Lyrics
The Searchers (1967)
Everybody's going through changes
Everybody's got a bag of his own
Everybody's talking about places
That can only be found in the greater unknown
People are flying, and babies are crying
Don't nobody care at all?
There's love and there's laughter 1
And good things come after
Just follow the bouncing ball 2
Popcorn, double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
That man is your teacher
No need to be alarmed
Music's coming out of the woodwork
Sounds so strange, nobody sleeps
Met a little man on the corner
He's holding a flag and making a speech
Coffee each morning
"Don't park" is the warning
They'll tow your machine away
There's so much confusion that's built on illusion
What's making the music play?
Popcorn, double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
That man is your teacher
No need to be alarmed, not much
Coffee each morning
"Don't park" is the warning
They'll tow your machine away
There's so much confusion that's built on illusion
What's making the music play?
Popcorn double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
That man is your teacher
No need to be alarmed, not much
Popcorn double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
The man is your teacher ...
The Fall
Everybody's going through changes
Everybody's got a bag of his own
Everybody's talking about places
That can only be found in the greater unknown
People are dying, and babies are crying
Don't nobody care at all?
There's love and disaster
And good things come after
Just follow the paths along
Popcorn double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
That man is your teacher
No need to be alarmed
Music's coming out of the woodwork
Sounds so strange, nobody sleeps
I met a little man on the corner
Waving a flag and making a speech
Coffee each morning 3
Don't park or, no warning, they tow your machine away
There's so much confusion that's built on illusion
What's making the music play?
Popcorn, double feature
Whole world's a funny farm
That man is your teacher
No need to be alarmed, not much
Coffee each morning
No park or, no warning, they tow your machine away
There's love and disaster
But good things come after
What's making the music play?
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Popcorn double feature
Commentary
< Post in Progress >
“Popcorn, Double Feature” (note the punctuation) was written in 1966 by the American song-writing team of Larry Weiss and Scott English. The Searchers released their version as a single in 1967, but it failed to chart. The Fall’s version was in the UK charts for two whole weeks, reaching a peak of #84.
The Fall’s cover has a slightly darker tone to the lyrics. In the original “people are flying” and “There’s love and there’s laughter”. In The Fall’s version, “people are dying” and “There’s love and disaster”. It is unknown whether this is due to MES mishearing the original or deliberately deciding to change the words.
The Great “Who Was First”? Controversy
There seems to be some confusion about whether The Searchers’ version, or another version the same year by the then thirteen year-old Tim Wilde, was the first. Some sources say the former, some the latter.
Having checked in contemporary newspapers I can report that The Searchers’ single was released in January 1967. Tim Wilde can’t beat that. But maybe The Searchers weren’t the first to record a version?
Tim Wilde himself posted to the Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum:
Hi:
To provide an answer to part of a question that was raised earlier in this thread…
On the contrary, The Searchers recorded Popcorn Double Feature before I did. When their recording went nowhere, a copy of it was sent as a demo to my manager, Bob Reno, in order to get the song re-recorded by one of his artists. In turn, Bob called on his friend and producer Artie Wayne to produce the song with me as the artist. In regard to the B side, Too Many Questions, I had previously recorded that song for Artie Wayne, but only as a demo (which of course was meant only to demonstrate the song to other artists). After Artie produced me on Popcorn Double Feature, it was decided to throw the demo of Too Many Questions on the B side in order to avoid having to record another side.
The interesting thing about our recording of Popcorn Double Feature that you’re not aware of is that it became an instant hit throughout the country. That is, when Bob Reno took me on tour around the country to promote our record, every disc jockey at every radio station we visited from New York to LA informed us that their listeners were crazy about our record and that they made huge numbers of requests that it be played daily. However, along with all the play requests also came an equal number of complaints. Namely, the record was not available to be bought anywhere. Throughtout the tour Bob Reno continually called the record company, Tower Records (a subsidiary of Capitol Records), in order to get them to properly distribute the record as previously agreed. After endless excuses and promises no distribution was ever made. Tower Records never distributed a single copy of our record anywhere, in spite of the fact that they knew the record was being so well received in the multitude of markets from New York to LA. By the end of our long tour it was painfully obvious that for whatever reason, Tower Records did not want our recording to “make it.” I still wonder why… were their earnings so high that they needed to show losses?
If you’re wondering what have I been doing, I honed my song-writing skills and I sing and record my own songs under a new name in the new-country music field.
Cheers!
Tim Wilde
Post to the “Searchers, Byrds and Dusty Springfield” thread by user @TimWilde, 9 March 2012, 2:17 am. Available online at: https://www.rickresource.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=745202#p745202.
Which you would think clears the question up pretty definitively. But Wilde subsequently posted this:
My apologies…
I’m sorry to say that In an effort to set things right, the information I entered in my posts is not correct. After just listening to The Searchers’ version of Popcorn Double Feature, I realized that it is not the recording which was given to me by Scott English and Larry Weiss after all, and all this time I’ve been erroneously under the impression that it was The Searchers‘ recording. Actually,the tempo of the demo was approxinately the same as on my recording. Whereas the tempo on The Searchers‘ recording is much faster. Its arrangement is also different than the demo. This means that my recording of Popcorn Double Feature is definitely the original release of the song, and The Searchers’ version was released after mine.
Footnotes
- The phrase “love and laughter” is something of a cliché. ↩︎
- A reference to the visual representation of a song’s rhythm on screen (TV and film), in which an animated ball bounces along on-screen lyrics. For examples see Wikipedia. ↩︎
- In “There’s a Ghost in My House“, MES changed “coffee cup” to “tea cup”. No similar alteration here. But then, although the songwriters were American The Searchers were from Liverpool. And there are references to coffee in MES’ own lyrics, see “Bug Day“, “Early Days of Channel Fuhrer“, “Iceland“, “The Past“, and “Totally Wired“. ↩︎
Sources / Links
- Ford, Simon (2003). Hip Priest: the story of Mark E Smith and The Fall. London: Quartet. pp.230-231.
- Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
- Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
- Smith, Mark E. (2008). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin.
- Thompson, Dave (2003). A User’s Guide to the Fall. London: Helter-Skelter Publishing.
- The Track Record: “Popcorn Double Feature”
- Wikipedia: Bouncing ball (music)
- Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide. London: Strata Books.