The Pushbike Song

"The Pushbike Song"
Single by The Mixtures
Released	December 1970
Format	7" single
Recorded	1970
Genre	Bubblegum pop
Label	Polydor (UK); Fable (AUS)
Writer(s)	Idris and Evan Jones
Producer(s)	David Mackay
The Mixtures singles chronology
"In the Summertime" (1970) "The Pushbike Song" (1970) "Henry Ford" (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 16 January (beaten by George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"), and number 31 in Canada.^[1]

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1970-71) Peak position Australia KMR[2] 1 Canadian RPM Top Singles[3] 31 New Zealand[4] 1 UK 2 US Billboard Hot 100[5] 44 US Cash Box Top 100 44

Year-end charts Chart (1971) Rank Australia[6] 3 UK 7 US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[7] 279

Covers

• Toomapojad "Jalgrattal sõidan" (1970, Estonia)

Vinyl and CD releases

• Mungo Jerry (1990, UK)
• The Beggars (70s, Germany)
• The Great American Disaster (70s, USA)
• Anita Harris (??, UK)
• Pinky and Perky (1971, UK)
• The Wurzels (1978, UK) - parody of the original song; appears on The Best of Adge Cutler and the Wurzels
• Leon Henry/Carlin (1971, UK) - appears on Top of the Tots Pop Party Vol. 3 (Pickwick Records)
• The New Seekers/Mick Flinn (2006) - appears on The New Seekers Live
• The Clowns (1972, Brazil) - appears on the album A Patota
• Olivia Newton-John (2011, Australia) - appears on the soundtrack to the film A Few Best Men

Television / other

A music video was created for the song in 1970, which depicted the band and friends 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).

Australia's Young Talent Time also performed "The Pushbike Song" during one of their episodes in 1986.

The Australian children's show Play School recorded a version of this song for the album There's A Bear In There, sung by Philip Quast.

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.^[8] 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 about a girl getting a new bike.

See also

• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1970s#1971

References

1. RPM 100 Singles - May 8, 1971
2. Steffen Hung. "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2016-10-04.
3. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
4. Flavour of New Zealand
5. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
6. Australian-charts.com
7. Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
8. "Tooheys 5 Seeds set to put a twist on cider in new campaign breaking this Sunday via BMF Sydney". Toohey's 5 Seed Commercial. Retrieved 2012-02-20.

External links

• Poparchives.com.au's entry on The Pushbike Song
• Young Talent Time