Sheb Wooley -- of “Purple People Eater” Fame -- Dead at 82

cmt.com ^ | 9/16/03

[lowbridge]

Sheb Wooley -- of “Purple People Eater” Fame -- Dead at 82

09/16/2003

Singer, songwriter and actor Sheb Wooley -- who also recorded a series of parody hits as Ben Colder -- died Tuesday (Sept. 16) at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. He was 82. Wooley had suffered from leukemia for the past five years, his widow, Linda Dotson, told CMT.com.

However, she said he had been strong enough to go with her to Johnny Cash’s wake on Sunday (Sept. 14). While there, she continued, he seemed to falter: “It was like God laid His hand on his shoulder and said, ‘You’ll be the third [country music figure] to go,’” Dotson observed. (TV actor John Ritter, son of Country Music Hall of Fame member Tex Ritter, died the day before Cash.)

Shelby F. Wooley was born April 10, 1921, near Erick, Okla. While a teenager, he worked as a rodeo rider and formed his own band. In the mid-1940s, he performed on radio stations WLAC and WSM in Nashville and subsequently had his own show on the Calumet Radio Network. He signed to Bullet Records in 1946, moving two years later to MGM Records where he remained until 1973. Wooley was a major musical influence on Roger Miller, who was related to him by marriage. Miller was only 11 when Wooley gave him his first fiddle.

Wooley began acting in movies in 1950, appearing first in Rocky Mountain with Errol Flynn. In 1952, he played killer Ben Miller in the Gary Cooper-Grace Kelly classic western, High Noon. Altogether, he acted in more than 60 films, among them Giant (1956) and Hoosiers (1986). Prominent in television acting as well, he played the role of Pete Nolan in the popular Rawhide series from 1959 to 1966.

As a recording artist, Wooley had his first success on the pop charts. His “Are You Satisfied?” barely made a dent in 1955, reaching only the No. 95 spot. But three years later, he unleashed a monster with the novelty tune, “The Purple People Eater.” It went No. 1 on the pop listings and stayed there for six weeks. “That’s My Pa,” another novelty effort in 1962, was his first country hit. It also reached No. 1.

As Ben Colder, Wooley scored six country and five pop hits with such parodies as “Don’t Go Near the Eskimos” (a takeoff on “Don’t Go Near the Indians”), “Still No. 2,” “Almost Persuaded No. 2,” “Detroit City No. 2” and “Harper Valley P.T.A. (Later That Same Day).” His last charted country song came in 1971 with “Fifteen Beers Ago,” a sendup of Conway Twitty’s “Fifteen Years Ago.” Fittingly enough, Wooley wrote the theme song for the Hee Haw TV series. In 1968, the Country Music Association honored him with its comedian of the year award.

On Oct. 9, 2002, then U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee saluted Wooley as an “American treasure” by reading a catalog of his achievements into the Congressional Record. “He never strayed far from his roots,” Thompson said, “and always knew how to rope in an audience.”

Wooley’s funeral will be held Monday (Sept. 22) “at high noon,” Dotson said, at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., and will be open to the public. He is survived by his widow; two daughters, Christie Wooley and Shauna Dotson; and two grandchildren.

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[Hank Rearden]

I know the song they're talking about here, but all I can hear playing in my head is "Wooley Bully".

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs?

[Russell Scott]

Well I saw the thing coming out of the sky
It had one long horn and one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said oo-wee
It looks like a purple people eater to me
It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
Sure looks good to me

Well, he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said mr Purple People Eater don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn't eat you 'cos you're too tough
It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater
It sure looks strange to me

I said mr Purple People Eater what's your line
He said eating purple people and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock 'n roll band
Well, bless my soul rock 'n roll flying' purple people eater
Pigeon-toed under-growed flyin' purple people eater
one-eyed one-horned it was a people eater
What a sight to see

Well, he swung from the tree and he lit on the ground
he started to rock really rockin' around
It was a crazy ditty with a swinging tune
Wop bop a lula wop bam boom
one-eyes one-horned flying people eater
Ooh, it sure looks strange to me

Well he went on his way and then what do you know
I saw him last night on a TV show
He was a blowin' it out and really knockin' them dead
Playing rock 'n roll music through the horn in his head

[Gil4]

Did someone say Purple People Eater?

[csvset]

Fwiw, checkout this website, Famous Deaths - Week in Review

Interesting.

[NormsRevenge]

Condolences to the Wooley family

Bump for the Vikes Purple Eater Gang of old. ;-)

[Clemenza]

Did he see that thing coming down from the sky?

RIP

[Theodore R.]

*ping*

[weegee]

Without "The Purple People Eater" we would never have heard about that DJ from Beaumont, Texas known as "The Big Bopper".

He cut a novelty song called "The Witch Doctor Meets The Purple People Eater" for D Records in Houston, Texas. That song didn't go very far but the flip side "Chantilly Lace", well everybody heard that one.

[RightWhale]

Hard to believe the same man did all that. He sure had fun with Purple People Eater.

[G L Tirebiter]

*ping*

This was probably the first 45 in my collection - though it might have been preceded by an Alvin & the Chipmunks classic. I must have really liked the song - my Dad would NOT subsidize record purchases. They had to come straight from the $.25 weekly allowance.

Now my .45's have a different configuration - but they still leave big holes in the middle.

[Theodore R.]

If wonder if his former costar Clint Eastwood will make the funeral.

[Geostorm]

Sheb was also in the movies. He was in High Noon and Hoosiers. In Hoosiers he played the Principal that brought Gene Hackman into the small townto coach their basketball team.

[js1138]

Without "The Purple People Eater" we would never have heard about that DJ from Beaumont, Texas known as "The Big Bopper".

Which lead, of course, to "American Pie", the song and the movie.

I have to say that I've been compiling a collection of my favorite oldies at the request of my daughter, who's getting married. Somewhere in the first ten songs I selected is Purple People Eater.

[speedy]

Thanks for the ping, TR. He was a good guy. Flying purple people tip of the topper to you.

[tal hajus]

I thought the words were,"I commenced to shakin' and a-shivering, it looked like a purple people eater to me."

I had one of the original 45's and me and my sisters played the heck out of it.

[mafree]

Too bad- I liked "Purple People Eater." RIP Mr. Wooley.