Friday Night Videos

I'm a big fan of Sheb Wooley, the clever lyricist who was cousins with the brilliant Roger Miller. Wooley is best known for his massive hit "Purple People Eater," but he turned out a great deal of music in his time, both humorous and less so. He perfected the parody of popular songs for the country audience well before Weird Al Yankovic struck gold decades later, but most of Wooley's work is now as obscure as the classic songs he spoofed. His "Don't Go Near the Eskimos" is a spot-on riff of Rex Allen's iconic "Don't Go Near the Indians" and a personal favorite of mine. Another great spoof is his irreverent sendup of Johnny Preston's "Running Bear" (a song written by the Big Bopper, no less) as "Running Bare," a piece obviously influenced by a certain Ray Stevens song of similar theme. Wooley continued to record and act--he voiced the famed "Wilhelm scream" used so often in movies and television--up until his death from leukemia in 2003. Not a bad legacy for an Oklahoma farm boy.



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