SONG OF THE DAY

“Red Rubber Ball” by The Cyrkle (Red Rubber Ball, Columbia Records, 1966). Written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley.

WHY TODAY?

Welcome to 1960’s Week! I actually didn’t do this intentionally, but I just keep having these great old classics get stuck in my head, and it’s become a trend, so I thought “why not make it official?”.

I just heard the song on the radio while driving to get my taxes done, and I thought the lyrics were a perfect way to start a new month, a new morning, and a new week! This song also always reminds me of my sister, Birdie, and the good ol’ days of kid-dom, when Oldies 104.3 reigned supreme in our lives, and we didn’t know anything else in music. I included the lyrics below because they are really something great on this earth.

LYRICS

I should have known you'd bid me farewell
There's a lesson to be learned from this and I learned it very well
Now, I know you're not the only starfish in the sea
If I never hear your name again, it's all the same to me

And I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball

You never care for secrets I confide
For you, I'm just an ornament, somethin' for your pride
Always runnin', never carin', that's the life you live
Stolen minutes of your time were all you had to give

And I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball

The story's in the past with nothin' to recall
I've got my life to live and I don't need you at all
The roller-coaster ride we took is nearly at an end
I bought my ticket with my tears, that's all I'm gonna spend

And I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball

Oh, I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– The Cyrkle was a short-lived American rock and roll band active in the mid-1960s.

– Though not officially a one-hit wonder (the group charted two Top 40 hits), they are best known for their 1966 version of the song “Red Rubber Ball,” which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and still receives significant airplay on oldies radio stations across the United States.

– The band was formed by guitarists and lead singers Don Dannemann and Tom Dawes (bass guitar), who met while studying at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The other members were Earl Pickens on keyboards and Marty Fried on drums.

– They were originally a “frat rock” band called The Rhondells but were later discovered and managed by Brian Epstein, who was better known as manager of The Beatles. Epstein’s partner was New York attorney Nathan Weiss, who heard the band in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Labor Day in 1965. He became their manager and renamed them. John Lennon provided the unique spelling of their new name, which is a reference to the circular roundabout located in downtown Easton.

– In the summer of 1966, they opened on fourteen dates for the Beatles during their U.S. tour. On August 28, they headed the opening acts performing prior to The Beatles at Dodger Stadium. The other artists who appeared were Bobby Hebb, The Ronettes, and The Remains.

– Before touring with The Beatles, The Cyrkle had a successful engagement at the Downtown Discotheque in New York City.

– “Red Rubber Ball” was co-written by Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel) and Bruce Woodley (of The Seekers), both of whom later released versions with their respective groups.

– The band had one more Top 20 hit, “Turn-Down Day,” later in 1966.

– They disbanded in late 1967. Both Dawes and Danneman became professional jingle writers after The Cyrkle disbanded. Dawes later wrote the famous “plop plop fizz fizz” jingle for Alka-Seltzer. Danneman wrote jingles for Continental Airlines and Swanson Foods. He penned the original 7Up Uncola song.

- Marty Fried is now a bankruptcy lawyer in Southfield, Michigan, Earle Pickens a general surgeon in Gainesville, Florida, and Michael Losekamp an engineer for AT&T and an active musician in Columbus and Dayton, Ohio.

- According to Cyrkle guitarist Tom Dawes, Simon offered it to The Cyrkle when they were opening for Simon and Garfunkel on tour.

– The Seekers recorded “Red Rubber Ball” for their 1966 album Come the Day (US-title: Georgy Girl). (SEE THE VIDEO BELOW)

– In an interview on The Colbert Report, Paul Simon said he wrote “Red Rubber Ball” while living in England to get a hundred pound advance from The Seekers. This came in response to Colbert’s request for a song that was “on the cusp” and barely made it into his songbook Lyrics 1964-2008.

– A recorded live version was performed by Simon and Garfunkel (SEE THE VIDEO BELOW)

– Eggchair’s cover was played in the 2004 movie, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

– Canadian punk rock group The Diodes recorded a cover of this song as the first track on their debut album, The Diodes (1977). According to the liner notes of the 1998 Diodes anthology, Tired of Waking Up Tired, the band recorded the cover because Paul Simon had been vocal in his disapproval of punk rock music.

– New Jersey ska-punk group Streetlight Manifesto has recorded a cover of the song for their 2010 album, 99 Songs of Revolution.

VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Here’s great audio of the track:

Here’s a great video of the track from the glory days of t.v.:

And here’s Simon & Garfunkel in a live version:

And here’s a great version by The Seekers: