Song Of The Day 11/17/2015: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – “Zabadak”

The Hidden '60s, Part 3 – The most contingency-dependent band name in music history belonged to one of the best groups to come out of England during the late '60s. (Inhale:) Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich had a strong run of Top 10 hits in the U.K., and almost all of them were great, self-contained singles: "The Legend of Xanadu," "Bend It!," "Save Me," "Last Night In Soho." Head-spinningly good songs. Quentin Tarantino did his best to bring DDDBMT to retroactive prominence via Death Proof, his half of the exploitation twin-bill tribute Grind House, in this scene between two girls who are, shall we say, ill-destined:

Arlene: Who do you want to hear?

Jungle Julia: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

Arlene: Who?

Jungle Julia: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

Arlene: Who the fuck are they?

Jungle Julia: For your information, Pete Townshend, at one point, almost quit The Who. And if he had, he would have ended up in this group, thus making it Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, Tich and Pete. And if you ask me, he should have.

The Townshend story is probably apocryphal. The Who and DDDBMT shared few creative similarities, and try to imagine Pete as a simpatico sideman to other songwriters (who weren't even members of the band), not including John Entwistle once a month. Nice tale though. Anyway, Jungle Julia gets her wish, the radio plays DDDBMT's "Hold Tight," then the girls have the misfortune to run into Kurt Russell. And when I say "run into," I'm being a little too literal.

DDDBMT didn't translate to American audiences for some god-knows-exactly-what reason. Probably limited space on marquees. They touched the Billboard Hot 100 exactly once with "Zabadak!" (#52, 1968), a wonderful moment of faux exotica which lyrically signifies next to nothing: "Zabadak! / Karakakora Kakarakak! / Zabadak! / Shai Shai Skagalak!" Additional, discernible English lyrics merely explain that trying to find tangible meaning in the nonsense lyrics is pointless and everybody should just love one another because it sure beats partisan rancor and head-on collisions. I approve that message.

Final note from the boys in research: DDDBMT's 1967 album is titled If Music Be the Food of Love... Then Prepare for Indigestion. Forget Pete Townshend, I wanna be in that band!