The Wiggles Experience (album)

### Recorded

April 13th, 1964–June 26th, 1964 at Tracking Station Recording Studios, Emerald City, Cowell.

### Producer

Mitchell Nerville

"**The Wiggles Experience**" is the debut album of The Wiggles Experience, released on August 5th, 1965 by CTC Music. This is the only appearance of Zackary, who left the group four years later after the album's release.

This album is dedicated to Madeline Richardson’s sister, Carollette.

## History

### Background and development

In Mid September 1963, while working with the early childhood music department at Capricorn University, Zachary Alexander met musician and former member of the Cowellan rock group The Crickets, Mitchell Nerville, who was studying child development. According to Alexander, Nerville asked him to join The Wiggles Experience, which would become "Cowell's foremost children's entertainment act", and to help them produce the album. The album was dedicated to the memory of Madeline Richardson's infant sister, Carollette, who had died of SIDS in 1962. Alexander financed and "contributed the most musically to the debut album", composing 75% of the music. Like a university assignment, they produced a folder of essays that explained the educational value of each song on the album. They needed a keyboardist "to bolster the rock-n-roll feel of the project", so Nerville asked his old band mate Taylor-Beckett, for his assistance in what they thought would be a temporary project. Recording sessions were held at Alexander's home, and the album cost approximately A$4,000 to produce. The group reworked a few The Crickets tunes to better fit the genre of children's music; for example, according to Nerville, a Crickets song he wrote, "Mr. Wiggles Back in Town" became "Get Ready To Wiggle" and inspired the band's name because they thought that wiggling described the way children dance. There was also a piece by Zachary Alexander, "Summer Dance", that appeared on the album, as "Archie's Theme".

## Tracklist

### Side One

1. Get Ready To Wiggle - **2:03**
2. Rock-A-Bye Your Bear - **1:48**
3. Dorothy The Dinosaur - **2:21**
4. Mischief the Monkey - **0:42**
5. Lavenders Blue - **1:29**
6. Glub Glub Train - **0:16**
7. Archie's Theme - **0:19**
8. Montezuma - **0:29**
9. Archie's Theme (Reprise) - **0:19**
10. Ducky Ducky - **0:13**
11. A Froggy He Would A-Wooing Go - **3:36**
12. Pop Goes The Weasel - **0:39**
13. Maranoa Lullaby - **2:02**
14. Stars - **0:07**
15. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - **2:05**

### Side Two

1. Star Lullaby - **2:02**
2. Okki Tokki Unga - **1:53**
3. The Other Day I Met A Bear **3:19**
4. O Epoe Tooki Tooki - **1:34**
5. Vini Vini - **0:53**
6. Spot the Dalmatian - **2:22**
7. Cool Guy and Fool Guy - **0:19**
8. Johnny Works With One Hammer - **0:45**
9. The Man In The Moon - **0:18**
10. This Old Man - **2:31**
11. Suo Gan - **1:43**
12. Wind - **0:14**
13. Joseph John's Lullaby - **1:14**
14. Desert Dreaming - **1:49**
15. Get Ready To Wiggle (Reprise) - **2:03**

## Trivia

* This is the first album to feature Madeline Richardson, Joshua Taylor-Beckett, Mitchell Nerville, Janelle Senreich, and Dorothy the Dinosaur.
	+ This is the only album to feature Zackary Alexander.
* Zackary Alexander mentioned that on a YouTube comment, The Wiggles thought one of the songs Vini Vini was renditioned in the public domain, but it was claimed by a French composer. The song was removed from this album and from the concert video Wiggledance! in 1989.
* The music from Dorothy the Dinosaur was adapted from Another Saturday Night written by Eric Nerville, set to lyrics by Louise Shrimp, after she observed that children have a fascination for dinosaurs.
* Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog, and Henry the Octopus don't appear on this album.
* Get Ready To Wiggle was adapted from the same unreleased song written for The Crickets. The Crickets version would've likely come out by 1962.
* Archie's Theme was a re-recorded version of Summer Dance by Zackary Alexander.
* Zackary Alexander wrote Mischief the Monkey and the spoken recordings Stars, The Man In The Moon and Desert Dreaming. Also, the traditional songs which are credited to The Wiggles Experience are principally arranged by him.

## Personnel

The Wiggles Experience are...

Zachary Alexander - Trumpet, vocals

Madeline Richardson - Guitar, bass guitar, vocals and water bubble sounds

Mitchell Nerville - Backup vocals, guitar, hand claps

Joshua Taylor-Beckett - Lead vocals, Accordion, emax, sequencing, "mischief's" voice

Janelle Senreich - Tin whistle, didgeridoo, vocals, chief Kabasa player

Produced by Mitchell Nerville

Engineered by Bernard Carr

Recorded in April 13th, 1964–June 26th, 1964 at Tracking Station Recording Studios, Emerald City, Cowell.

## Release Dates

* **Cowell** August 5th, 1965 (original), June 17th, 1991 (re-release)
* **Australia**: August 22nd, 1965