EGYPTIAN SHUMBA - The Tammys

Описание: IMPORTANT NOTICE TO EVERYONE: You will need to listen to this song in stereo (i.e., two speakers or two earphones), otherwise the vocals are completely drowned out by the background music. This is apparently the fault of something YouTube has done at some point during the past two years in regard to playback of certain songs. It seems to also have happened with all other uploads of this song by other persons.

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Anyway, with regard to the song itself; here's the story behind the story::

Many people in the music biz think that this was the greatest "girl group" song of the entire 1960s. It is definitely a wild musical romp by the Tammys (a group of three girls who had recently graduated from high school in Pennsylvania, none of whom were named Tammy).

Their performance of "Egyptian Shumba" was probably just about as wild as you could get in 1964 (without getting arrested).

The song almost defies description. It seems to go out of its way to be noisy, crazy and fun. It is a perfect combination of innocence and anarchy, with nonsense lyrics and random shrieks, growls and yells.

In the spring of 1964, it peaked at #15 on Pittsburgh rock music surveys, and #30 in Cleveland. It was popular at high school and college dances throughout the Midwest, but somehow never made it onto the national charts.

Unfortunately, "Egyptian Shumba" was forgotten not long after its original release. But, approximately 35 years later, it was re-discovered and repeatedly played by DJs in hip dance clubs in
New York and London in the 2000s, and was soon after re-released on CD, receiving a huge new burst of popularity. Incredibly, the re-release was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.

What a wild ride, for a wild song.

Sadly, there is no known film footage of The Tammys performing "Egyptian Shumba" -- but if you go to    • EGYPTIAN SHUMBA (live cover version) - THE...   you can see the song performed by The Mentalettes. It is pobably the most close to what a performance by The Tammys would have looked like. After seeing The Mentalettes do the song, I can totally understand why there is no video of The Tammys performing "Egyptian Shumba". Based on the Mentalettes' performance, it looks exhausting! Now, imagine having to do it night after night, on a concert tour!!

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