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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

"Hippy Hippy Shake" by Georgia Satellites

Song#:  3687
Date:  10/22/1988
Debut:  88
Peak:  45
Weeks:  14
Genre:  Southern Rock, Soundtrack


Pop Bits:  The Satellites made a big splash with their 1986 self-titled debut LP. It hit #5 and went platinum thanks to the #2 Pop/#2 Rock hit "Keep Your Hands to Yourself." By the summer of '88, they were ready to release their second LP Open All Night. The title track would be the lead single and it would do well at Rock getting to #6. Unfortunately, it failed to crack the Pop chart. A second single didn't fare as well and that left the album peaking at #77, which was a far cry from the success of their debut. While recording that follow up LP, the band got the opportunity to contribute a song to a movie soundtrack. For the Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail, the band recorded "Hippy Hippy Shake." It would end up being the third song from the soundtrack to be issued out as a single following a pair of #1s, Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and The Beach Boys' "Kokomo." The tune would get to #13 on the Rock chart, but stopped just short of the Pop Top 40. By this point in time, the soundtrack album had already gone platinum. By January of '89, it would peak at #2 and reach the 4 million sales mark. This song would end up being the band's last one to reach the Pop chart. They would release a third album in '89 titled In the Land of Salvation and Sin, but it would only get to #130 with its lead single "All Over but the Cryin'" only making the Rock chart at #27. After that result, lead singer/songwriter Dan Baird would depart and the band went on hiatus. They would reunite without Baird in '93 and issued out an indie album in '97.

ReduxReview:  The band's beefy take on the old 50s tune (see below) was a good fit for them and also for the movie. It was a quick blast of sound that was a lot of fun and was perfect to fill in short spots of time on the radio. With the success of the movie and its soundtrack, I was quite surprised this song didn't do better on the Pop chart. It should have easily bounded up into the Top 20, but for some reason it stalled before it could even make the Top 40. It probably didn't help that their second album had come out and pretty much tanked. They lost a lot of casual fans with that result and maybe this one-off track wasn't enough to gain back that audience. Their Southern rock sound wasn't going to keep them on the Pop chart for long anyway, but they should have had a better result with this song.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This is a remake of a song originally written and recorded in 1959 by Chan (Robert Lee) Romero.  The Montana-born teen wrote the song in L.A. in '58 and got it recorded and released the following year. While the song didn't reach the US or UK Pop chart, it did hit #3 in Australia. The Beatles were fans of the song and they performed it live several times in their early days including once on the BBC in '63. The UK band The Swinging Blue Jeans recorded and released the song late in '63. It would hit #2 in the UK while making it to #24 in the US. Although several other artists covered the song over the years, the version by The Swinging Blue Jeans had been the only one to chart until the Georgia Satellites released their take.  2) After leaving the band, lead singer/songwriter Dan Baird headed out on a solo career. His debut album, Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired, would be released in '92. A song from the LP, "The One I Am," would get to #13 on the Rock chart. Baird would continue to tour and release albums over the years both as a solo artist and with his various bands.

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