The bloody Red Baron was flying once more The Allied command ignored all of its men And called on Snoopy to do it again. Was the night before Christmas, 40 below When Snoopy went up in search of his foe He spied the Red Baron, fiercely they fought With ice on his wings Snoopy knew he was caught. Christmas bells those Christmas bells Ring out from the land. In the song, during a Christmas Eve dogfight, the Red Baron forces Snoopy’s plane down behind enemy lines. Expecting to be killed, Snoopy is surprised when the Red Baron offers him a champagne.
OLD FAVOURITE: Love or hate it – Snoopy still flies at ChristmasAs scarlet splashes gradually intensify among the leaves of the capital's many pohutukawa, shoppers and radio listeners are apparently beginning to see red in other ways.Snoopy's Christmas, a festive favourite in New Zealand since it first topped the charts back in 1967, has again found itself heading certain 'worst Christmas Songs' lists.Surely directing such malevolence at a children's favourite about a cartoon beagle promoting 'peace to all the world, and goodwill to man' is Dickensian mean-spiritedness at its worst? Those heroically working in retail at this time of year, dosed several times daily with Snoopy's yuletide aerial mission by in-store sound systems, would probably disagree.But either way this novelty song by The Royal Guardsmen has probably been a part of our New Zealand Christmas for as long as many of us can remember.Snoopy has surprising pedigree – The Royal Guardsmen were actually six young men from Florida, most of them still at high school when they formed in 1965. Originally called The Posmen, the name was changed to reflect the popular British music invasion on the American pop charts at that time, spearheaded by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.The Guardsmen's original aim was to become what would now be called a 'cover band', performing authentic live versions of then-current hits. Guitar/vocalist Barry Winslow recalls that they wanted to cover records '. To a tee with total quality', even though he was so young that his voice was still breaking.They played clubs and recorded a demo record which in turn led to a proposal from record producer Phil Gernhard.
He was asking local bands to take a look at the lyrics for a novelty song called Snoopy vs The Red Baron, with the aim of releasing a record of the 'best' treatment.The song was originally a straight historical one, but Gernhard was inspired to include Snoopy when Charles Schulz had begun drawing him shouting 'Curse you Red Baron!' From the top of his dog house in the famous Peanuts strip. Not at all what they wanted to do, The Guardsmen unenthusiastically composed a self-professed 'hokey', arrangement, which to their surprise, Gernhard liked. He released the single, and it shot to the top of the American charts in November 1966, catapulting a student garage band to something approaching fame.
| 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' | |
|---|---|
| Single by The Royal Guardsmen | |
| from the album Snoopy and His Friends | |
| B-side | 'I Needed You' (non-LP track) |
| Released | November 1966 |
| Recorded | Charles Fuller Productions studio, Tampa, Florida |
| Genre | Rock, novelty |
| Label | Laurie LR 3366 |
| Songwriter(s) | Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler |
| Producer(s) | Phil Gernhard and John Brumage |
'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida-based pop group The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records. Bowing at #122 on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 on December 10, 1966, the single skyrocketed to #30 on December 17, 1966 [1], shot up again to #7 on December 24, 1966 [2], and peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 during the week of December 31, 1966 (behind the Monkees' 'I'm a Believer'); made number 6 on the Record Retailer (UK) chart in February 1967;[3] and was number one in Australia for five weeks from February 1967. On the Hot 100, 'Believer' at #1 kept 'Snoopy' at #2 from reaching the Hot 100 summit from December 31, 1966 through January 21, 1967, after which 'Snoopy' fell off while 'Believer' stayed at the top for another three weeks.
The Royal Guardsmen went on to record several other Snoopy-themed songs, including two follow-ups to 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' – 'The Return of the Red Baron' and 'Snoopy's Christmas' – together with other tunes such as 'Snoopy for President'.[4] In 2006 they released 'Snoopy vs Osama'.[5]
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Background[edit]
'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' was inspired by the comic stripPeanuts by Charles Schulz, which featured a recurring storyline of Snoopy imagining himself in the role of a World War I airman fighting the Red Baron. The song was released approximately one year after the first comic strip featuring Snoopy fighting the Red Baron appeared on Sunday October 10, 1965. Schulz and United Features Syndicate sued the Royal Guardsmen for using the name Snoopy without permission or an advertising license. (The Guardsmen, meanwhile, hedged their bets by recording an alternative version of the song, called 'Squeaky vs. the Black Knight'; some copies of this version were issued by Laurie Records in Canada.[6]) UFS won the suit, the penalty being that all publishing revenues from the song would go to them. Schulz did allow the group to write more Snoopy songs.
