Well shiver me timbers ... track #8, "The Puzzle Song" (a #78 BB Hot-100 hit back in 1965 on Congress 238) is being used in a TV commercial for some new-fangled technological gizmo called "Meta Quest 3" ...
Since writing my review over three years ago, the long version of "The Name Game" that is on this CD has put in an appearance on "The Tube" … fast forward to 2:36 to experience two minutes of one of the best rhythmic workouts you are ever likely to hear ….
ReviewNifty collection of Shirley Ellis material from the mid 1960s, when she seemed to have the market in Novelty/Pop/R&B records pretty much sewn up. Maybe this is why she is often overlooked (Too "Novelty" for some?), but she did have three Top 10 hits on Billboard's Hot 100 for Congress Records in a period of about 18 months from late 1963 to mid 1965, all of them are on here, and she deserves to be remembered.
The first big hit was "Nitty Gritty" (#8 BB in early 1964), which was more "Dance Craze" than "Novelty", though the fake applause on the track did give it some novelty appeal .. the song was reworked, with similar success, in 1969 by Gladys Knight & The Pips.
Next came the sound-alike "(That's What) The Nitty Gritty Is" (very big were sound-alike-follow-ups back then) before her real biggie "The Name Game" (#3 BB in early 1965), where instructions for rhyming a name were given over a pounding rhythm. This created the template for what was to become her biggest international hit "The Clapping Song" (#8 BB in spring 1965).
With "The Clapping Song" a superficially innocent lyric seems to have even more innuendo than a typical episode of "The Hoobs", with Shirley singing about the virtues of "Drinking Wine", "Kissing Soldiers", playing with "Rubber Dollies", "Clapping", "Slapping" and "Choking Monkeys" (I wonder what that might possibly mean!!??), not to mention suggesting "going to heaven in a little row boat" (Hmmmm). And at one point in the song, during a brief respite in the satanic back-beat, Shirley even suggests that the listener/participant should "come back with the clap!!" and this subversive ditty was played and sung in school playgrounds all over the world!!
Further chart success was to be had with "The Puzzle Song" before Shirley asked the world the question that had been exercising great minds for decades .. "Ever See A Diver Kiss His Wife (While The Bubbles Bounce About Above The Water?)" ... to which the answer is given at the end of the song. Unfortunately the world wasn't too interested in Divers and their bubbles (probably too exhausted after all that clapping and slapping) and that was the end of Shirley's career at Congress records.
There is some more conventional fare on here (if her curious version of "Bring It On Home To Me" can be termed "Conventional"), but for me it will always be "Name Game" and "Clapping Song" that shine out and if there is one over-riding reason why people should track down this collection it has to be that the version of "Name Game" on here has an extended instrumental work-out at the end and is a full two minutes longer than the single version on Congress CG-230. I wish I could find this extended version on "The Tube" but all they seem to have is the short version.