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"Woodpeckers from Space" is a song by the Dutch Euro disco/Italo disco duo VideoKids. A synth-pop cover of "The Woody Woodpecker Song", it was released in 1984 by Boni Records through their sublabel Break Records as the duo's debut single, as well as the sixth track from their debut studio album, The Invasion of the Spacepeckers (1984).

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"Woodpeckers from Space"
Single by VideoKids
from the album The Invasion of the Spacepeckers
B-side	"Rap and Sing Along"
Released	October 5, 1984
Recorded	1984
Genre	Euro disco, synth-pop
Length	3:34
Label	Polydor
Songwriter(s)	A. Adams & Fleisner
Producer(s)	A. Adams & Fleisner
VideoKids singles chronology
"Woodpeckers from Space" (1984) "Do the Rap" (1985)

Background

The song was written and produced by Aart Mol, Cees Bergman, Elmer Veerhoff, Erwin van Prehn and Geertjan Hessing (under the pseudonym "Adams & Fleisner"), all of whom were former members of the Dutch glam rock band Catapult.[1]

The idea for the song began when the son of Gert van den Bosch (co-founder of Boni Records) asked him if he could produce a record based on Woody Woodpecker, whom the son was a big fan of.[2] The song was recorded at Cat Music, which Mol, Bergman, Veerhoff, Prehn and Hessing had formed in 1979. The vocals were done by Bergman and Sylvia and Anita Crooks of the vocal trio The Internationals.[1]

The song tells the story of a man waking up at night and hearing a "funny cry", which turns out to be Woody's laugh. Woody makes a sudden appearance, wearing a space suit and holding a lazer gun, and hypnotizes the perplexed man, telling him to take him to the hippest spot in town to do the "Woodpecker Boogie and Rap". The man takes him there, and Woody tells everyone to do the "Woodpecker Boogie and Rap", and they do so, snapping, clapping and rapping along with the woodpecker, and having fun.

The album version of the song features sound effects from the Speak & Spell toy, as well as a sample of the sounds from the song "Home Computer" by the German group Kraftwerk.

Music video

The music video starred Peter Slaghuis and Bianca Bonelli, hired by Cat Music to be the members of the group. Bonelli had had a solo single called "Je Veux L'amour (Follow Me)", also written and produced by Cat Music. The search for a singing partner for Bonelli turned out to be very difficult, until she and Cat Music found and met Slaghuis at the BlueTiek-in nightclub (where he was working as a disc jockey).[1][3][4]

In the video, the woodpecker plays one prank after another on the Slaghuis/Bonelli flight crew, messing with their spaceship and leaving the duo hardly any time to sing. Eventually they crash land somewhere, supposedly the "boogie ground", and he leads everyone to dance there and leaves as the song fades out.[3] The video was filmed in the Airplane Museum at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.[4] Peter, Bianca and the flight crew's pilots and scientists lip-sync to Cees Bergman, Sylvia and Anita Crooks' vocals during the video.[1] In order to avoid being sued by Universal Studios, a new character named Tico Tac was created as the group's mascot and used in place of Woody. Tico was an alien in a yellow space suit and helmet, with a wood drill on his bottom functioning like an insect stinger. The character was designed by Dirk Arend, who was occasionally doing cover artwork designs for Boni Records and Break Records under the pseudonym "Fruut" at the time, and animated by Bjørn Frank Jensen and coloured by Frits Godhelp at Toonder Studio's.[5][6]

Covers

The song was covered by the South African outfit Café Society in 1985, with their version holding the No. 1 position on the South African Top 20 for 8 weeks.[7] VideoKids never released the song in that country for unknown reasons. According to rumor, it was to show respect for a political situation that was occurring at the time. The song was also covered by Doctor Pecker in 1986,[8] The Smurfs in 1995,[9] V-Kid in 1999,[10] Swedish singer Evelyn in 2001,[11] the Norwegian bubblegum/trance/dance group SpritneyBears in 2003 (their cover laid in second place on the Norwegian chart, spending 8 weeks on that chart in total)[12] and Kidz Hitz Party 2: Back To School in 2007.[13] It was also featured in the Pingu episode, "Pingu Helps with Incubating", although it has been replaced by David Hasselhoff's "Pingu-Dance" in its newer version.

Most cover versions were not as well-known as the original song.

Charts

Chart (1984/1985)	Peak position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[14]	15
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[15]	17
Denmark (Hitlisten)[16]	4
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[17]	14
Norway (VG-lista)[18]	1
Spain (AFYVE)[19]	1
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[20]	8
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[21]	6
UK Singles (OCC)[22]	72
West Germany (Official German Charts)[23]	4

References

На других языках

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[de] Woodpeckers from Space

Woodpeckers From Space ist die Debütsingle der Video Kids aus dem Jahr 1984. Der Euro-Disco-Song wurde von den Produzenten Adams/Fleisner geschrieben und produziert und enthält Samples aus dem The Woody Woodpecker Song von Kay Kyser aus dem Jahr 1948. Der Titel erreichte in Norwegen und Südafrika Platz eins der Charts.

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- [en] Woodpeckers from Space

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