Speaking of Monkees, as we were, it seems that everything old is new again.
When I was 16, The Monkees' first renaissance started with MTV doing what it does, and playing old episodes of the "band's" comedic television show. It hit me right in my silly teenaged pleasure centers. At least in one of them. I wore out the greatest hits record they released to take advantage of the phenomenon.
Man, it really doesn't hold up that well, does it? Here's a little palate cleanser. Bubble. Gum. Pop.
The Monkees popped into my conscious this morning when I saw news of another band that takes me back. When I was in my early 30s and raising little girls, I was exposed to a lot of grating kids' music. But there were some artists doing palatable kid-rock. They Might Be Giants was an obvious choice for me. Laurie Berkner, for sure. Dan Zanes. The cool World music compilations from Putamayo - I liked that stuff as much as my kids did.
One band, though, was our joint favorite. We loved The Wiggles. Me, because they had a bit of a pop sensibility (they sang with Split Enz, for Chrissakes) and they absolutely took themselves less than seriously as people, if not as artists. The kids because they were silly and bright and fun. I mean, c'mon:
We saw them live as a family, and in fact they've played to more than one million people each year of the 2000s. They were Australia's highest-grossing musical act for four years in a row in the early 2010s.
And like The Monkees did in 1986, The Wiggles are experiencing a most unusual come up.
Triple J, which is a youth-oriented radio station in Australia, hosts an annual listener poll called The Hottest 100. Since its inception in 1989, the list has been topped by Nirvana, Kendrick Lamar, Oasis, The Cranberries, and Mumford and Sons, among others.
In 2021, the poll's voters chose The Wiggles' cover of Tame Impala's 'Elephant'. With a little bit of a 'Fruit Salad' riff in the middle. For real.
As you might imagine, this tickled my whimsybone just right. Long live The Wiggles.
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