THE RAN-DELLS
The Ran-Dells were an American musical ensemble from Villas, New Jersey. In 1963 their song “Martian Hop” peaked at #27 on the US Billboard black singles chart, and at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite releasing two follow-ups, lack of further chart entries made them one-hit wonders. (More from Wikipedia)
“Rip Van Winkle” wasn’t as good as a later novelty hit that I absolutely loved – “Martian Hop” by the Ran-Dells – and I had a connection there also: There was a TV show called My Favorite Martian where the Martian (played by Ray Walston) was named “Uncle Martin”. There weren’t too many Martin’s in the world back then, at least that I knew about. I even created little antennae (bent from the wire that bound the newspapers together for my paper route) that I wore behind my ears to class; they were supposed to be like the ones that would rise up from Walston’s head from time to time when he was doing his Martian thing.
(March 2012)
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It is not really a rare event for a song to come out of nowhere and grab the zeitgeist – that’s virtually the definition of a novelty song – but there have been a host of songs that are just as sideways compared to the recording charts at the time without truly being of the novelty variety. I have written of several in previous posts: the Trashmen’s 1963 hit “Surfin’ Bird”, the Ran-Dells’ “Martian Hop” (also from 1963), and “Rip Van Winkle” by the Devotions from 1961. They were among my very favorite songs for years after I first heard them, so it is easy to see that I am partial to this kind of song.
(March 2013)
