Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers

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"Jive Bunny" redirects here. For their debut album, see Jive Bunny: The Album.

Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers
OriginRotherham, South Yorkshire, England
GenresNovelty, pop
Years active1989–present
LabelsBCM, Indisc
Past membersLes Hemstock
John Pickles
Andrew Pickles
Patrick Perkins
Ian Morgan
Mark Smith
Joe Holden
John Anderson (producer/sampled)

Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers are a British novelty pop music act from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The face of the group was Jive Bunny, a cartoon rabbit who appeared in their music videos. Costumed actors also made promotional appearances as the character.

Doncaster DJ and producer Les Hemstock created the original "Swing the Mood" mix for the Music Factory owned Mastermix DJ service. It was then taken from there and developed as a single release by father and son team John and Andrew Pickles.[1] The name Jive Bunny was devised by Andy Pickles.[2] Ian Morgan, a fellow DJ and co-producer, also engineered and mixed some of the early releases along with Andy Pickles. Morgan was replaced in the early 1990s by DJ and producer Mark "The Hitman" Smith.

Jive Bunny's three number ones during 1989 were "Swing the Mood",[2] "That's What I Like" and "Let's Party".[3] All three songs used sampling and synthesisers to combine pop music from the early rock 'n' roll era together into a medley.

Musical career[edit]

The act had 11 entries in the UK singles chart between July 1989 and November 1991. Each track used a sampled instrumental theme to join the old songs together, in much the same way as dance music megamixes. "Swing the Mood" began with Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" (a recording from 1939), followed immediately by rhythmic re-editing of Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock", Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up, Little Susie". The recording also had a short extract from The Glenn Miller Story (1954) with James Stewart as Glenn Miller. "Swing the Mood" was No. 1 for five weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1989, and quickly caught on in the United States, where it reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"That's What I Like" featured the theme music from the television police drama Hawaii Five-O, with overlaid excerpts from rock hits like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Ernie Maresca's "Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)". "Let's Party" (released originally in the U.S. as "March of the Mods") used "March of the Mods" (also known as the Finnjenka Dance), interpolating Del Shannon's "Runaway" and The Wrens' "Come Back My Love" among others. In the UK "Let's Party" was a Christmas hit with samples of Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" and Gary Glitter's "Another Rock 'N' Roll Christmas". Recently this has been remixed to remove the Gary Glitter track to avoid controversy over his subsequent criminal convictions and, somewhat anachronistically, replace it with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", should any radio stations wish to play it over the Christmas period. They did not have permission to use the original Wizzard recording so Roy Wood re-recorded the part of the track for them.

With "Let's Party" reaching Number One in the UK Singles Chart a couple of weeks before the Christmas chart of 1989,[4][5][6][7] the act became the third group after Gerry and the Pacemakers and Frankie Goes to Hollywood to 'top the chart' with their first three releases. However as Jive Bunny was credited on a Children In Need charity single ("It Takes Two, Baby", also featuring Liz Kershaw, Bruno Brookes and Londonbeat) that charted a couple of weeks before "Let's Party", it could be said that this honour only applies to the Mastermixers. As of 2020, the Official Charts Company website does not include "It Takes Two, Baby" in its list of Jive Bunny hits,[6] even though the cartoon rabbit is clearly visible on the single cover used on the site[8] and even though many British Hit Singles books of the early 2000s added the record to their discography.

The original European medleys featured the original recordings by the original artists. Legalities prevented certain of the original recordings to be reused in America, so the American Jive Bunny releases substituted later re-recordings of the same tunes by Bill Haley, Del Shannon and others. Later reissues further replaced some of these artists, such as Bill Haley and Elvis, with impersonator-singers.

The original idea for the project came from Les Hemstock on the DJ-only Mastermix DJ service.[1] The original "Swing the Mood" mix appeared on Issue 22 of Mastermix's monthly album release. John Pickles (father of Andy Pickles) was never in the band, but was the owner of the label and effectively the manager.

