The late Sheb Wooley had small roles in around 60 movies, such as "Giant" and "High Noon," but his lasting claim to fame was a novelty song that delighted teens in 1958, when it appeared. "The Purple People Eater" sold 3 million 45 rpm singles and was a No.1 hit. Wooley wrote an enormous nember of songs and appeared on a number of TV shows, including "Rawhide," which suited his talents inasmuch as he was an Oklahoma-born cowboy who had done rodeo riding. He stirred up some pretty good dust with his country songs during his career, but his high point was the happily nonsensical "People Eater." He died in 2003 at age 82.
I'd say that The Purple People Eater made him perfectly immortal. Many of my happy childhood days were spent dancing to that song (along with The Monster Mash, of course.)
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