The Thing (song)

"The Thing" is a hit novelty song by Charles Randolph Grean which received much airplay in 1950.

The most popular version of the song was recorded by Phil Harris on October 13, 1950 and released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-3968. The record first reached the Billboard charts on November 17, 1950. It lasted 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 1.

Other versions were recorded by Arthur Godfrey, Danny Kaye, Ray Charles, Teresa Brewer and Australian orchestra leader Les Welch. The Arthur Godfrey recording was made in November, 1950 and released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39068. The Danny Kaye recording was made on December 1, 1950 and released by Decca Records as catalog number 27350. The Ray Charles recording was made on July 13, 1963 and released by ABC-Paramount Records in the album "Have A Smile With Me", as catalog number ABC 495 (mono) / ABCS 495 (stereo). The Teresa Brewer recording was made in October 1950, and released by London Records as catalog number 873. The Les Welch recording was made in January 1951 and released by Pacific Records, an Australian company, as catalog number 10-0051.

Story

The lyrics take the form of a first-person narration, describing the discovery on a beach of a box. Whatever is in the box is never revealed, nor is it called "The Thing" in the lyrics. When the lyrics call for The Thing to be named, the vocals simply pause for three percussive knocks. For example, the first verse ends, "I discovered a [* **], right before my eyes!" (The knocks [* **] are unequally spaced, occurring on counts 1,3 and 4 of the song's 6/8 meter. The listener could substitute any three-syllable phrase his imagination might invent, such as "dog-gone thing".)

Initially, the narrator is overjoyed by his discovery and tries to sell it. Instead, he is thrown out by a proprietor with a threat to call the police. Undaunted, the narrator decides to give it to his wife, who also kicks him out and requests he never return with it. Then, the narrator takes it to a hobo who was very brave, but when he showed him the Thing, he started to run away. After going through life unable to rid himself of the Thing, the narrator dies and arrives in Heaven where Saint Peter tells him to take it "down below" to Hell. In the final verse, the narrator warns the listener not to open boxes on the beach as he did.

Film

The song aired on radio concurrently with a series of teaser ads which ran weekly in Collier's promoting Howard Hawks' science fiction movie, The Thing from Another World. The Hawks film was released April 6, 1951. While the song had no connection with the movie, some suspect it was a clever marketing tool to increase interest in seeing the film.

Also, in the 1982 George Romero film "Creep Show" [[1]], one of the 5 short stories comprising the movie offers a more horrific interpretation of the song lyrics. In this story, entitled "The Crate", a worker discovers an old crate that is chained shut and hidden in a university research lab. Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau take it from there.

In science fiction

Edward G. Robles, Jr. wrote a short science fiction story partially based around the song. It involved several hobos who find an object like the one described in the song. In the story, the object is discovered to be an alien disguised as something nobody wants. It was originally copyrighted by Galaxy Publishing Corp. in 1954.

Pinball

Chicago Coin made a pinball game in 1951 called THING with backglass and playfield art that got its inspiration from the song "The Thing". Roy Parker was the artist.

References

Preceded by "Harbor Lights" by Sammy Kaye	U.S. Billboard Best Sellers in Stores number-one single December 2–23, 1950	Succeeded by "The Tennessee Waltz" by Patti Page
Preceded by Harbor Lights	Cash Box magazine best selling record chart #1 record December 16, 1950	Succeeded by Harbor Lights