Partial discography[edit]

Notable albums and compilations[edit]

List of albums, with selected chart positions and certifications
Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
UK
[9] 		AUS
[10][11] 		AUT
[12] 		CAN
[13] 		GER
[14] 		NZ
[15] 		SWI
[16] 		US
[17]
Jive Bunny: The Album 2 1 5 5 14 9 3 26
It's Party Time
  • Released: 1990
  • Label: Telstar
  • Formats: LP, cassette, CD
 23 12 26 — — 50 14 —
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame
  • Released: 1991
  • Label: Telstar
  • Formats: LP, cassette, CD
 — — 14 — — 34 — —
The Best of Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers
  • Released: 1994
  • Label: Music Club
  • Formats: cassette, CD
 — — — — 88 — 44 —
Christmas Party
  • Released: 1996
  • Label: Music Club
  • Formats: cassette, CD
 — — — — — — — —
Hop Around The Clock
  • Released: 1998
  • Label: Global Television
  • Formats: cassette, CD
 76 — — — — — — —
Ultimate Christmas Party
  • Released: 2002
  • Label: Music Club
  • Formats: cassette, CD
 — — — — — — — —

Charting singles[edit]

List of charting singles, with selected chart positions and certifications
Year Single Peak positions Certifications Album
UK
[9] 		AUS
[21][11] 		AUT
[12] 		BEL
(FL)
[22] 		GER
[14] 		NET
[23] 		NZ
[15] 		SWE
[24] 		SWI
[16] 		US
[17]
1989 "Swing the Mood" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 11 Jive Bunny - The Album
"That's What I Like" 1 4 5 4 6 5 17 5 4 69
"Let's Party" 1 — 26 13 80 70 49 14 13 — singles only
1990 "That Sounds Good to Me" 4 66 19 12 36 12 — — 19 —
"Can Can You Party" 8 — 27 28 — 51 — — 13 — It's Party Time
"Let's Swing Again" 19 67 27 36 — — — — — —
"The Crazy Party Mixes" 13 — — — — — — — — —
1991 "Over to You John (Here We Go Again)" 28 — — 43 — — — — — —
"Hot Summer Salsa" 43 — — — — — — — — — singles only
"Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party" 48 — — 24 — 68 — — — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.

As featured artist[edit]

See also[edit]

  • Stars on 45, a Dutch novelty group of the early 1980s that used a similar format to Jive Bunny.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 208. ISBN 0-7535-0427-8.
  2. ^ a b Campbell, Mary (29 November 1989). "Jive Bunny has Europe hopping". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  3. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 283. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  4. ^ "BBC One - Top of the Pops, 14/12/1989". Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  5. ^ "BBC One - Top of the Pops, 21/12/1989". Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b "JIVE BUNNY | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  8. ^ a b "BRUNO BROOKES AND LIZ KERSHAW | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  9. ^ a b "United Kingdom Charts: Rita Coolidge". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers Discography". ARIA Charts. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d e Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  12. ^ a b "Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers Discography". Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  13. ^ "CAN Charts > Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". RPM. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  14. ^ a b "GfK Entertainment charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  15. ^ a b "New Zealand Charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Official New Zealand Music Chart. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  16. ^ a b "Swiss Charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Swiss Hitparade. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Jive Bunny: The Album". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g "Searchable Database: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Official Charts Company (BPI). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  19. ^ a b "Searchable Database: Jive Bunny". Music Canada (MC). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Searchable Database: Rita Coolidge". Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  21. ^ Australian (ARIA Chart) peaks:
  22. ^ "Belgium (Flanders) charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Ultratop. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  23. ^ "Dutch Charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Dutch Charts. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  24. ^ "Sweden Charts: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  25. ^ "Liz Kershaw, Bruno Brookes, Jive Bunny And London Beat - It Takes Two, Baby". 45cat.com. Retrieved 29 July 2020.

External links[edit]

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