The Pushbike Song Explained

The Pushbike Song
Cover:The Mixtures - The Pushbike Song.jpg
Type:single
Artist:The Mixtures
Released:December 1970
Recorded:1970
Genre:Bubblegum pop
Label:Polydor (UK); Fable (AUS)
Producer:David Mackay
Prev Title:In the Summertime
Prev Year:1970
Next Title:Henry Ford
Next Year:1971

"The Pushbike Song" is a song originally recorded by Australian band The Mixtures and released in 1970. The single was a chart success, reaching numbers one and two in the Australian and UK charts respectively. It has subsequently been covered by various artists.

History and chart success

Written by brothers Idris and Evan Jones, "The Pushbike Song" was released in 1970 and reached the top-spot for two weeks in the Australian charts in March 1971. It also proved popular in the UK, reaching the number two spot on 31 January (beaten by George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"), and number 31 in Canada.[1]

As Will Hodgkinson has pointed out, the song is essentially Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime with similar but different lyrics. The Mixtures had previously had a hit with a version of In The Summertime in Australia.[2] (Mungo Jerry subsequently covered The Pushbike Song in 1990).

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Chart (1970–71)Peak
position
Australia KMR[3] 1
Canada RPM Top Singles[4] 31
Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[5] 11
New Zealand (Listener)[6] 1
South Africa (Springbok)[7] 9
US Billboard Hot 100[8] 44
US Billboard Easy Listening[9] 19
US Cash Box Top 100 44

Year-end charts

Chart (1971)Rank
Australia[10] 3
UK6
US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[11] 279

Covers

Vinyl and CD releases

Television / other

A music video was created for the song in 1970, which depicted the band and friends (including the model Monica Hughes) riding bicycles through the streets of Melbourne. Filmed in black and white, it was notable for scenes involving a procession of bicycles (including a penny farthing) and rollerskaters on a busy six-lane Melbourne arterial road, and a scene of four members of the band 'riding' a tandem bicycle atop a car transporter travelling at speed across the King Street Bridge (Melbourne).

The song was used in a sketch by Paul Hogan on The Paul Hogan Show, which parodied the promotional film, and featured cast member and 1976 Miss World pageant runner up Karen Pini

Cilla Black performs a version of the song as part of her "Cillagram" segment on her Surprise! Surprise! television show, season 2, episode 4 which aired on ITV, 11th November 1984.

Australia's Young Talent Time also performed the song in a 1986 episode.

Australian children's show Play School recorded a cover for the album There's a Bear in There, sung by Philip Quast.

Australian singer-songwriter Olivia Newton-John recorded a cover for the soundtrack of the 2011 comedy film A Few Best Men.

In 2012, "The Pushbike Song" was used on an advertising campaign for Tooheys 5 Seeds Cloudy Cider. The vocals on that version are purportedly a performance by "gypsy banjo player, Benny 'The Giant' Gogasa" recorded via Skype.[12] This is probably a spoof on the part of the advertising agency, for what appears to be a local studio recording, with no independent evidence that Benny 'The Giant' Gogasa and "his band of orphans, misfits and mildly deformed gypsy musicians" actually exists.

It was also heard in the Hotch Potch House episode "Round and Round" during a film from the garden door of the model house about a girl getting a new bike.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.5388&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.5388.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.5388 RPM 100 Singles - May 8, 1971
  2. Will Hodgkinson. In Perfect Harmony: Singalong Pop in '70s Britain (2022), p. 26.
  3. Web site: Steffen Hung . Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts) . Australian-charts.com . 2016-10-04.
  4. Web site: Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada . Bac-lac.gc.ca . 17 July 2013 . 2016-11-11.
  5. Web site: Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada . Bac-lac.gc.ca . 17 July 2013 . 2016-12-05.
  6. http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search%20listener&qsongid=3887#n_view_location Flavour of New Zealand
  7. Web site: SA Charts 1965–March 1989. 1 September 2018.
  8. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 -
  9. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Joel Whitburn . 1993 . Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993 . Record Research . 166.
  10. http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=40275 Australian-charts.com
  11. Book: Whitburn, Joel . 1999 . Pop Annual . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin . Record Research Inc. . 0-89820-142-X.
  12. Web site: Tooheys 5 Seeds set to put a twist on cider in new campaign breaking this Sunday via BMF Sydney. Toohey's 5 Seed Commercial. 6 January 2012. 2012-02-20.