![]() ![]() No, that would be too easy and make too much sense. That song? Not “Purple People Eater”, perversely enough. The movie begins in a jarringly off way, with ecstatic children leaping into the sky, presumably after bouncing on a trampoline while a song plays in the background. So when I discovered that Monster Mash is also a motion picture written by two of the screenwriters of Toy Story, I knew I had to include it in Control Nathan Rabin, the column where the living saints who contribute to this site’s Patreon page, and make this Happy Place possible in the first place, have a choice between two films I must watch and then write about.Īnd since I’m all about finding complementary competitors for Control Nathan Rabin, I gave patrons a chance to choose between either the Monster Mash movie or another low-budget horror-comedy exploitation movie based on a classic novelty song in the form of 1988’s Purple People Eater, a loose adaptation of Sheb Wooley that gave star Neil Patrick Harris one of his earliest and worst roles, and not just because he shares the screen with both what appears to be a little person in a store-bought purple monster costume and a young Dustin Diamond.Īs a motion picture for children, Purple People Eater is a proposition about as curious as, well, a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater. I was equally overjoyed when my son became obsessed with “Monster Mash”, and, to a much lesser extent, the original Ghostbusters theme song. Let me tell you, it sure did make my heart soar to see Declan enraptured by The Ramones’ take on one of his favorite songs about probably his favorite hero. It’s no exaggeration to say that in the last month or so, I have probably listened to the theme song to the 1960s “Spider-Man” cartoon over a thousand times, both in the original version, Michael Buble’s cover and The Ramones’ kick-ass version for the 1995 compilation Saturday Morning: Cartoon’s Greatest Hits. In 1988, a movie was made based on the song, which was called Purple People Eater.My three year old son Declan adores music, and I love exposing my little dude to the music that gave me joy as a child. As mentioned above, the design takes its cue from a misinterpretation of the lyrics, coloring the creature purple. The Hagen-Renaker ceramics company of California created a figurine of the Purple People Eater as part of its 1958–59 “Little Horribles” line. In addition to Wooley’s rendition, Judy Garland recorded the song in 1958 and Jimmy Buffett recorded a version of the song for the 1997 film Contact. The song was so ambiguous that it prompted listeners to draw pictures of the “people eater” and most of the pictures showed him to be purple.Īs with the Chipmunk Song, which was released later that same year, the People Eater’s voice is sped up to provide the texture and timbre we’re familiar with today. The song was released in June 1958 and reached #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts and #12 on the UK singles chart from June 9-July 14 that year. I wanna get a job in a rock ‘n roll band. He said eating purple people, and it sure is fineīut that’s not the reason that I came to land I said Mr Purple People Eater, what’s your line? Many think that the creature is purple, but he actually is described in the song as eating purple people. The premise of the song originated from a joke told by the child of one of One version of a one horned one eyed purple people eaterĪpparently the joke hit a chord, because Wooley composed the song within an hour. The song was written and performed by Sheb Wooley and is classified as a novelty song. The creature is described as a “one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater” “The Purple People Eater” tells how a strange creature descends to Earth because it wants to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |