Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs: Wooly Bully (1964)

 |   |  1 min read

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs: Wooly Bully (1964)

When this out-of-the-blue single raced around the globe at the height of Beatlemania it sounded like a typically gimmicky hit of the period.

The band name, Sam wearing a turban and the group dressed like Arabs didn't exactly deny it.

You might have expected them to disappear immediately.

But they didn't.

They came back with a slightly sleazy slice of rough garageband rock on Li'l Red Riding Hood (gimmicky but thoroughly enjoyable) and then The Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin (the unrequested sequel to Li'l Red Riding Hood). Yep, Sam the Sham from Memphis were about as relevant as Freddie and the Dreamers were to the British Invasion.

Well, not quite.

Domingo Zamudio (Sam) from Dallas then Memphis had been a journeyman musician around clubs and chicken-wire bars for years, had played bills with blues and rock'n'roll legends, and was on his way to creating a meltdown of Tex-Mex music and rock'n'roll. Wooly Bully was his first grasp at taking it global, and maybe if it hadn't been such a huge hit he wouldn't have shifted to being a hit-making volume dealer knocking out novelty songs (the Riding Hood songs, El Toro de Goro, I'm In with the Out Crowd).

His story is told by Sam himself in Garth Cartwright's excellent More Miles Than Money (quit music, worked boats, got religion) but Wooly Bully stands as a terrific slice of Tex-Mex rock'n'roll right from the opening when Sam shouts, "un, dos . . . one, two, tres, quatro".

Now, where is that ? and the Mysterian's single 96 Tears?

Oh! It's here

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory use the RSS feed for daily updates, and check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Cynthia Lennon: Walking in the Rain (1995)

Cynthia Lennon: Walking in the Rain (1995)

It was inevitable that after their divorce, Cynthia Lennon -- married to John for six years from '62 -- would live in the shadow of her famous husband and struggle to find a meaningful place in the... > Read more

Public Image Limited; Death Disco (1979)

Public Image Limited; Death Disco (1979)

Described by Peter Shapiro in Turn the Beat Around; The Secret History of Disco as "perhaps the most uncompromising record ever to make the Top 20 chart [in Britain]" this extraordinary... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

AOTEAROA PAYS TRIBUTE TO BOB MARLEY (2016): The music and man heard in New Zealand

AOTEAROA PAYS TRIBUTE TO BOB MARLEY (2016): The music and man heard in New Zealand

Some months ago when Universal Music wanted to commission New Zeaand artists to interpret songs from Bob Marley's catalogue, I was invited to write the proposal to be presented to the musicians.... > Read more

DON'T TELL ANYBODY THE SECRETS I TOLD YOU by LUCINDA WILLIAMS

DON'T TELL ANYBODY THE SECRETS I TOLD YOU by LUCINDA WILLIAMS

Distilled from hundreds of hours of recorded interviews and conversations, this slim but insightful and revealing memoir by one of America's greatest living songwriters cuts straight through the... > Read more