Surfin' Bird
| "Surfin' Bird" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "King of the Surf" |
"Surfin' Bird" is a song performed by American surf rock band The Trashmen, which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons, "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" and "The Bird's the Word" and was released in 1963, along with an album of the same name, becoming popular in the Vietnam war era.
Notably, it appears in the films Pink Flamingos (performed by a lip synching rectum)[1] and Full Metal Jacket. It was also used in the video game Battlefield Vietnam (as a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film).
Lyrical content
The majority of the song's rapid fire lyrics are derived simply from the titles of two songs by Los Angeles R&B group The Rivingtons - Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, itself a parody of doo wop from 1962, and A-well-a bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word from 1963.
Cover versions
This song has been covered many times, most notably by punk rock band the Ramones (1977), The Deviants, The Cramps (1979), The Queers (1994), PPM (2001) and German thrash metal group Sodom (on their Vietnam war concept album M-16). It was also covered by Pee-Wee Herman in the movie Back to the Beach and by Australian group Silverchair as a B-side.
In Popular Culture
- The song was used in a scene in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
- The song was featured in 2003 on the 1960s period drama American Dreams. Meg Pryor and Roxanne Bojarski are shown dancing to the song on American Bandstand.
- A cover version of the song was used in the first episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, but has been edited out in reruns since.
- "Bird, bird, bird, bird is the word!" is one of the billboard messages in Animal Crossing Wild World.
- "The Bird is the Word" alone was featured in the 1963 B Sci-fi film The Crawling Hand.
- The song was sung repeatedly by Peter Griffin in the Family Guy episode "I Dream of Jesus"
References
External links
www.youtube.com/birdistheword