Beatle Babies

As I’m sure you all know, as well as writing this blog and the occasional book, I also host a weekly show, The World’s Worst Records RadioShow, on Sheena’s Jungle Room, one of the online stations available through the behemoth that is WFMU. Well, today’s disc was brought to my attention by fellow Sheena’s DJ Jan Turkenburg, my friend in the Netherlands, who hosts the fabulous Dutch pop show Yes, We Have No Mountains, as well as the brilliant Sounds Under 64 Not Allowed, where every record played has to be at least 64 years old.

 

Not only has Jan introduced me to the delights of Ronnie and the Ronnies and The Shoes, but a few weeks ago he played this, and it prompted much debate on his show’s message board, so much so in fact that I determined to go off and find out more about this ghastly little coupling.

 

Released on Artone records in 1964 and credited to De Bieteltjes (the Little Beatles), Jèh-Jèh-Jèh Gekke Pappie (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Crazy Daddy) and its flip side Haal Die Scheiding Uit Je Haar (Get That Parting Out Of Your Hair) appear on the surface to have been performed by a trio of toddlers, but in fact – like acts including the Chipmunks, Charlie the Hamster, the Smurfs, and goodness knows how many others – the tracks were written, played and sung by fully-grown adults, the vocals manipulated to make them sound more infantile.

 

Inspired by the worldwide interest in The Beatles, the man behind these recordings was one Joop Portengen, a Dutch composer, songwriter and music publisher from the city of Haarlem who was born in December 1916. Portengen worked on stage musicals, wrote jazz, composed for orchestras and for ballet, as well as writing for countless Dutch MOR, folk and pop acts.

 

Joop Portengen had form: he had previously made similar childlike records under the names Kleine Joopie (reissued the following year as Kleine Jopie) and, as one of Drie Kleine Kleuters, scored a hit in 1956 with De Trappelzak-Boogie (Sleeping Bag Boogie). In 1966 he co-wrote the anti-drink driving hit Glaasje Op... Laat Je Rijden for Sjakie Schram. An example of carnavalschlager (or carnival songs, music popularised in pubs and at festivals during carnival season), Glaasje Op...  spent 15 weeks in the Dutch Top 40.

 

The multi-talented Mr. Portengen died in July 1981, but over a long and varied career, wrote, performed and/or arranged music for more than 100 different Dutch acts.

 

Genieten!

 

Download Pappie HERE

Download Scheiding HERE