Being a one-hit wonder is a little like being a famous assassin – you are known forever for one act. In 1958, Sheb Wooley, who died on September 16, 2003, was an actor and moderately successful country and western singer closing in on 40. He had played one of the heavies in High Noon, had a small part in Giant, and had appeared in a few dozen other movies and TV shows of a western bent. (Though it has never been confirmed, and wouldn’t have any significance for decades, he is also believed to have been the voice actor behind the original “Wilhelm Scream.”)

And then came “Purple People Eater.”

According to a 1958 article in Time, Wooley wrote the song in an hour after being told a corny joke by a friend’s kid. The song sold 1.5 million copies in nine weeks, made Wooley a rich man, and gave him a new career as a writer of novelty songs (often as “Ben Colder,” the drunken cowboy), none of which came close to having the impact of the one about the one-eyed, one-horned beastie.

Unlike most assassins, one-hit wonders get second acts — or at least a few encores. Wooley appeared in dozens more movie and shows. “Purple People Eater” itself was made into a movie in 1988, the kind of movie that welcomed one-hit wonders: Neil Patrick Harris, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Chubby Checker were all in it, as was Wooley himself.

All from a bad kids’ joke and one hour’s work. Our culture, no matter what people say, is a generous one.

(Art car image by miriku.)