Beep Beep (song)

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This article is about the Playmates song. For other songs, see Beep, beep (disambiguation) § Music.

"Beep Beep"
The single's label features the song title, artist, publisher, and other details in black typefaces; the background is white with eight evenly-spaced multicolored spokes radiating from the center hole.
One of side-A labels of original 1958 US single
Single by The Playmates
A-side"Your Love"
Released1958 (1958)
GenreNovelty
LabelRoulette
Songwriter(s)
  • Carl Cicchetti
  • Donald Claps
The Playmates[1] singles chronology
"While the Record Goes Around"
(1958) 		"Beep Beep"
(1958) 		"Star Love"
(1959)

"Beep Beep" is a novelty single by the Playmates, released in 1958 by Roulette Records (catalog number 4115) as the B-side to "Your Love".[1] The song describes an unintended road race between two mismatched cars.

Production

"Beep Beep" was written by Carl Cicchetti and Donald Claps,[2] also known as Chic Hetti and Donny Conn,[3] the band's arranger/pianist and drummer, respectively.[4]

The song is built around accelerando: the tempo of the song gradually increases commensurate with the increasing speed of the drivers.[5] In his book The Guide to United States Popular Culture, Ray B. Browne lists "Beep Beep" as an example of "motoring music [...] in the chase mode".[6] It is a tortoise-and-the-hare race,[3][1] substituting the drivers of two unequal cars, originally a Nash Rambler and Cadillac, respectively.[1] The joke at the heart of the song goes back well before it was turned into a record. A 1931 "Tit-Bit" in the La Crosse, Wisconsin, Tribune presents a similar scenario. Without naming a particular make, a "road hog with a big powerful car" spends twenty minutes trying to "shake off" a smaller car, but then is overtaken by the driver who yells out his window, "I say – do you know anything about these cars? I can't get this one out of low gear."[7]

bubble car; this recut version was also released in the US for radio stations with similar policies about product placement.[8]

Reception

"Beep Beep" began charting with Billboard on November 3, 1958; it charted for 15 weeks, peaking at number four.[9] After the single sold one million copies (The Playmates' only), it was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America.[10] The Playmates were scheduled to perform their song on the December 3, 1958 episode of The Milton Berle Show.[11]

In December 1958, Time credited the popularity of "Beep Beep" with helping American Motors Corporation break sales records. In November 1958, the company doubled its previous year's production record with 26,782 cars; Ramblers accounted for 9.2% of October 1958's automobile sales in the United States; and though "total U.S. exports slid 16% in 1958, Rambler's climbed 10.3%."[12] "Beep Beep" was also popular with the workers building Ramblers on AMC's assembly lines in Kenosha, Wisconsin.[13]

In 1994, a "near-mint commercial copy" of the single was valued at US$8 (equivalent to $16.45 in 2023).[9]

References

  1. ^
    LCCN 2006922018
    .
  2. LCCN 75-83059
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8230-7646-6
    .
  4. Macfadden Publications
    . pp. 17–29.
  5. ISBN 978-0-7360-7149-9
    .
  6. ^ "The Last Straw," La Crosse Tribune, 12 December 1931.
  7. ISSN 0006-2510
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-89820-104-7
    .
  9. ISBN 0-214-20480-4
    .
  10. ISSN 0006-2510
    .
  11. OCLC 1311479
    .
  12. ^ Giles, Diane (May 21, 2013). "Little Nash Rambler". That's Entertainment. Kenosha News. Retrieved October 30, 2023.

External links

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