Trashmen's “Surfin’ Bird” storms the British charts for Christmas! (#3 song in the UK right now)

Sundazed.com ^ | December 16, 2010 | no byline

[a fool in paradise]

The Trashmen’s immortal rock ‘n’ roll classic “Surfin’ Bird” continues to demonstrate its timeless appeal this holiday season. The beloved 1963 garage-surf anthem is currently at the center of a successful grass-roots campaign in Britain to return the 47-year-old song to the upper reaches of the pop charts.

This holiday season, a cadre of British rock ‘n’ roll fanatics—represented by a Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/birdbirdbirdistheword) that boasts over 620,000 members—has mounted an audacious campaign that has already pushed the song to the Number Three spot on the U.K. charts, alongside the likes of the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna. The effort, originally launched by “Birdman Jack,” has achieved this unprecedented feat by encouraging its members to purchase the song.

In a recent statement, the group explained that the campaign represents a concerted effort to strike a blow for real music, and to wrest the U.K. chart spotlight back from the domination of lightweight manufactured pop, as exemplified by Simon Cowell’s wildly successful TV show X Factor. “Our mission,” the group explains, “is to continue the success of last year’s ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Facebook campaign, which snatched the Christmas Number One spot from X Factor. The reason behind this campaign is to further prevent the domination of manufactured music, and to allow something truly great to take the limelight. We are quickly closing the gap on the Number One spot, and we won’t stop until everybody knows that the bird is the word!”

As part of the effort, the group is also supporting several charities and is asking members to make donations to these worthy causes, including Shelter, PinkRibbon, British Heart Foundation, Childline and the wildlife preservation organization the RSPB. The RSPB, which has long worked to protect the welfare of actual birds, has produced a new video to help promote the “Surfin’ Bird” chart campaign (http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.aspx?id=266053).

The Trashmen were already regional heroes on the Minnesota teen scene when they released “Surfin’ Bird” as their debut single in late 1963. The song brilliantly encapsulated the primitive, uninhibited abandon of the quartet’s uniquely primitive take on the surf-music sound. In the early months of 1964, as America was in the grip of the early stages of Beatlemania, the Bird ascended to the Number Four spot on the Billboard pop singles chart, as well as becoming a smash in such far-flung locales as Australia, Sweden, Mexico and Venezuela.

In the decades since, “Surfin’ Bird” has remained an enduring pop-culture touchstone, appearing in numerous movies, TV shows and commercials, and inspiring cover versions by the Ramones, the Cramps and countless other bands. Most recently, the Bird reentered the mainstream consciousness when the animated TV sitcom The Family Guy built an entire episode around protagonist Peter Griffin’s obsession with the song. Meanwhile, the Trashmen—still anchored by original members Tony Andreason, Dal Winslow and Bob Reed—continue to perform for rabid, ecstatic audiences in America and overseas.

[a fool in paradise]

THE BIRD IS THE WORDDDDDDD

In a recent statement, the group explained that the campaign represents a concerted effort to strike a blow for real music, and to wrest the U.K. chart spotlight back from the domination of lightweight manufactured pop, as exemplified by Simon Cowell’s wildly successful TV show X Factor. “Our mission,” the group explains, “is to continue the success of last year’s ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Facebook campaign, which snatched the Christmas Number One spot from X Factor. The reason behind this campaign is to further prevent the domination of manufactured music, and to allow something truly great to take the limelight. We are quickly closing the gap on the Number One spot, and we won’t stop until everybody knows that the bird is the word!”

See for yourself...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/update/singles

[a fool in paradise]

In the early months of 1964, as America was in the grip of the early stages of Beatlemania, the Bird ascended to the Number Four spot on the Billboard pop singles chart, as well as becoming a smash in such far-flung locales as Australia, Sweden, Mexico and Venezuela.

[a fool in paradise]

To everyone:

Enjoy your earworm for the day!

[WOBBLY BOB]

Silly, everyone knows The Word is the word.Nancy Pelosi said so.

[dfwgator]

One of the first rap songs.

[Gasshog]

Surfing bird is a novelty song, something we don’t have on radio anymore. Novelty songs generally did very well but for a short time. Forcing it up the charts in the UK seems strange and artifical. Oh well to each his own but I miss the ocassional nonsense songs we used to get now and then.

[WOBBLY BOB]

The Trashmen are a rock and roll band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1962.
The Trashmen’s most notable hit was 1963’s “Surfin’ Bird”, which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the later part of that year. The song was a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons, “The Bird’s the Word” and “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow”. The earliest pressings of the single credit the Trashmen as composers, but following a threat from The Rivingtons’ legal counsel, that group was subsequently credited as composers.[citation needed] The song was later re-recorded by artists including the Ramones, The Cramps, Silverchair, Pee-Wee Herman, Equipe 84, and the thrash metal band Sodom. It has been used in movies and television shows including Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, and in the soundtrack to the video game Battlefield Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trashmen

I can tell you from experience, not a lot of surfers in MPLS.

[JPG]

They even worked in a ‘pappa ooh mow mow’.

[JoeProBono]

[mgstarr]

Have you not heard, that the bird is the word?

[Gasshog]

Nice pix. They were very clean cut Trashmen at any rate. And me like the Danelectro lyre/harp axe.

[JoeProBono]

Alley Oop - The Hollywood Argyles

[ReneeLynn]

How is putting this song at the top of the charts a blow for better music? Seriously. Shouldn’t they get a classic rock song and put it at the top of the charts. I mean something good, not a nonsense song.

[a fool in paradise]

Trashmen are playing a gig early next month...

3 of the 4 anyway (the surviving members)

[Yardstick]

This song is one giant hook but its best moment is the break at 1:10 — actually the end of the break when the drums come back in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZThquH5t0ow

[InvisibleChurch]

Who wants to put up with “Every Breath She Takes” again? Surfin’ Bird is short and to the point, what RnR should be. Go get ‘em, Bird!

[dfwgator]

I see the British Top 40 charts are as full of the same crap as ours are.

[justlurking]

The Trashmen were already regional heroes on the Minnesota teen scene when they released “Surfin’ Bird” as their debut single in late 1963.

They were also known for showing up at performances in MN in a garbage truck.

I'm not sure if the "Trashmen" name inspired their mode of transportation, or vice versa.

[a fool in paradise]

A novelty song. Like Light My Fire or Hey Jude (a 7 minute single)? Something different?

Elvis was a novelty once too.

If the song was merely “novelty”, it wouldn’t have “worked” for the Cramps (who would extend it to 15 minutes of performance) and the Ramones (who asked permission from the Cramps to add it to their set since both were playing the same scene).

Does your chewing gum lose it’s flavor on the bedpost overnight. Now that is “novelty”. As are most Christmas songs. Yet Jingle Bell Rock (a subpar song) hit the charts repeatedly over the years.

The good thing about running a song like this up the charts, it is a world apart from the acutune voice effects of modern pop. Let’s see some programming director avoid an audio trainwreck with that playlist.