‘Wooly Bully’ is a song originally recorded by rock and roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1964. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's frontman, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the small Memphis-based XL label in 1964 and was picked up in 1965 by MGM. The song was recorded at Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis.
‘Wooly Bully’ is a reworking of the 1962 tune ‘Hully Gully Now’ by Big Bo & The Arrows (vocal by Little Smitty), which was based on Junior Parker's ‘Feelin' Good’. The song was given the green light after Samudio rewrote the lyrics to replace ‘Hully Gully’ with ‘Wooly Bully’ and a few additional lyrical changes. Samudio retained the "watch it, watch it now" refrain from the original version.
The lyrics of ‘Wooly Bully’ were hard to understand, and some radio stations banned the song. The lyrics describe a conversation between "Mattie" and "Hattie" concerning the "Wooly Bully" (a creature which Mattie describes as "a thing she saw [that] had two big horns and a wooly jaw" – that is, an American bison) and the desirability of developing dancing skills, although no attempt is made to synthesize these divergent topics. The warning "Let's not be L-7" means "Let's not be square", If you put an L and a 7 together you get, more or less, a square. That's how the all-female punk band L7 got their name. Sam the Sham underscores the Tex-Mex nature of the song by counting out the rhythm in Spanish and English ("Uno! Dos! One, two, tres, cuatro!"), and the characteristic simple organ riffing, with a tenor saxophone solo in the middle. According to Samudio: "The count-down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it."
‘Wooly Bully’ was the band's first and biggest hit. It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the American Hot 100 chart on June 5–12, 1965, kept off the top by The Beach Boys' ‘Help Me, Rhonda’ and The Supremes' ‘Back in My Arms Again’. ‘Wooly Bully’ went to No. 31 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. The song also reached No. 2 on the Canadian CHUM Charts. The song was the first American record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion and was influenced by the British rock sound which was mixed with traditional Mexican-American conjunto rhythms. It stayed in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest time for any song in 1965, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. It was named Billboard's number-one song of the year despite never reaching No. 1 on a weekly Hot 100; this feat was achieved again by Faith Hill's ‘Breathe’ in 2000, Lifehouse's ‘Hanging by a Moment’ in 2001 and Dua Lipa's ‘Levitating’ in 2021 (all four hits peaked at #2). On August 5, 1965, the single was certified as gold by the RIAA. It was later included on the band's 1965 album Wooly Bully,
Label – XL, MGM
Songwriter – Domingo Samudio
Producer – Stan Kesler
SONG LYRICS
[Intro]Uno, dos
One, two, tres, cuatro
Yes, Wooly Bully
Watch it now, watch it
Here he come, here he come
Watch it now, he git ya
[Verse 1]
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully, yeah, drive
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully
[Verse 2]
Hatty told Matty, "Let's don't take no chance
Let's not be L-seven, come and learn to dance"
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully
[Bridge]
Watch it now, watch it, watch it, watch it
Yeah
Yeah, drive, drive, drive
[Verse 3]
Matty told Hatty, "That's the thing to do
Get you someone really pull the wool with you"
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully
Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully, Wooly Bully
[Outro]
Watch it now, watch it, here he come
You got it, you got it