The Flying Saucer (song)
"The Flying Saucer" | ||||
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Single by Bill Buchanan and Goodman | ||||
Released | July 1956 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:17 (both parts) | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | ||||
Bill Buchanan and Goodman singles chronology | ||||
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"The Flying Saucer" (also known as "The Flying Saucer Parts 1 & 2") is a novelty record, the first of a series of
Bill Buchanan plays the radio announcer, stating that the spacemen are attacking Earth. Dickie Goodman plays reporter John Cameron-Cameron (a play on the broadcaster John Cameron Swayze). Goodman would re-visit this character in several other 'Flying Saucer' records.
Structure
Made using a
The song uses clips from 17 different songs, each of which was a top 20 hit in 1955 or 1956. In order of occurrence:
- Side One
- "Open Up That Door" by Nappy Brown (saxophone intro only)
- "The Great Pretender" by The Platters (referenced as "Too Real" by The Clatters)
- "I Want You to Be My Girl" by The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon
- "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard
- "Poor Me" by Fats Domino
- "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley
- "Earth Angel" by The Penguins (referenced as "Earth" by The Pelicans)
- "I Hear You Knocking" by Smiley Lewis (referenced as "Knocking" by Laughing Lewis)
- "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard
- "(You've Got) The Magic Touch" by The Platters (referenced as "Uh-Oh" by The Clatters)
- "The Great Pretender" by The Platters
- Side Two
- "Don Cherry
- "Ain't That A Shame" by Fats Domino (referenced as "That's A Shame" by Skinny Dynamo)
- "Band of Gold" by Don Cherry (again)
- "Don't Be Angry" by Nappy Brown
- "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins (referenced as "Shoes" by Pa Gherkins)
- "Maybellene" by Chuck Berry (referenced as "The Motor Cooled Down" by Huckle Berry)
- "See You Later Alligator" by Bill Haley & His Comets
- "My Prayer" by The Platters
- "
While noting it as a novelty record, author Paul Carr highlighted the significance of "The Flying Saucer" in technological terms, writing: "Like Buchanan and Goodman, composers such as Pierre Schaeffer (Orphée 53, 1953), Pierre Boulez (Études 1 Sur un Son, 1951) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (Konkrete Etüde, 1952) also began using tape manipulation in the early 1950s when working in the genre of musique concrète. This provides a broader context for 'Flying Saucer,' all of which points to the future."[5] Jane McGrath describes "The Flying Saucer" as an early example of a sample collage, one "less avant-garde and experimental" than James Tenney's Collage #1 (1961), which also sampled the music of Elvis Presley.[6]
Release and reception
Its wide use of "sampling" prompted music publishers to file suit against Buchanan and Goodman in July (1956). The two men were also criticized in media of the era, with an anonymous source telling Billboard, "If we can't stop this nothing is safe in our business."[7] While "The Flying Saucer" was not the first record to quote from famous songs (see "Cool Whalin'" by Babs Gonzales), it was the first popular record to sample directly from the records themselves. The comedians made fun of their own predicament by issuing a follow-up song, "Buchanan and Goodman on Trial" (Luniverse 102). By November, 1956, the novelty song had stood up in court, being labeled as artful and clever. A judge refused to issue an injunction prohibiting the sales of the record.[8] Essentially, the record was considered a new work. This made it legal for artists to sample existing records—a practice that became very popular in subsequent years.
Alongside the trial record, Buchanan and Goodman followed the single with more "Flying Saucer" records, resulting in what has been dubbed a "UFO comedy series",[5] as well as "The Banana Boat Story".[1] Numerous artists, including Dewey, George & Jack & The Belltones, Sid Noel and His Outer Space Men, and Freed, Al "Jazzbo" Collins and Steve Allen, covered "The Flying Saucer" using re-recorded versions of the excerpted songs.[5] Although Buchanan later left the partnership, Goodman continued releasing break-in records in the same pattern, with spoof interviewers responded to with song lyrics and refrains.[4] In 1957, The Billboard noted that sales of the Penguins' "Earth Angel" and Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" had increased in wake of the success of "The Flying Saucer".[5]
Legacy
"The Flying Saucer" was the first song to sample the work of other artists.
According to Carr, the hit "in many ways paved the way for artists such as
"The thing is, Goodman and his partner did these “snippet” or “break-in” records as quick and cheap novelty recordings. And the humor on them is really hit-and-miss; you hear the song clip and you try to associate it with the song and with the question being asked by the faux interviewer. But today an artist like
Drake can poach the intro to a Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds song and turn it into a pop hit of his own. Or a few years ago, when the group Garbage took an entire lyric from a Pretenders song and added it to one of their tracks. What Goodman did for laughs, musicians today do for artistic interpretation."[4]
Charts
Chart (1956) | Peak position |
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US Best Sellers in Stores (Billboard)[12] | 3 |
References
- ^ ISBN 9781135949501. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
- ^ a b Burriss, Dr. Larry (August 13, 2012). "Burriss on Media: Music in Space". wmot.org. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ a b c Lynskey, Dorian (October 24, 2008). "A little bit of this, a little bit of that". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e Miller, Chuck (September 30, 2010). "Dickie Goodman – the music pioneer you never heard of". Times Union. Archived from the original on December 2, 2010. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 9781501368424.
- ^ McGrath, Jane (February 19, 2021). "How Music Sampling Works". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ "Flying Saucer Takes Off; Pubbers, Diskers Do a Flip" Billboard, July 28, 1956, p. 17
- ^ "Modern Joins in Luniverse Suit" Billboard, November 17, 1956, pp. 16,30
- ^ Banks, Dave (August 29, 2018). "'Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig' Adds More Game to Your Gaming". GeekDad. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
- ^ "The Recombinant DNA of the Mash-Up". The New York Times. January 6, 2011. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ "Sample the sounds of sampling". The Guardian. October 24, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved November 3, 2015.