I think the song came out in the 1960’s-I don’t remember much of the lyrics, but, it had a refrain…which I think was “oh…oh…the Israelite”.
Anybody know what the title was?
Since that’s not exactly a common lyric I’m going to guess it was “The Israelites,” Desmond Dekker and the Aces, 1968. Sound familiar?
Desmond Dekker and the Aces: The Israelites
ETA: Pipped!
Either that, or “Rio” by Duran Duran.
I first heard this song on a double CD The Island Story. Some good stuff on it.
YOW!!! I had this single, loved it, used to sing it all the time! As soon as I saw the Subject line I started singing it in my head. I knew it would have been identified already but I clicked into the thread anyway, and find that you’ve provided a link WITH LYRICS!! See, I never knew what the lyrics were. I’d sing along phonetically as if it were in a language I didn’t speak (I still do that today with the Cocteau Twins, the Trio Bulgarka and others). The only lines I got were “gets up in the morning…(savinferbreasfa)” and “don’t want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde” which, strangely enough, I always thought was wrong. I thought he WASN’T saying “Bonnie and Clyde” but that I was just hearing and singing it that way.
Oh you’ve made my day. I haven’t been this happy to find lyrics on the net since the day I found the lyrics of another song I used to sing phonetically,“Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress.”
I first heard this on the “Drugstore Cowboy” soundtrack. I hear it now and again on radioparadise.com.
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I think it was a fairly big hit in the sixties, but only for about 20 minutes.
ETA - obligatory link to a classic UK advert
Thanks-like I said, I had no idea what the guy was saying-only the refrain…“the israelite”. I gather its about a poor man who has to work all day to support his family…and he comapres him self to the downtrodden israelites (toiling away in Egypt).
Thought it was gonna be this Vitalite ad.
The song “Israelites” was, more specifically, about a Jamaican man in the U.K. He was a Rastafarian. If I understand correctly, they consider themselves the true successors of the Israelites of the Bible, and thus they call themselves “Israelites” sometimes:
That song would make a great jingle for a new light beer brewed in the Holy Land.
I could have sworn that it was on the original soundtrack album for The Harder They Come, but it seems to be only on the 2003 re-issue.
Everybody knows the lyrics are ‘Oh, oh, the eggs are alive.’
Yar, it’s funny that two separate UK ads, which were only a few years apart, used the same song.
The Vitalite one is the first thing I thought of when I saw the OP! Suppose I was just of that age. It was definitely a pre-internet meme, if you know what I mean, in the UK when it was on. I wasn’t aware of the Maxell one until now.
I thought it was “Oh, Oh, my ears are alight.”
That explains the ‘Wee-eee’ part that comes next.
Dat’s how ev-e-ry mouf can BE fed.
As long as we’re all here, does anyone remember a song maybe from the 60s that went something like [She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah](LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You song)?