Ask “Mr. Music”
Jerry Osborne



FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 9, 1998

DEAR JERRY: Please tell me everything you can about an unusual song with the lyrics: “That's right, that's right, I'm sad and blue, 'cause I can't do the boogaloo.” Is it somehow available?
—Glennys Wolf, Milwaukee, Wisc.

DEAR GLENNYS: Those bewitching words provide the opening of ”Gimmie Dat Ding” (Capitol 2819) a mid-1970, Top 10 hit for the Pipkins (“Brother 'Pip' and Brother 'Kin'”). The singers are actually Tony Burrows and Roger Greenaway.

You might have also heard ”Gimmie Dat Ding” on TV's “Benny Hill Show.” Hill frequently used this novelty tune as background music for his zany skits.

The best currently available source for ”Gimmie Dat Ding” is the 18-track CD “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) — The Voice of Tony Burrows” (Varese Sarabande VSD-5725). London-born Burrows is a well-traveled session vocalist.

Fellow Brits, Albert Hammond (“It Never Rains in Southern California”) and Mike Hazelwood wrote ”Gimmie Dat Ding” as an alternative to ”Gimmie Dat Click.”

Explains Burrows: “It was written for a children's album titled “Oliver and the Overworld,” which was simply a conversation between a metronome and a pianola.

“The Metronome, in fact, was the bass voice. It shouldn't have been ”Gimmie Dat Ding.” It should have been ”Gimmie Dat Click,” because the pianola was actually asking for a click from the metronome. But it didn't scan right for Albert, so he changed the name.

“Roger Greenaway sang the falsetto parts and I did the throwaway, spoken, bass-croak voice.”

Tony Burrows has surely been the lead vocalist on more hit recordings than anyone in the past 50 years.

Besides the Pipkins tracks, Burrows is featured on numerous other hits by groups with made-up names. Among them: Edison Lighthouse (“Love Grows”); First Class (“Beach Baby”); White Plains (“My Baby Loves Lovin'”); Brotherhood of Man (“United We Stand”); and Flowerpot Men (“In a Moment of Madness”).

DEAR JERRY: I promised an aging baby boomer contemporary of mine that I would ask you about a mid-'50s hit, “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands,” by an adenoidal kid named Laurie London.

If such a tune really exits, I would appreciate knowing of any CDs on which it can be found.
—Ron Armagast, Chicago, Ill.

DEAR RON: Since you apparently are only familiar with this tune through your friend, here is some background.

Laurie London, born in 1944 in London England, had just turned 13 when he recorded “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands” (Capitol 3891). In April 1958 his pop treatment of this gospel standard became the No. 1 record in the nation.

Surprisingly, London — the definition of a one-hit wonder — never had another chart hit. Very rarely did an artist have a No. 1 hit, yet be unable to even make the Top 100 with any of their follow-ups.

One compact disc containing “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands” is ”When AM Was King: 1955 — 1974” (Capitol 98665), a 24-track collection of Capitol classics.

IZ ZAT SO? Decade-by-decade, which are the top-selling one hit wonder tunes?

For the 1950s, the champ is Laurie London's “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

“In the Year 2525,” a 1969 release by Zager & Evans, is the top No. 1 one-hit wonder of the '60s.

For the '70s, there is only one qualifying release — “Pop Muzik,” from 1979, by a group known only as M.

The runaway winner for the '80s is “We Are the World,” by the all-star conglomerate named USA for Africa.






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