Songoftheday 10/27/18 - Well the first little piggy well he was kinda hip, he spent most of his days just a dreaming of the city...
from the album Cereal Killer Soundtrack (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from the comic heavy metal act Green Jellÿ, who were formed by musician Bill Manspeaker in Buffalo, New York originally under the name Green Jellö. Patterned similarly to the outrageous rock band GWAR, the band assumed characters and dressed in costume and their disheveled shows ended up in chaos with food thrown everywhere; nevertheless they accrued a loyal following, and eventually Manspeaker moved back to Hollywood, and reformed the band again with the same if not even more chaotic live experiences. Most of the members were musical novices, yet two members of Tool were also in the ever-changing lineup.
In 1992 due to word of mouth and initiative, Green Jellö was signed to a record deal with the then up and coming ZOO Entertainment records, based on their promise to created an entire video album at budget scale. Suddenly faced with the prospect of actually doing this, the band managed to come up with Cereal Killer, a puppet-esque horrorfest that eventually spawned the Cereal Killer Soundtrack, their third album and first on a major-distribution label. A cut from the record, "Three Little Pigs", was written by Manspeaker (who as lead singer was dubbed "Moronic Dictator") and Marc Levinthal, and the "Iron Man" knockoff that ensued caught the ear of Seattle radio station KXRX, who played it to massive positive feedback. They quickly released the single, then the soundtrack, though not long after were sued by Kraft, maker of Jell-O dessert gelatin, who forced them to change their name to Green Jellÿ (still taking the piss by the umlaut supposedly making the pronunciation the exact same). Eventually, the whole country got a taste of "Three Little Pigs" when MTV played the hell out of the crazy video...
"Three Little Pigs" became the band's first and only hit, reaching the pop top 20 in June of 1993. It was strictly a novelty affair, as it failed to even reach the rock radio charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single went all the way to #1 in New Zealand for two weeks, and made the top ten in Sweden (#3), the UK (#5), Portugal (#5), Australia (#6), Norway (#7), and Ireland (#8). It also peaked at #11 in the Netherlands, and #12 in Germany and Belgium, and #18 in Austria.
While America never saw them again, in New Zealand, a cover of "Anarchy In The UK" gave the band a second top-40 hit at #24, while they also reached #25 in the UK by backing wrestler Hulk Hogan on "I'm The Leader Of The Gang". After calling it quits in 1995, they reunited in 2008 and continue to sporadically perform. A new album is promised in 2019.
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Here's the band live in the UK in 1993...
and another live gig...
and lastly from 2017...
Up tomorrow: Boston rockers are on the precipice.
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