Mac and Katie Kissoon - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep
1971
Mac and Katie were just two of eight siblings from the Kissoon family who moved to England from Trinidad in 1962. Both singers had solo projects before they realized maybe they should try a Brady Bunch/Cowsills kinda thing and sing together. "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep," an ode to baby birds, was barreling into the Top 40 in England in 1971 when it was suddenly overtaken by a cover version by another band, appropriately named Middle of the Road.
The Kissoons kept at it and later found bigger success in the mid-'70s. For me, though, this track is their defining moment: simple, silly, bubblegum pop at its most deliriously infectious.
10 comments:
What is it about this song that has made it survive?
It is simplistic, dumb, and pointless.
Yet I love it and there are over 40 versions of it out there and everyone seems to have their favorite. (this one also is mine) It is the most addictive songs ever released. Yet the same time saw "DOA" from Bloodrock, which was also a minor hit yet you never see that one anymore.
I also have a version of it on 45. I was never able to figure out if it was meant to be played at 45 or 33 rpm. I wondered about this song for years until my buddy stumbled across your blog entry. Thanks. Now I won't wonder about the lyrics, even if I will still wonder why.
Recently, for some reason, this old song was going around in my head, even though I had not heard it in 15, mabie 20 years. I thought the words were "Little Baby Boy" , and I thought the song was about an afroamerican tot who is abandoned by his parents. Then I thought it might have been an anti-Vietnam war song ("Where's your moma-papa gone? Far far away")So I go on the web and find the Lyrics,and it turns out the song is about a bird.
I think that this song is appealing because of it's themes of abbandonment, lonliness and sudden loss. I wish a new version of it could develop. Imagine if Katie Kassoon would team up with a revived Middle-Of-The-Road group (see their website) to do a new, DIFINITIVE version of the song.
And I STILL think the song was REALLY a statement against the Vietnam war. And it could be used as an antiwar song today.
This song was in my head this morning - I remember it from when I was maybe 4th grade? I googled and found this site. Very cool - I'll be back.
Like Andrew, I assumed it was about an abandoned child and probably the Vietnam war. I mean, everything else was at that time, right? Instead - birds? Who knew?
When I first heard this song on a Bubblegum compilation, I listened to it over and over and over , until the headphones were hurting my earlobes too much to go on. It's that beat, I have 2 friends that released albums that sampled the intro. This song makes me happy like "She Loves You", just pure ecstacy, in fact I should listen to it on E!
my name is saul, and i am from san antonio, tx.
i have been searching for this song since i first heard it some 36 years ago (today is sep '07).
i am a big time record collector and want to buy every song i have ever liked, that is why i have never given
up. i found it using a "dogpile" search of the words "where's your mama gone?"
i have asked dj's, friends, family,
record stores and collectors. no one had ever heard of it except one co-worker 17 years ago.
i am suprise to see the many different versions available on cd including "dora the explorer", dance-remixes, reggae, and believe it or not a "classical" arrangement.
i had only heard the mac & katie kissoon version only and think it kick a** over middle of the road's anyday.
now i must find the 45 or lp since i don't not purchase cd's.
i am a little disappointed being that i thought the song was a smooth soul ballad in the vein of "black pearl", "just my imagination", or "i love you for all seasons". to find out it has non-sense lyrics. i was about 7 so i assumed he was talking about his little mama (girlfriend).
i am producing music for a latin r&b singer right now and maybe we can revive the song, being that it is such a catchy melody.
The original tune was written & recorded by Harold (Lally) Stott in 1970, a very quirky video of him performing said song is available at the link posted below. Sadly Stott died in a accident while riding a motorcycle which he had purchased using profits from the song.
The song has been covered in many languages, including Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish and German. A dance song in German to the same tune, Reiss die Hütte ab (Tear the hut down), was recorded by Mickie Krause (Apres Ski Hits 2003).
http://www.last.fm/music/Lally+Stott
The original tune was written & recorded by Harold (Lally) Stott in 1970, a very quirky video of him performing said song is available at the link posted below. Sadly Stott died in a accident while riding a motorcycle which he had purchased using profits from the song.
The song has been covered in many languages, including Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish and German. A dance song in German to the same tune, Reiss die Hütte ab (Tear the hut down), was recorded by Mickie Krause (Apres Ski Hits 2003).
http://www.last.fm/music/Lally+Stott
Katie Kissoon is better known for being one of Van Morrison's backup singers, right..? ;>
Poetmeister...on the road to Parnassus
To Bloggomio: I always knew Katie Kissoon as one of "Mac and Katie Kissoon", they had their biggest hit in 1975 with "Sugar Candy Kisses".
But I am West German, and they were English. So maybe Americans have never heard of them.
But that she was a back up singer for van Morrison is new to me. Doesn't mean it is not true, it might be absolutely so. Just didn't know it.
She did sing backing vocals on Elizabeth Mitchell's first solo-LP tough , the "Christmas Album" in 1981 (which was then wrongfully released as another Boney M. album, as the idiot record company did not trust the audience would know the name Liz Mitchell enough).
I wonder what the Kissoons are doing today.
What? This was the original? I always thought the Sally Carr Versin (with Middle of the Road) was the original, since that was the charting hit version. Hmm, interesting to know that sally covered a song. I would have thought the other way around.
Hey, really cool to learn new stuff here!
I wonder whether the new apartment of the blogholder will eventually be organized, and he'll ever come back to his blog here??
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