In 1958, Sheb Wooley unleashed “The Purple People Eater” from his creativeness into the airwaves. The creature has “one long horn, one big eye.” He’s “pigeon-toed, undergrowed.” However when the narrator frets, “Looks like a purple people eater to me!” It begs the questions: To what different purple folks eaters can he examine him? Does Wooley’s clarification that he eats purple folks – that he’s not essentially purple himself – imply we’re all off the hook?
Effectively, we all know one factor the Purple Folks Eater needs – to rock ‘n roll. And it’s protected to say that in 1958, that was a reasonably widespread want. That 12 months produced a slew of foundational rock hits, just like the Royal Teenagers’ “Short Shorts” and the Champs’ “Tequila.” Over an irresistible boogie-woogie rhythm, the extraterrestrial squeaks references to these two hits – “I like short shorts!” “Tequila!” – in addition to the immortal gobbledygook from Little Richard’s 1955 barnstormer “Tutti Frutti.”
Above all, “The Purple People Eater’s” goal is to make our bodies transfer and tickle humorous bones. Right here’s the place it got here from.
The Context
From his 1946 recorded debut “Oklahoma Honky-Tonky Gal” as much as “The Purple People Eater,” the general public primarily knew Wooley for his cowboy songs and hillbilly tunes. He appeared in Western movies like 1950’s Rocky Mountain and 1952’s Excessive Midday and TV sequence like The Lone Ranger. The basic “Wilhelm scream” – the immortal “Aaaagh!” utilized in movies from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to The Lord of the Rings – is believed to be Wooley. (In 1953, he appeared as Personal Wilhelm, a personality who will get shot with an arrow and emits the scream in 1953’s The Cost at Feather River.)
Amid all his onscreen work, Wooley by no means stopped writing songs. And the one which 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 house invader taking the bait.
The Recording
Wooley made “The Purple People Eater”’s alien voice and saxophone solo (performed by means of a horn in his head!) squeaky and high-pitched by recording a standard voice and sax solo and later rushing up the tape. Below his stage title David Seville, songwriter Ross Bagdasarian first used this method on his 1958 novelty hit “Witch Doctor,” which spawned the digital band Alvin and the Chipmunks. That very same 12 months, the Huge Bopper mixed Seville’s and Wooley’s characters within the music “Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor,” which was the B-side of his signature single “Chantilly Lace.”
The Reception
“Purple People Eater” was launched in Might 1958, and by the week of June 2, 1958, the music hit No. 1 on the Sizzling 100, the place it remained for six weeks. On July 27, Wooley carried out it on The Ed Sullivan Present. That 12 months, Judy Garland lined it, including her personal movie-monster-inspired intro: “I was a teenage werewolf / I was a 50-foot woman / And other unidentified flying objects!”
Wooley by no means had one other Sizzling 100 hit, however “Purple People Eater” has stalked every ensuing decade of popular culture. In 1988, it received its personal Disney Channel movie, Purple Folks Eater, a couple of boy who, by taking part in the music, inadvertently summons the real-life creature. It additionally appeared within the soundtracks to 1989’s Mother and father, 1997’s Contact, and 2009’s Monsters vs. Aliens.
Who is aware of the place our winged hero will go subsequent, blowing it out, knockin’ them useless? Given “The Purple People Eater”’s unlikely longevity, the reply is within the stars.
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