♫ Wooly Bully ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Here’s one I bet you haven’t heard in a while, or at least since I played it a couple of years ago!  The year was 1965 and this was the first and biggest hit for Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs.  It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching #2 in the U.S.  It reached #11 in the UK and was the first U.S. record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion, influenced by the British rock sound mixed with traditional Mexican-American rhythms.

The lyrics of “Wooly Bully” were hard to understand, and some radio stations actually banned the song. The lyrics describe a conversation between “Mattie” and “Hattie” concerning the “Wooly Bully” (a creature which Mattie describes as “a thing she saw [that] had two big horns and a wooly jaw”) and the desirability of developing dancing skills, though I have no idea what the connection between the two are.  “Let’s not be L-7”, means “Let’s not be square”, from the shape formed by the fingers making an L on one hand and a 7 on the other.  I never knew that!

Sam is Domingo “Sam” Samudio, known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains.Sam-Sham-hearseAccording to Sam …

“The name of my cat was ‘Wooly Bully’, so I started from there. The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it.”

Wooly Bully
Sam the Sham, & The Pharaohs

Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw
Wooly bully, wooly bully
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully

Hatty told Matty, let’s don’t take no chance
Let’s not be l-seven, come and learn to dance
Wooly bully, wooly bully
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully

Matty told Hatty, that’s the thing to do
Get you someone really to pull the wool with you
Wooly bully, wooly bully
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully

Songwriters: Domingo Samudio
Wolly Bully lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Music Sales Corporation

23 thoughts on “♫ Wooly Bully ♫”

  2. I too have that dreaded “Video Unavailable” message. Once YouTube used to say why a track was unavailable but no longer, so the reason remains a mystery. However the link provided by Clive does work here in Aotearoa

    Not a song I’d consider playing, but as others have mentioned a bit of fun and nonsense, and we can all do with that at times 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m glad you enjoyed it, dear friend! I hope to enjoy my Sunday, but for me it’s still Saturday night, for I haven’t managed to get to bed yet! Enjoy your Sunday also … or should I say enjoy your pillow-hugging! xx

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  6. Pingback: ♫ Wooly Bully ♫ - A Little TOO Picture Imperfect

  7. A fun bit of nonsense from my youth. Not one I’d have wanted to play all that often, though! The video didn’t play for me, I’m afraid, but if any other UK readers have the same problem this link should work:

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’m so sorry the video link didn’t work over there! I have no way of testing it from across the pond, so I never know for sure. Thank you for posting one that will work for you all! No, it’s not one I’d play weekly, but every now and then it’s good to just have some fun with the music!

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      • It’s the bane of my blogging life! I frequently get told that videos don’t work, usually for copyright reasons, and then have to trawl through YouTube to find alternatives to add into posts. Then it’s a case of keeping fingers crossed. I thought I’d save you the effort, and at least anyone from over here can watch it. I hope they enjoy it!

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  8. I was going to play Little Red Riding Hood for you, which is my favourite Sam the Sham ditty, but then I ran into this song, which I definitely have not heard for almost 60 years. I don’t know if it ever hit the charts, but it won the BATTLE OF THE BANDS three or four nIghts running in Winnipeg on CKRC. The only way to win was to call the record station, so you know it was the choice of teenagers. It is a song of the times, definitely, but it was a question most of us males were asking ourselves back then…

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    • OH MY!!! I haven’t heard that one for … at least 5 decades!!! I don’t think it was played often here, but I definitely do remember it! Like you, I think “Little Red Riding Hood” is my favourite after Wooly Bully. Thanks for the memory!

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  9. Yea! Loved this simply happy song. Another Tex-Mex gem. Made the charts in the UK.
    Thanks Jill
    (Extra fact: L7 is the name of a grunge/rock/roit grrl band which has been around since the mid 1980s and is guaranteed to upset MAGA and males with insecurity issues)

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    • It’s a happy song, Keith. Good music, looney lyrics. Very danceable, in the days when we could still dance and frolic. And it was easy to sing, even if we did sing our own wirds in places. I actually had two older aunts, Matilda and Harriet, that we called Matti and Hatti for short. We had a lot of fun playing this for them. (They hated it! So we loved it.)

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