Spanish Flea
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"Spanish Flea" is a popular song written by Julius Wechter in the 1960s with lyrics by Cissy Wechter.
The song is best known from an instrumental version by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, released as a B-side to the single "What Now My Love" but not on their 1965 album Going Places. The album was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and the single peaked at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100, with its A-side reaching No. 24 and gaining a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental. "Spanish Flea"[1] featured Alpert's trumpet over a Latin rhythm backing.
In the United States, the song is closely associated with the long-running game show The Dating Game, for which it served as the "Bachelor’s Theme".
Other recordings
The song was also recorded by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 on their 1966 debut album, Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66.
"Spanish Flea" was also covered by Trudy Pitts on her debut album Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts (1967), by the Doodletown Pipers on The Doodletown Pipers Sing-along '67 (1967) and by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley on Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Spotlight on the Moog, also recorded in 1967. Julius Wechter himself, with his Baja Marimba Band, recorded the song on the 1971 album As Time Goes By.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra did a rendition of the song as the last track on the album "Something New: The Glenn Miller Orchestra plays the Tijuana Brass" (1966)
Allan Sherman did a parody of this song on his album Togetherness (1967).
In film and television
In addition to its use in The Dating Game, the song has been used in a variety of film and television soundtracks. It was one of two Alpert songs in a 1966 animated cartoon by John Hubley, A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature.
The tune has been featured in four episodes of The Simpsons: "The Otto Show", "Team Homer", "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", and "Natural Born Kissers".
In the fingerprint scene in Rosewood's home in Beverly Hills Cop II, Eddie Murphy (playing Axel Foley) and Judge Reinhold (playing Billy Rosewood) improvised the idea of humming the tune. When Taggart (John Ashton) asks what the tune is, Rosewood replies, "The Dating Game!"
In the 1997 film Perdita Durango, the two main characters happily groove to the song while abducting two teenagers.
In an episode of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Vic Reeves plays the song through a prosthetic arm.
In the Philippine Noontime show It's Showtime on ABS-CBN, this song was played for taking a picture of a person's face with a frame called "Face Dance".
In American Pie 2, the band camp counselor plays the song on his trumpet, not knowing that the trumpet had just been inserted into Jason Biggs' character's buttocks.
The 1997-2001 Nickelodeon TV show The Angry Beavers had a theme song reminiscent of "Spanish Flea".
In an episode of Supernatural, the song is played when a pair of demons call Crowley (the King of Hell) from a hunter's trap.
In the 2013 film White House Down, the ring-tone can be heard repetitively in the film on the character of Richard Jenkins' mobile cell phone.
Other uses
The song acts as the opening and closing music to the Fangraphs audio podcast, hosted by Carson Cistulli and it had been used as a YTP source as well as the closing music for Low Limit Futbol hosted by Joe Uccello, Ben The Machine Agombar, Mike Orr and Roberto Rojas.
References
- ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles