Muskrat Love
"Muskrat Love" is a pop song by written by Willis Alan Ramsey and introduced (as "Muskrat Candlelight") on his sole album the 1972 release Willis Alan Ramsey; the song had its highest profile via a 1976 remake by Captain & Tennille. The song's lyric depicts a romantic liaison between two anthromorphic muskrats named Susie and Sam.
America recorded "Muskrat Love" for their 1973 album Hat Trick, marking the second time the band had recorded a song not written by a member of America. In putting together ten songs to comprise the eventual Hat Trick album, America's members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek had agreed to each contribute three compositions with a mutually agreeable cover song being recorded as the tenth track. David Dickey who played bass for America brought Ramsey's "Muskrat Candlelight" to the group's attention: according to Beckley—"to us it sounded like a very bluesy, quirky tune. We just felt it was quirky and commercial, and we worked it up." Issued as the album's advance single in July 1973, "Muskrat Love" marked a downturn in America's popularity with a low peak on the Hot 100 in Billboard at #67,[1] the two evident markets where the track did well being Honolulu and Palm Springs with Top Ten status in both localities.
Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille would recall: "We [ie. Tennille & 'Captain' Daryl Dragon] were driving around one night when we heard America’s version of the song on the radio. I said to Daryl 'Did you hear that? I swear they’re singing about muskrats.' I had to know what the lyrics were, so the next day we went out and found the sheet music. I said to Daryl, this song is hysterical, why don’t we add it to our club-act? And [the audience] went nuts for it." Being short one track for their 1976 album Song of Joy, Captain & Tennille made an impromptu decision to record "Muskrat Love", employing sound effects created with a synthesizer to evoke the imagined sound of muskrats courting, which in its eventual 7" single version would feature an "endless loop" of these sound effects created by encoding the end groove of the 45.
Despite Captain & Tennille's stated disinterest in highlighting "Muskrat Love" as an item in their repertoire it was the song they chose to sing at a July 1976 White House dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth II: the press subsequently ran a statement from a dinner guest who opined it was "in very poor taste" to sing of mating muskrats before the Queen. Toni Tennille responded to this charge saying: "only a person with a dirty mind would see something wrong. It's a gentle Disneyesque kind of song."[2] Purportedly there were no plans to issue a third single off Song of Joy following the Top Ten success of "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" and"Shop Around": however A&M Records decided to issue "Muskrat Love" as a single after a Madison WI radio station which had been airing the album cut reported phenomenal listener response to the song in September 1976. Captain & Tennille's "Muskrat Love" reached a #4 Hot 100 peak that December, also spending four non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart.[3] Based on the Captain & Tennille version, "Muskrat Love" has become a staple on "worst song" lists, including a 2006 poll by CNN.com[4] Gerry Beckley of America cited "Muskrat Love" as "a fine example of where the closer you go back to the original seed, the nicer it is. Ours was once removed, and the Captain & Tennille's was even more removed."[1]
A parody of the song called "Hamster Love" was written and performed by Big Daddy and included on Dr. Demento's 30th Anniversary album.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b "accessbacktage". http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/song/song023.htm. Retrieved July 29 2011.
- ^ Windeler, Robert (October 18, 1976). "Year of the Dragons", People vol. 6 no. 16.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 45.
- ^ "The Worst Songs of All Time, Part II". CNN. 2006. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/25/worst.songs/index.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
- ^ "Hamster Love by Big Daddy". The Mad Music Archive. http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=103. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
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