| "Wooly Bully" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of the 1965 Italy single | ||||
| Single by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs | ||||
| from the album Wooly Bully | ||||
| B-side | "Ain't Gonna Move" | |||
| Released | 1965 | |||
| Recorded | 1964 | |||
| Studio | Phillips Recording, Memphis, Tennessee | |||
| Genre |
| |||
| Length | 2:20 | |||
| Label | XL 906, MGM K13322 | |||
| Songwriter | Domingo Samudio | |||
| Producer | Stan Kesler | |||
| Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Wooly Bully" is a song originally recorded by rock and roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1964. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's frontman, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the small Memphis-based XL label (#906) in 1964 and was picked up in 1965 by MGM. The song was recorded at Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, the successor to Phillips' original Sun Studio.[4]
Chart history
"Wooly Bully" was the band's first and biggest hit song. It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the American Hot 100 chart on June 5–12, 1965. They were kept from reaching the top spot by The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda"[5] and The Supremes' "Back in My Arms Again".[6] "Wooly Bully" went to No. 31 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.[7] The song also reached No. 2 on the Canadian CHUM Charts.[8]
The song was the first American record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion and was influenced by the British rock sound which was mixed with traditional Mexican-American conjunto rhythms.[9][10] It stayed in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest time for any song in 1965, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. It was named Billboard's number-one song of the year despite never reaching No. 1 on a weekly Hot 100, making this the first occurrence of such an event on the Hot 100.[11][12] On August 5, 1965, the single was certified as gold by the RIAA.[13] It was later included on the band's 1965 album Wooly Bully.
Title and lyrics
"Wooly Bully" is a reworking of the 1962 tune "Hully Gully Now" on the Dallas-based Gay Shel label by Big Bo & The Arrows (vocal by Little Smitty), which was based on Junior Parker's "Feelin' Good". The song was given the green light after Samudio rewrote the lyrics to replace "Hully Gully" with "Wooly Bully" and a few additional lyrical changes. Samudio retained the "watch it, watch it now" refrain from the original version.[14]
The lyrics of "Wooly Bully" were hard to understand; in consequence, some radio stations banned the song.[15] The lyrics describe a conversation between "Mattie" and "Hattie" concerning the "Wooly Bully" (a creature which Mattie describes as "a thing she saw [that] had two big horns and a wooly jaw" – that is, an American bison) and the desirability of developing dancing skills, although no attempt is made to synthesize these divergent topics. The warning "Let's not be L-7" means "Let's not be square", from the shape formed by the fingers making an L on one hand and a 7 on the other.[16] Sam the Sham underscores the Tex-Mex nature of the song by counting out the rhythm in Spanish and English ("Uno! Dos! One, two, tres, cuatro!"), and the characteristic simple organ riffing, with a tenor saxophone solo in the middle. According to Samudio, "The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it."[17]
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[18] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Awards
In 2009, the original 1965 release of the song on the MGM label by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[19]
References
- ^ Talevski, Nick (April 7, 2010). Rock Obituaries - Knocking On Heaven's Door. Omnibus Press. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-85712-117-2. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
- ^ Marsh, Dave (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. Plume. p. 57. ISBN 0-452-26305-0.
- ^ Morales, Ed (April 29, 2009). The Latin Beat: The Rhythms And Roots Of Latin Music From Bossa Nova To Salsa And Beyond. Da Capo Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-7867-3020-9. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
- ^ "Sam Phillips Recording Service". scottymoore.net. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
- ^ "The Hot 100: Week of June 5, 1965". Billboard.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^ "The Hot 100: Week of June 12, 1965". Billboard.com. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 510.
- ^ "Barry's Hits of All Decades Pop rock n roll Music Chart Hits". hitsofalldecades.com.
- ^ Hartman, Gary (2008), The history of Texas music, Texas A&M University Press, ISBN 9781603440028
- ^ "MGM has boom months", Billboard, vol. 77, no. 39, p. 10, September 25, 1965
- ^ "Year-End Charts, Billboard Hot 100 Songs". Billboard. 2021-12-02. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
- ^ Trust, Gary; Caulfield, Keith (2021-12-02). "The Year In Charts 2021: Dua Lipa's 'Levitating' Is the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 Song of the Year". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
- ^ "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – Wooly Bully". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
- ^ Feldman, Christopher G. (2000). The Billboard Book of #2 Singles. Watson-Guptill. p. 79. ISBN 0-8230-7695-4.
- ^ Zollo, Paul (15 October 2021). "Behind the Song: "Wooly Bully" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs". American Songwriter.
- ^ "L-7". Green’s Dictionary of Slang. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
- ^ "Sam The Sham". ClassicBands.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^ "American single certifications – Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs – Wooly Bully". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved July 1, 2024.
- ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame | Hall of Fame Artists | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com.
External links
- allmusic
