 1955.
The Sheb Wooley version crossed to the Billboard R&B listings, and while it did not make Billboard's country chart, it reached #4 on the Cashbox country listing.
Jimmy Buffett produced and recorded a version of the song for the motion picture Contact (1997).
A cover version of the song, recorded by British comedian Barry Cryer reached #1 in the Finnish charts after contractual reasons prevented Wooley's version being released in Scandinavia.[5]
This song cover was recorded on the Kidsongs' video "Very Silly Songs". The album version released on October 2009 sounds similar to the Sheb Wooley version.
The enduring popularity of the song led to the nicknaming of the highly effective Minnesota Vikings defensive line of the 1970s, whose team colors include purple.[6]
The character was used as the basis for a feature film in 1988, with a cast including Neil Patrick Harris, Ned Beatty, Shelley Winters, Thora Birch, Little Richard, Chubby Checker and Wooley himself.
The Hagen-Renaker ceramics company of California created a figurine of the Purple People Eater as part of its 1958-9 "Little Horribles" line. As mentioned above, the design takes its cue from a misinterpretation of the lyrics, coloring the creature purple. The figure was a best-seller. http://hagenrenakermuseum.com/WebPageLittleHorribles.shtml
| Preceded by "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by The Everly Brothers |
Billboard Top 100 number-one single (Sheb Wooley version) June 9, 1958 (6 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters |