The Wiggles (album)

***The Wiggles*** is the debut album of The Wiggles, released in August 1991 by ABC Music. This is the only appearance of Phillip, who left the group shortly after the album's release. This album is dedicated to Paul Field's daughter, Bernadette.

## History

### Background and development

In 1991, while working with the early childhood music department at Macquarie University, Phillip Wilcher met musician and former member of the Australian rock group The Cockroaches, Anthony Field, who was studying child development. According to Wilcher, Field asked him to join The Wiggles, which would become "Australia's foremost children's entertainment act", and to help them produce the album. The album was dedicated to the memory of Paul Field's infant daughter, Bernadette, who had died of SIDS in 1988. Wilcher 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 Field asked his old band mate Fatt, for his assistance in what they thought would be a temporary project. Recording sessions were held at Wilcher's home, and the album cost approximately A$4,000 to produce. The group reworked a few Cockroaches tunes to better fit the genre of children's music; for example, according to Field, a Cockroaches 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 Phillip Wilcher, "Summer Dance", that appeared on the album, as "Archie's Theme".

## Tracklist

1. Get Ready To Wiggle - **1:54**
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. Maranoa Lullaby - **2:02**
13. Stars - **0:07**
14. Star Lullaby - **2:02**
15. Okki Tokki Unga - **1:53**
16. O Epoe Tooki Tooki - **1:34**
17. Vini Vini - **0:53**
18. Spot the Dalmatian - **2:22**
19. Johnny Works With One Hammer - **0:45**
20. The Man In The Moon - **0:18**
21. This Old Man - **2:31**
22. Suo Gan - **1:43**
23. Wind - **0:14**
24. Joseph John's Lullaby - **1:14**
25. Desert Dreaming - **1:49**
26. Get Ready To Wiggle (Reprise) - **1:54**

## Personnel

The Wiggles are...

Phillip Wilcher Piano, vocals

Murray Cook Guitar, bass guitar, vocals and water bubble sounds

Gregory Page Lead vocals, guitar, hand claps

Jeff Fatt Accordian, Emax, sequencing, "mischief's" voice

Anthony Field Tin whistle, didgeridoo, vocals, chief Kabasa player

**Produced by** Anthony Field

**Engineered by** Steve Pomfrett

Recorded in February 1991 at Tracking Station Recording Studios, Sydney.

## Release Dates

* **Australia** (original): August 1991
* **Australia** (re-release) 1998 EMI release

## Trivia

* This is the first album to feature Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, Greg Page, and Dorothy the Dinosaur.
	+ This is the only album to feature Phillip Wilcher.
* Phillip Wilcher 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! (AKA Wake Up Jeff! Tour) in 1998.
* The music from Dorothy the Dinosaur was adapted from Another Saturday Night written by John Field, set to lyrics by Murray Cook, after he observed that children have a fascination for dinosaurs.
* Get Ready To Wiggle was adapted from the same unreleased song written for The Cockroaches. The Cockroaches version would've likely come out by 1992.
* Archie's Theme was a re-recorded version of Summer Dance by Phillip Wilcher.
* Phillip Wilcher 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 are principally arranged by him.
* Greg Page wrote in his autobiography that The Wiggles were moving away from the more traditional songs provided by Phillip Wilcher towards a more rock and roll sound that was solidified on the tracks that Phillip Wilcher did not perform. This is a possible reason for his dismissal.
* Anthony Field asked Phillip Wilcher to contribute more original material, so, in response, Phillip wrote Mischief the Monkey in front of him in about five minutes.
* Two songs Get Ready To Wiggle and Dorothy the Dinosaur were filmed for ABC For Kids Video Hits and ABC For Kids Video Hits Volume 2 videos.
* Vini Vini is the only song on this album that doesn't use instruments, only hand claps.
* Phillip Wilcher adapted Brahms' Lullaby to Joseph John's Lullaby, it would later be used as the basis of the song Go To Sleep Jeff (Brahms' Lullaby) for the album of the same name in 2003.
* Star Lullaby was later adapted to Shining Around The World for Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas! in 2017.
* A re-issue of this album with all 26 tracks was released by Phonogram and marketed by Polygram. Another re-issue of this album with all 26 tracks was released by ABC Records and distributed by EMI.
* The booklet doesn't come with song lyrics and booklet doesn't have any photos. Instead, it only has black text on a white background (excluding the front and back cover).
* The album's title is not to be confused with the band that made the album.
* This is the only album where Greg's first full name "Gregory" is listed.
* The booklet says that the chief Kabasa player is actually a person who plays the Brazilian percussion instrument, the Cabasa.
* This was the first album to be manufactured and distributed by EMI Music Australia.
* This was the first album to be engineered by Steve Pomfrett.
* This was the first album to be recorded at Tracking Station Recording Studios.
* The song "Mischief the Monkey" is now owned by Will Wagner.
* Get Ready To Wiggle, Rock-A-Bye Your Bear, Dorothy the Dinosaur and O Epoe Tooki Tooki were later re-recorded in late 1996 during The Wiggles Movie Soundtrack sessions.

## Goofs

* In the booklet, the accordion is misspelled as "Accordian".
* On the back cover, Spot the Dalmatian is misspelled as Spot the Dalmation.
* On the back cover, The word "the" was capitalized on Dorothy the Dinosaur and The Man In The Moon.
* In the booklet "Cover Pic" section, Phillip Wilcher's name is misspelled as "Philip Wilcher".
* The 1998 re-release has the original writing credits for Get Ready To Wiggle still intact from the original release as at the time of its re-release the writing credits were revised to have this song along with the rest of the catalog of songs/spokens (which would be revised until either the end of the 1990s or the early 2000s which the revised credits started appearing on releases) to credit the group members (except for Mischief the Monkey and The Man in the Moon which as of 2022 are still credited to only Phillip).

## Music Videos

Get Ready To Wiggle - Original Music Video, 1991 - The WigglesDorothy The Dinosaur - Original Music Video, 1991 - The Wiggles
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Munro, Catharine (22 May 2005). "The Wiggly way". The Age. Melbourne.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 'The Wiggles' audio cassette by The Wiggles 2021. Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences
3. ↑ https://www.apraamcos.com.au/works-search?works=true&title=&writer=Wilcher&performer=Wiggles

## Note

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The release date previously given on this wiki was July 11, 1991, but this has been disputed. No source can be found providing the supposed July 11 date until it was added to this very website by a fan in late January of 2011. We can now only assume this information was falsely created by that user. Unfortunately, it has since been used elsewhere. It was eventually given as the release date on Wikipedia as well (again with no citation), and even was used by the social media teams of The Wiggles and ABC Music themselves to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary (in recent years, they have used false release dates created by Wigglepedia users before; for example, Cold Spaghetti Western on streaming services is incorrect, and the real release date has since been found and corrected here). It was at this point that some fans pointed out the sources listed above which directly refer to an August release, as well as other sources and anecdotes that further indicate it was indeed August (the exact date remains unknown). We apologize for allowing misinformation to spread for so long, and it reaching such a high level.