DOUG CLARK
It is fair to say that Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts are a North Carolina institution. Doug Clark (a native of Chapel Hill) put the band together in the early 1960’s, with his brother John Clark on saxophone. With original bandleader Doug Clark’s death in 2002, the band is now known as Doug Clark’s Hot Nuts.
The signature song by Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts was “Hot Nuts”, with a chorus that went: “Nuts / Hot nuts / You get them from the peanut man / Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah / Nuts / Hot nuts / You get them any way you can.” Between the choruses are couplets typically about women they have known (sample: “See that girl all dressed in pink / She’s the one who made my finger stink”), and the band had an endless supply of lyrics that could make any word seem dirty. Even though there is nothing particularly offensive about their name, the Hot Nuts, their appearances were usually advertised on the radio as simply “Doug Clark”.
Jubilee Records clandestinely introduced a label specifically for Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, appropriately called Gross Records; and they put out a total of nine albums between 1961 and 1969, beginning with Nuts to You (featuring Doug Clark flipping the bird to the audience). I have that album and their second, On Campus that I purchased for under $2 each ages ago. Somebody just didn’t know what they had!
(June 2016)
