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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forums44 years later, it's still one of the most wonderful one hit wonders in the history of music.
applegrove
(118,682 posts)LeftInTX
(25,370 posts)applegrove
(118,682 posts)songs of my childhood as my parents had Canadian public radio on all the time. I am glad for that. I play those old 70s songs now finally.
LeftInTX
(25,370 posts)Freddie
(9,267 posts)1966 I believe. Was the only one-hit wonder that later became the subject of a murder investigation and true-crime nonfiction.
The lead singer of the In-Men was the handsome Walter Scott, who was, coincidentally, cheating on his wife when his song was a big hit. He dumped her and their 2 little boys and married the girlfriend, Joanne. Sadly the In-Men, from St. Louis, failed to come up with another hit (and their album was a flop) so all the guys except Walter went back to their day jobs. Walter persevered and for years squeaked out a living singing at county fairs and Holiday Inns with his group, Walter Scott and the Cheaters. With nothing to do and a husband rarely home, in due time Joanne found herself...cheating. One year Walter came home for Christmas and was never seen again. His body was found in a cistern on property belonging to Joannes boyfriend, who was convicted of murder.
denbot
(9,900 posts)I listened to FM Rock stations, but you could not escape that song. Even after all the intervening years I can still sing the opening verses.
malthaussen
(17,202 posts)... before Macarena:
Although in fairness, Sheb Wooley had other hits, but who remembers them now?
-- Mal
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,489 posts)Shelby Fredrick "Sheb" Wooley (April 10, 1921 September 16, 2003) was a character actor and singer, best known for his 1958 novelty song "The Purple People Eater." He played Ben Miller, brother of Frank Miller, in the film High Noon; played Travis Cobb in The Outlaw Josey Wales; and also had a co-starring role as scout Pete Nolan in the television series Rawhide.
Wooley is also credited as the voice actor who produced the Wilhelm scream sound effect.
....
The "Wilhelm scream"
Sheb Wooley is also credited as the voice actor for the Wilhelm scream, having appeared on a memo as a voice extra for Distant Drums in which he had an acting role. This was later confirmed by his widow Linda Dotson-Wooley. The stock recording of the distinctive scream has been used by sound-effects teams in over 300 films and continues to be used in the latest Indiana Jones sequels and all of the Star Wars films.
malthaussen
(17,202 posts)I wonder if there is a similar sound effect for women?
-- Mal
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,489 posts)The Wilhelm Scream
It's that stock scream that shows up in movie after movie after movie.
The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect of a man screaming that has been used in 372 movies and countless television series, beginning in 1951 for the film Distant Drums. The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion, and is most commonly used in films and television.
Most likely voiced by actor and singer Sheb Wooley, the sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. This was its first use from the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River is believed to have been the third movie to use the effect.
The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in the Star Wars series, the Indiana Jones series, Disney cartoons, and many other blockbuster films, as well as many television programs and video games.
History
The Wilhelm scream originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 movie Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take, along with five other short, pained screams, which were labelled "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screamed." The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scenebut the fourth, fifth, and sixth screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the filmwhen three Native Americans are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4, 5, and 6 are the most recognizable, all the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm" by those in the sound community.
The Wilhelm scream's major breakout in popular culture came from motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who discovered the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled "Man being eaten by alligator" ) and incorporated it into a scene in Star Wars in which Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper off of a ledge, with the effect being used as the Stormtrooper is falling. Burtt is credited with naming the scream after Private Wilhelm (see The Charge at Feather River). Over the next decade, Burtt began incorporating the effect in other films on which he worked, including most projects involving George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, notably the rest of the subsequent Star Wars films, as well as the Indiana Jones movies. Other sound designers picked up on the effect, and inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among the community of sound designers. In what is perhaps an in-joke within an in-joke, one of the scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually features a man being eaten by a crocodile (closely related to the alligator) accompanied by the scream.
Research by Burtt suggests that Sheb Wooley, best known for his novelty song "The Purple People Eater" in 1958 and as scout Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. This has been supported by an interview in 2005 with Linda Dotson, Wooley's widow. Burtt discovered records at Warner Brothers from the editor of Distant Drums including a short list of names of actors scheduled to record lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. Wooley played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in Distant Drums, and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. Wooley performed additional vocal elements, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator. Dotson confirmed Wooley's scream had been in many Westerns, adding, "He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films." Despite the usage of the sound, no royalties are paid.
For a pure sound effect (i.e., not something uttered by a human being), I nominate the ringing telephone from "The Rockford Files." I've heard that phone in countless other TV shows.
red dog 1
(27,817 posts)...Doo Wop
Denise - Randy and the Rainbows
tanyev
(42,566 posts)Steerpike
(2,692 posts)Robin McNamara performing his hit single "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me" on the TV show UPBEAT (Cleveland, Ohio) in 1970. Robin was playing a lead role in the Broadway musical 'Hair' when he began working with producer Jeff Barry, recording several singles and an album for Jeff's label, Steed Records. "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me," which was a Top Twenty (U.S.) hit, was written by Barry and McNamara with Jim Cretecos
Archae
(46,335 posts)Jimi Hendrix.
Yes! His "All Along The Watchtower" was his only tune that hit the top 40.
Granted, his other work, (especially the Woodstock "Star-Spangled Banner" was fantastic, but none of the rest hit the top 40.
yellowdogintexas
(22,264 posts)it is still a staple at any dance party and it came out in 1961 or 1962. To my knowledge, The Kingsmen never had another big hit. Please correct me if I am wrong. I know that when I hear those opening chords, I am ready to dance!
Certainly best dance song ever!
kwassa
(23,340 posts)and those words were dirty words!
Or so we believed.