![]() ![]() Thinking it was a mistake, he telephoned BMI to ask about it and was told that the check was indeed his money, earned from the Champs' and Chubby Checker's renditions of "Monotonous Melody" under the title "Limbo Rock". Some months later, Strange was amazed to receive a royalty check from Broadcast Music, Inc. A few months later Chubby Checker's manager Kal Mann asked Strange if he could record the song with different lyrics that became "Limbo Rock". As a joke he sang the "What a monotonous melody" song. Whilst later doing a recording session for Ricky Nelson, Strange was asked if he had a song for recording. Strange pulled out a note pad and came up with the tune in under five minutes, with the only lyrics being "What a monotonous melody" for every line, and pocketed the money. His friend produced a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet and bet him he could not. Strange sneered that he could write a better song in five minutes. And it was the “World’s Longest Limbo Record”.In 1960 session guitarist Billy Strange and a friend were listening to a song on the radio. I guess that was kind of special back in 1962. It’s a 33 rpm LP, but it only has one extended version (over 10 minutes) of “Limbo Rock” on each side. In a couple of minutes he got back on the phone and asked if I’d written a song entitled, “Monotonous Melody” … to which I answered “Yes”!! He then went on to explain that it had been recorded by “The Champs” under the name of “Limbo Rock” and that it had consequently been recorded by Chubby Checker and was a big hit!!! You could have knocked me down with a feather when he said that the check was, indeed, mine!!!īilly Strange himself recorded an instrumental version of “Limbo Rock” together with “The Telstars” in 1962. After enjoying the check for a few minutes I called a friend at BMI and told him that they had made a terrible mistake and that I wanted to return the check to them. I received a check from BMI in the amount of $63,000.00. I was thrilled that I might have a Chubby Checker record and told him, “Certainly”!įast forward a few months to royalty time…. He then asked if he could change the title, to which I said, “I don’t give a damn WHAT you want to call it!!!” I never knew what the new title was! A few months later I received a call from Chubby Checker’s manager, Jon Sheldon, asking if he could put lyrics to my song. Several weeks later I got a phone call from Dave Burgess asking if he could record my song “Monotonous Melody”. Buzz came back and I gave him a tape of it and, again, totally forgot about it. Again we all had a great laugh about the dumb thing that we’d just laid down. “What A Monotonous Melody … What a monotonous Melody” etc, etc, etc. When Buzz left the studio the musicians and I laid down a track and then we all sang the words. Several weeks later I were doing a Ricky Nelson session and his band leader, Buzz Adlam, asked if anyone has a song that he could publish in his new music publishing firm. I didn’t give him the hundred back, either!!! I threw the score pad into the back seat and forgot about the entire thing. I always kept a small score pad in the back seat and I reached for it and began to just write down some notes and titled it, “Monotonous Melody”, which I sang to him, and picked up his hundred and we had a big laugh over it. and a record came on by Wayne Raney & Lonnie Glosson titled “What This Whole World Needs Is A Lot More Jesus And A Lot Less Rock And Roll”!!! At that point I said, “I could write a better song than that in five minutes!” My friend pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his wallet and threw it down on the front seat and challenged me to do it! (BTW - the drinking took place AFTER the session!) ![]() ![]() drinking coffee to sober up after we finished a recording session. It began with a friend and I sitting in a drive in on Sunset Blvd. Here’s the incredible story in his own words, that took place in 1960: Billy Strange – a singer, guitarist, arranger, songwriter and producer – wrote the song. On Billy Strange’s homepage I found this great story about the birth of the hit song “Limbo Rock”. ![]()
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