Fact #117408
When:
Short story:
The Lone Ranger, a single by UK band Quantum Jump, enters the UK singles chart.
Full article:
Rupert Hine (Quantum Jump) : The Lone Ranger originally had a plain intro, basically the groove, without vocal. I was told by Electric Records, who by then had signed our otherwise finished album, that if I could come up with something that would grab the attention of the listener in the first fifteen seconds, we’d have a hit. This was the umpteenth time I’d been told this by various record companies as a producer on other projects. Whilst reading the Guinness Book of Records, I noticed that the longest word in the world was a place in New Zealand.
Chris Thomas, the singer with Manfred Mann, was staying with Trevor (Morais, drummer, Quantum Jump) at the time and, with him being from New Zealand, I asked him how the word might be pronounced. It was in Maori. Having learnt it phonetically, I found that it had fantastic rhythm within it and rather neatly filled up both the intro and the instrumental middle of our potential hit.
‘Well, let’s see how the record company likes that!’ I thought, ‘That’ll make ‘em sit up.’ It did, and half a million sales later, Jeremy Thomas from Electric was proved to be right.
Bizarrely, the record was screaming up the UK charts and had just reached No26 when someone at the BBC ‘discovered’ the lyric. ‘My God! This song is about drugs and homosexuality!’ they cried and promptly banned the single. It tumbled from view.
Drugs? ‘He smoke pipe of peace with Tonto, put his mask on back to fronto’. Homosexuality? The entire last verse was based on the fact that the viewer never, ever saw the Lone Ranger with a woman, just his faithful indian companion. It’s bizarre to think that, only 25 years ago, this was considered ban-able.
Three years later, Kenny Everett, who had always loved the track, asked if he could use it as the signature tune for the first series of the Kenny Everett Video Show. The show was a massive success and the demand for the record to be re-released was enormous. The almost completely re-worked Lone Ranger eventually reached No5 in the UK charts.
Tweet this Fact
Chris Thomas, the singer with Manfred Mann, was staying with Trevor (Morais, drummer, Quantum Jump) at the time and, with him being from New Zealand, I asked him how the word might be pronounced. It was in Maori. Having learnt it phonetically, I found that it had fantastic rhythm within it and rather neatly filled up both the intro and the instrumental middle of our potential hit.
‘Well, let’s see how the record company likes that!’ I thought, ‘That’ll make ‘em sit up.’ It did, and half a million sales later, Jeremy Thomas from Electric was proved to be right.
Bizarrely, the record was screaming up the UK charts and had just reached No26 when someone at the BBC ‘discovered’ the lyric. ‘My God! This song is about drugs and homosexuality!’ they cried and promptly banned the single. It tumbled from view.
Drugs? ‘He smoke pipe of peace with Tonto, put his mask on back to fronto’. Homosexuality? The entire last verse was based on the fact that the viewer never, ever saw the Lone Ranger with a woman, just his faithful indian companion. It’s bizarre to think that, only 25 years ago, this was considered ban-able.
Three years later, Kenny Everett, who had always loved the track, asked if he could use it as the signature tune for the first series of the Kenny Everett Video Show. The show was a massive success and the demand for the record to be re-released was enormous. The almost completely re-worked Lone Ranger eventually reached No5 in the UK charts.