The Comedy of Errors: The Tabs - The Wallop (29 June 1992)

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Peel was always a sucker for records about dances, which is strange given that he was never a dancing man. Indeed, in recent Peel shows I’ve heard from early 1993, he’s addressed this reticence several times, while simultaneously admitting to having found himself dancing either due to drink having been taken or in the case of one event at the village hall in Great Finborough, being manhandled onto the dance floor by the landlady of the village pub, who was much stronger than he was.  I’ve often felt this interest in “dance” records was partially down to a mix of guilt about not being a more enthusiastic dancer blended with nostalgia for his late teens and early years in America - the late 50s and early 60s being the peak years of “Do the (insert dance here)” records.  In the very first “old” Peel show I ever listened to, long before this blog was started, and which came from 18 April 2002, he played The Madison Time by The Ray Bryant Trio
For the writers of these tunes, there was the fervent hope that they would come up with a dance which would seize the public’s imagination in the same way that The Twist had done.  If the video showcases the Wallop, it appears well named as there looks to be a lot of heavy arm action going on which could leave a nasty bruise if it made contact with an unsuspecting arm or head.  The song was written and recorded by St. Louis vocal group, The Tabs in 1963 and issued as the b-side to their recording of Two Stupid Feet on the Wand label.  It’s a great soul stomper despite the fact that its melody borrows liberally from both Twist and Shout (the ascending “Aaaahs” into the beginning of each verse) and the melody of the verses reminds me of Eddie Cochran’s Weekend too. Has to be said though that the Wallop doesn’t sound too thrilling when they sing about it - the only clear move I could make out was doing a little shuffle from side to side.  Hardly, a signal for open debauchery.

The Wallop found its way onto Peel’s playlists at this time due to its inclusion on a Candy Records  compilation album called Shakin’ Fit.  A day earlier, Peel had played Mo Gorilla by The Ideals from the album and he revealed that it featured a large number of similarly animal titled dance tracks such as The Chicken Astronaut (though here chicken refers to cowardice), The Dog, The Frog and Skin the Cat (“Hit him with a bat” as the lyrics implore us at one point). The Wallop knows better than to appeal to our violent instincts and is better than them all.

Video courtesy of MrSerbilly