Noooooooo! Don’t eat me!
Are you ready to kick off your week with another dose of musical weirdness? Well then, we’ve got you covered here at The Nest with the next magical entry in our Top 30 Novelty Songs of All Time countdown! DJ Scratchy’s going way back once again to the early days of rock and roll… or what qualified as rock during those days of sock hops, poodle skirts and The McGuire Sisters. And the Sponkies are getting an education on what all the cool kids listened to before Justin Bieber came along…
#25. “The Purple People Eater” – Sheb Wooley
It’s not uncommon for actors to break into the music business, even if one would assume they have zero musical talent. In most cases, songs done by actors serve as nothing more than an amusing (or sad) footnote to their careers. That is not the case with Sheb Wooley. Mostly a bit actor from the golden age of westerns, Wooley is nonetheless the man likely responsible for the most famous scream in Hollywood history. Oh, and he also had a novelty song hit #1 back in 1958 for six weeks that has become the one thing he is best known for today…
The purple people eater may be one of the most misunderstood mythical creatures ever conjured up out of a night of heavy drinking. Wooley clearly states in the lyrics that the alien eats purple people, meaning that he is not necessarily purple in color. That hasn’t stopped our crappy imaginations from dreaming up that the one horned, one eyed creature must be some purple furry abomination…
What would you get if you crossed Grimace with a unicorn? A yes, this movie really exists.
We at The Nest enjoy this song, even if its “playing a 33 on 78” voiced protagonist reminds us of those damned Chipmunks. We would also be happy if the one horned carnivore ate up every Prince song ever recorded, Barney the dinosaur, and any other purple menaces that need to be purged from society…
This people eater is actually purple…
The Purple People Eater just wanted to be in a rock and roll band… and I’ll have a big time rock band he could have joined next Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I love it… and I’m glad it is still a hit at every howloween party… although some “modern” songs are much more scary LOL
You can ruin a Halloween party if the music is too scary… or if someone dresses like Miley on her wrecking ball.
or if someone has a beaver haircut…gaaaah!
I remember that song and how the first time I heard it I made Mom buy me a stuffed critter of the purple people-eating variety. As memory serves me, a family dog ripped it to shreds and I have no doubt my Mom wanted to crush that record into shreds too after hearing it for the 7 millionth time back then!
Pam
7 million plays! Wow! The kids these days can’t even annoy the parents by replaying stupid songs over and over now that they have ear buds. The simple joys we’ve lost to technology…
Squeals with piggy excitement. I LOVE that song. OMP – I sing it all of the time – especially in October during my 31 Days of Spook. XOXO – Bacon
Everyone loves the Purple Piggy Eater…. errr, I meant Purple People Eater, of course. Silly me!
You are an evil person my friend. Snorts/oinks and rolls with purple laughter. XOXO – Bacon
ody N biskit…..knot rememburrin thiz one at all….for sure we will hafta give a listenz two when
de FSG getz home !!!!!!!!!! 🙂 ♥♥
Wow! I thought everyone of a certain age knew this song…
A fun song, although I agree about the PPE sounding like one of the Chipmunks! They should have given him a deeper, more monstery voice. I remember feeling disappointed when I realized that the song says the PPE eats purple people rather than is purple himself. I prefer to imagine him cute and purple like in the movie poster. That may be the cutest monster ever!
The purple people eater in the movie is cute! Of course, if the PPE really landed on earth… the government would still take him to Area 51 and perform tests and dissect him. That would kill his rock and roll career…
I remember hearing that song as a kid. Egad…I guess I really am old, aren’t I?
I heard it as a kid too, but it was on oldies radio!
Such a fun song!, I heard it so much, and it’s fun to sing along to. Now, my 4 year old grand-daughter loves it, too! 🙂
It’s lasted a long time… though I have to confess, when I pulled up the video for this post, it was the first time I’d heard the song in a good 25 years or so…
You have FINALLY picked one I know. Not only do I know it, I know ALL the words. It was a top song when I was like … 11? 12? Something like that. Not surprisingly, it was a big hit in the pre-teen set.
The label Sheb Wooley was connected with at the time rejected the song outright… but still kept a demo of it in the building. It was only after the kids of the company’s employees found it and played it over and over again that they decided to release it, and the rest is history…
Blimey, where do you find these things? Quite fun, though!
This song got played all the time on the oldies station when I was a kid. When music was fun and not annoying…