Today we are used to song mashups that set the lyrics of one song to the tune of another. This goes double for the theme to Gilligan's Island, which can all be interchanged effortlessly. But the granddaddy of such shenanigans is "Stairway to Gilligan's Island."
The San Francisco band Little Roger and the Goosebumps came up with the song in 1977 to fill out their live sets. They recorded and released a single in 1978 titled "Gilligan's Island (Stairway)." Led Zeppelin's management threatened to sue for copyright infringement, which seems hilarious these days. But Little Roger and the Goosebumps couldn't afford a defense, so they pulled the single. It was still played on the Dr. Demento Show just enough to draw a following, because you couldn't forget it once you heard it. The band reissued the song on a 2000 album under the title "Stairway to Gilligan's Island." (via Metafilter)
That is catchy and pretty good.
ReplyDeleteAs a tangent, there is a band called Dread Zeppelin who claims to be Led Zeppelin after they moved to Jamaica and got Elvis Presley as their lead singer. Yes, the sing LZ songs in reggae with a guy who sounds a lot like Elvis. They are pretty good.
The great-grandaddy of this nonsense is I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, which had One Song to the Tune of Another in its opening episode in 1972. I'd love to know how much further back you could go -probably decades, possibly centuries
ReplyDeleteLove me some Dread Zeppelin! Was introduced to them by someone playing "Black Dog" over the PA before a Billy Joel concert. I heard that- "what is that? That's amazing!", and had to dig them up.
ReplyDeleteMy Dread Zeppelin CD is still in the car. I can't believe I haven't posted any of their videos.
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