The Wiggles (album) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Wiggles |
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 11 July 1991 | |||
| Recorded | February 1991 | |||
| Studio | Tracking Station Recording Studios, Sydney, Australia | |||
| Genre | Children's music | |||
| Length | 34:42 | |||
| Label | ABC Music/EMI | |||
| Producer | Anthony Field | |||
| the Wiggles chronology | ||||
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The Wiggles is the debut album by the Australian children's band the Wiggles, released in 1991 by ABC Music distributed by EMI. As a student music project at Macquarie University, the band assembled a group of songs reworked from the Cockroaches as well as arrangements of children's music. It is the only album to feature the fifth Wiggle Phillip Wilcher. The album sold 100,000 copies, and received Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) and Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) awards.
Promotion and release
At first, the Wiggles filmed two music videos with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to promote their first album; they also decided to create a self-produced, forty-minute long video version of their album. Finances were limited, so there was no post-production editing of the video project. They used Field's nieces and nephews as additional cast, and hired the band's girlfriends to perform in character costumes. Cook's wife made their first costumes. They used two cameras and visually checked the performance of each song; that way, according to Paul Field, it took them less time to complete a forty-minute video than it took other production companies to complete a three-minute music video. Jeremy Fabinyi, the Cockroaches' former manager, became the Wiggles' first manager. Using connections gained during the Cockroaches years, he negotiated with the ABC to air their TV show and to help them promote their first recording.
Field distributed copies of their album to his young students to test out the effect of the group's music on children; one child's mother returned it the next day because her child would not stop listening to it, having listened to the track Dorothy the Dinosaur 40 times. The album sold 100,000 copies in 1991. Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awarded the band members, including Wilcher, with gold and platinum certificates for the album.
In 1992, Wilcher left the Wiggles and submitted a letter of resignation because he wanted to continue composing classical music. According to fellow member, Greg Page, "Archie had considerable input into the arrangement of some songs on that first CD ... he is quite a musical genius ... his creative flair suited those kinds of pieces ... However ... the musical direction of the Wiggles was changing".
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Get Ready to Wiggle" | 1:57 |
| 2. | "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" | 1:46 |
| 3. | "Dorothy the Dinosaur" | 2:23 |
| 4. | "Mischief the Monkey" | 0:44 |
| 5. | "Lavender's Blue" | 1:32 |
| 6. | "Glub Glub Train" (Spoken) | 0:19 |
| 7. | "Archie's Theme" | 0:20 |
| 8. | "Montezuma" | 0:32 |
| 9. | "Archie's Theme" (Reprise) | 0:20 |
| 10. | "Ducky Ducky" (spoken) | 0:15 |
| 11. | "A Froggy He Would A-Wooing Go" | 3:36 |
| 12. | "Maranoa Lullaby" | 2:04 |
| 13. | "Stars" (spoken) | 0:09 |
| 14. | "Star Lullaby" | 1:46 |
| 15. | "Okki Tokki Unga" | 1:55 |
| 16. | "O Epoe Tooki Tooki" | 1:37 |
| 17. | "Vini Vini" | 0:58 |
| 18. | "Spot the Dalmatian" | 2:24 |
| 19. | "Johnny Works With One Hammer" | 0:49 |
| 20. | "The Man on the Moon" (Spoken) | 0:21 |
| 21. | "This Old Man" | 2:32 |
| 22. | "Suo Gan" | 1:43 |
| 23. | "Wind" (Spoken) | 0:17 |
| 24. | "Joseph John's Lullaby" | 1:21 |
| 25. | "Desert Dreaming" (Spoken) | 1:52 |
| 26. | "Get Ready to Wiggle" (Reprise) | 1:57 |
Personnel
Credits from The Wiggles album booklet.
The Wiggles
- Phillip Wilcher – piano, vocals
- Murray Cook – guitar, bass, vocals, water bubble sounds
- Gregory Page – lead vocals, guitar, hand claps
- Jeff Fatt – accordion, Emax sampler, programming, vocals, Mischief's voice
- Anthony Field – tin whistle, didgeridoo, vocals, kabasa
Production
- Anthony Field – producer
- Steve Pomfrett – engineer
- Field, Anthony; Truman, Greg (2012). How I Got My Wiggle Back: A Memoir of Healing. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 272pp. ISBN 978-1-118-01933-7.
