Copycat song hit for Wooley

This week in 1982: President John Kennedy endorsed an emergency communications link between Washing-ton and the Kremlin; Explorer 16 was launched from Cape Canaveral, the first satellite only for meteorite studies; the U.S. and U.K. planned a joint NATO atom force; and a singer from Erick, Oklahoma, had his first charted single under the name Ben Colder.

The idea for several hit songs came from someone hearing another record and Sheb Wooley (who also performed and recorded under the name Ben Colder) says he got the idea for the song “Son – Don’t Go Near the Eskimos” from Rex Allen’s record of “Don’t Go Near the Indians.”

Sheb commented, “My record producer had been holding “Son Don’t Go Near the Indians” for me but I kept putting off recording because of my schedule. I couldn’t get to Nashville to record. So my producer gave up on me and gave the song to Rex Allen. Rex recorded the song and it was breaking wide open. My producer reminded me that I had missed a hit and I told him I would write one titled “Son – Don’t Go Near the Eskimos.? He asked me to sing him part of it and I said “Oook – shook – moogie – mushy – doggy – oook – shook – moogie – aye / Son don’t go near the Eskimos / please do what I say.”

Everybody in the room laughed and I thought that was the end of it. But the next day my producer told me he thought my Eskimo song might be a good idea and if Rex Allen’s record sold a million – we should be able to sell a third of that with a parody. So I went back to California and forgot about it. A few days later he called me and asked me if I had finished the song yet. When I asked him what song, he said, “That oook – shook – mooogie – Eskimo thing.”

“I told him no, I had not and he told me to finish it and get back to Nashville to record it. So I told him I’d finish the song on the plane to Nashville and that’s what I did.”

Sheb Wooley’s MGM recording of “Son – Don’t Go Near The Eskimos” came on the charts Dec. 29, 1962 and peaked at No. 18. It also scored in the top 70’s on the pop charts.

Sheb Wooley placed 13 songs on the country charts between 1962 and 1971. He died in 2003 at age 82.