Wooly Bully
Wooly Bully is the title of a nonsense song that was in the version of Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs to the million-seller in 1965.
Genesis
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs was in Arab robes with turban -clad band from Texas, led by Sam Samudio. They drove in 1964 for recordings to Memphis, where they recorded some songs for various record companies.
When the band in September 1964 with Sam Samudios composition Hully Gully came into the studio of Sun Records, it was made clear that this phrase could not be used because there was already dancing song titles with the same name from 1959. Spontaneously Samudio decided to replace the name of his cat, dubbed the song Wooly Bully ( " tyrannical ball of wool " ) and passed the text accordingly. Just so spontaneously was also the stall count in Tex- Mex dialect. "Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro " was heard on the first take, with the other two takes, however, not more. Samudio just wanted to cut out, but conferred on the producer Stan Kesler the first take in its recorded form.
The text is as nonsensical as the title; it is about a dialogue between a certain " Hattie " and " Matty " about the American Bison and the need to be able to dance skillfully. A simple organ riff on a Farfisa supports based on a 12 - bar blues sequence rhythm of the song, while the solo tenor saxophone in C Major by Paul " Butch" Gibson represents the actual characteristic of the piece. When recording also David A. Martin worked with (bass guitar / vocals), Ray Stinnet (guitar) and Jerry Patterson (drums). As a B-side Is not Gonna Move was (composed by Stacy Davidson and producer Stan Kesler ) selected and came first as XL 906 end of 1964 to the market.
Success
The plate remained well without resonance as the previous Gegene single. Only when MGM Records bought the master tape and the single again as MGM K 13322 published in February 1965, responded the trade press and the public. However, some radio stations were not playing Wooly Bully, because they seemed suspicious of the text difficult to understand because of ambiguous words. After his release, he reached the second spot on the Billboard Pophitparade and sold 2 million copies in the U.S. and 1 million worldwide. Thus it became the best-selling single of 1965, and Billboard magazine named the best single of the year. The song was the first American million seller during the British Invasion beat bands of the year 1965. During the title in the UK only listed at number eleven, he achieved a second place in Germany. He received a gold record and was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's list of 500 songs that have the most impact on rock and roll. He was awarded a BMI Award. A total of 51 cover versions of songs are registered. There is also a German version of Schmitti in 2006 under the title Wooly Bully - Let her rip.