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Lux Exterior said:
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Is this the OG of that song, they both from 1963.

The Trashmen:
"the truth is, we saw a group called The Sorenson Brothers, and they were playing this wild song ‘The Bird is the Word.’

“We’d never heard it before, so Steve came up with this crazy voice and he was fooling around with it. We were playing Chubb’s Ballroom, and he said, ‘what if we try to do this live tonight?"

https://www.delanoheraldjournal.com/articles/archives/a-whole-new-generation-is-hearing-the-word/
 
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Get s weirder, i am lost.

"This thread is dedicated to my uncle Alan whose passing due to cancer inspired me to make this post about one of the many important rock n roll stories you never hear. This thread might seem longish but I promise, I am not glorifying a bar band who just rubbed shoulders with Eric Clapton, or anything like that. I am talking about a band that was an integral part to arguably the first garage rock record, opened for big names, backed the biggest dance craze in rock, vaulted one of the greatest voices in rock and somehow sold platinum with very little to show for it.

For a little background my dad was the middle child of the 5 Sorensen Brothers, raised in Danish capital of America, Solvang California. My grandpa was a fiddler and got all the boys into playing in a family swing band but the boys really had a desire for late 50's rock. The 2 older brothers (Dean & Paul) got together with some friends and formed The Revels, a pre-surf band that was considered the party band of the region after the 1960 hit Church Key (later to be covered/ripped off 3 different times by The Trashmen!!!) and ended up doing 2 tours and backing Chubby Checker regionally during one of his early Twist tours.

Now for the part about my uncle Dean's Platinum record hanging on his wall. I bet there isn't a lot of ways to be a part of a band that gets one of those yet doesn't achieve success or name value. I don't know if the Nuggets box set sold platinum, but I know that the Pulp Fiction soundtrack did. It is slightly hilarious in hindsight that my Dad took me, 15 year old son, to see a movie he knew nothing about just because my Uncle Dean said they had a song in the movie, only to find out the song plays in entirety during the sodomy basement/gimp scene. And no, Quentin didn't ask permission and only put it in the movie when he couldn't secure the right for My Sharona. The song Comanche was made up in the studio, based around Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock, to fill the B side of a single. The song appeared first in the 1961 Native American documentary The Exiles which has since been inducted to the national film registry.



I don't know exactly what happened to The Revels but around 1961 my dad learned the guitar enough to join the other brothers (his first performance was playing the aptly named Whole Lotta Shakin in the High School gym) and at some point all 5 brothers played gigs regularly as The Sorensen Brothers. They had 2 tours to Wisconsin, in 1962 and 1963 respectively. On the last tour they took over the spot of a local band at a Minnesota club who were forced to watch their replacement play their big showstopper, a combination of The Rivington's Papa Oo Mow Mow and The Bird is the Word with some whacky vocals by Alan on the breaks. From wikipedia

The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called The Sorensen Brothers playing it. They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the "Surfin' Bird" middle section.

Thus what some claim the first garage hits. Truth be told, the ad-libbed part was there in The Sorensen Brothers version. I'm not saying the song would have reached platinum success without the Trashmen, but I do see why in hindsight my uncle Alan always hated doing the song that everyone assumed was a Trashmen cover.

In 1963 The Sorensen Brothers met and recruited a young singer from a nearby Santa Maria college, Mr. Chuck Negron. For the next 2 years he would be their singer and, according to the name of the chapter they appear in his book Three Dog Nightmare, the best time of his life. They didn't record much, and the only thing that seems readily available on youtube is I Dream of an Angel, although I prefer its B side Sharon Lee. The Sorensen Brothers with Chuck opened for Frankie Avalon and The Byrds in 1965 (my dad says they were waaay out of tune) before being invited to audition for Columbia records. The day of audition the brothers all had colds and as such the label said they wanted Chuck but not the brothers. Later on one of the decision-makers showed up at a gig and told the brothers, "you guys were great, I wish you sounded like that back in the studio." Chuck left for the Army and then came back to become one of the signature voices of the era in Three Dog Night singing One, Easy to be Hard, Joy to the World amongst others.

After that various brothers entered the Army/Navy and reunited quite often which is the only times I saw them. One of their most recent gigs was with Chuck who keeps in regular contact these days. My dad is a humble guy who never brags about these things, and in hindsight he seems glad that these flirtations with fame never went anywhere big because it kept the Brothers intact. Until recently, due to covid, they perform with the usual slapdash vibe that is anything but slickly rehearsed. They still play despite losing the joker of the pack, Alan. I miss that guy. Thanks for reading."

From a music-forum, so afair [remember] not allowed to link, right ?

eMKee
 
"later to be covered/ripped off 3 different times by The Trashmen!!!"

and

"my Dad took me, 15 year old son, to see a movie he knew nothing about just because my Uncle Dean said they had a song in the movie, only to find out the song plays in entirety during the sodomy basement/gimp scene. And no, Quentin didn't ask permission and only put it in the movie when he couldn't secure the right for My Sharona"

Bad moves, both the Trashmen and Tarantino, thieves just as the Rolling Stones.
That hurt, both i had high regard s for, but they just as bad, as having [secretly] a ghost writer. No integrity. Watched a lot of Tarantino, he is on ignore from now on.

Thieve equal s loser. Tarantino you moved from the bottom to the top, or reversed.
But there were the scum of the earth resides. Is your place if this is true.
 
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Lux Exterior said:
Huh?
Click to expand...
That s the conclusion i ended up with too.
The Og-est OG was a hit, they got a platinum record.
And were forgotten.

"On the last tour they took over the spot of a local band at a Minnesota club who were forced to watch their replacement play their big showstopper, a combination of The Rivington's with some whacky vocals by Alan on the breaks"

The replaced band i guess where 'the Trashmen'. So it were two song s.
That became one. Both of the Rivington s mashed and with some thing s added.

Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow and Bird is the Word [Rivingtons] ​

The 1-st surf version by the Sorenson s, might be wrong info is hazey.
But that both Trashmen and Tarantino are thieves like the Stones disappoint s.
 
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