The song begins with a background commentary in faux German: 'Achtung! Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte über den Schweinköpfigen Hund und den lieben Red Baron,' which is a purposeful mistranslation of the English: 'Attention! We will now sing together the story of that pig-headed dog [Snoopy] and the beloved Red Baron'[7] and features the sound of a German sergeant counting off in ones ('eins, zwei, drei, vier', after the first verse), and an American sergeant counting off in fours (after the second verse); a fighter plane; machine guns; and a plane in a tailspin (at the end of the last verse). From 1:46 to 1:54 the song quotes a variant of the instrumental chords from The McCoys' version of 'Hang On Sloopy'. In the original recording of 'Snoopy', the lyrics 'Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on' were sung at this point. This tactic led to some initial speculation that the Guardsmen were the McCoys under a different name. Prior to release, these lyrics were removed to prevent copyright issues.
The song's chorus refers to 'the bloody Red Baron'. As 'bloody' is considered a mild expletive in Australia, and some other English-speaking countries, the word was censored (by being 'bleeped out') for radio airplay in Australia during the 1960s.
Other releases and cover versions[edit]
A rare promotional record (only 1000 were pressed, labelled 'Omnimedia') for the advertising arm of Charles Fuller Productions included the removed lyrics 'Hang on Snoopy'. It is a two-sided 7' that plays at 33-1/3 RPM.
The song was featured as a cover version on a children's album of the same name in the early 1970s by The Peter Pan Pop Band & Singers.[8]
In 1976 the group 'The Irish Rovers' covered this song on their studio album 'The Children of the Unicorn' under the label of K-Tel International. It was the 12th album by this Irish folk music group.
In 1973, a group called 'The Hotshots!' reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of the song, performed in a ska style.[9]
In 1967, Italian singer Giorgio Gaber recorded an Italian version of this song, 'Snoopy contro il Barone Rosso'. He also recorded a Spanish version, 'Snoopy contra el Barón Rojo', with lyrics very similar to his Italian version.
Also in 1967, Spanish band Los Mustang recorded a different version in Spanish, also titled 'Snoopy contra el Barón Rojo', with different lyrics from Gaber's version.
Also in 1967, Brazilian singer Ronnie Von recorded a version, 'Soneca Contra o Barão Vermelho', Snoopy then being known in Brazil as either Xereta ('snoopy' in Portuguese) or Soneca ('snooze') in local editions of the Schulz comic strip.
In 1977, a Finnish band Kontra recorded a version in Finnish titled as 'Ressu ja Punainen Parooni'. It was released as B-side of their debut single 'Aja hiljaa isi'(Love Records LRS 2185).[10]
In 2003, a band called The Staggers released a hard rock cover of the song.
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The song inspired the title of Kim Newman's novel The Bloody Red Baron (1995). The book features both the Red Baron and Snoopy, though the latter is deliberately unnamed in order to avoid copyright issues.
The song is briefly featured towards the end of Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time.. in Hollywood.
Phil Gernhard's other songs[edit]
Phil Gernhard, the joint composer of 'Snoopy', had previously produced the original version of 'Stay' by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs, and later became the producer of singer-songwriter Lobo. Dick Holler's other big writing success, a notably marked contrast of styles to 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron', was the tribute song 'Abraham, Martin & John', a 1968 hit for Dion.
References[edit]
- ^https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1966-12-17
- ^https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1966-12-24
- ^Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 473. ISBN1-904994-10-5.
- ^Pore-Lee-Dunn Productions. 'Royal Guardsmen'. Classicbands.com. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
- ^''Snoopy vs. Osama' by Ocala's The Royal Guardsmen'. Tampa Bay Times. May 2, 2011.
- ^joeknapp (2009-12-16). 'MusicMaster Oldies: Squeaky vs The Black Knight ???'. Musicmasteroldies.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
- ^'Ocala's Royal Guardsmen head to Las Vegas for end of summer bash'. Ocala.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
- ^'Peter Pan Pop Band Singers - 'Snoopy Vs The Red Baron''. Discogs.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
- ^Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 260. ISBN1-904994-10-5.
- ^http://www.perunamaa.net/sarjakuvarock/moog/bandit/kontra.html
External links[edit]
- Lyrics at LyricsFreak