Inez Foxx: "Mockingbird"

August 26, 1963 (2 weeks)

Near the beginning of the eighties comedy classic National Lampoon's Vacation, the Griswold family are heading out on the first day of their ill-fated trip from Chicago to Walley World in California. Parents Clark and Ellen try to engage their kids, Rusty and Audrey, in a family singalong but, like all out-of-touch adults, the majority of their choices do not interest their teenage kids one bit. Cajoling them to join in on "Mockingbird", Audrey protests that they "don't know any of your songs" while Rusty reckons it sounds "made up". (It is only when Clark gets them to sing the "Wally World National Anthem" that the two surly kids give in but they're right back to being disinterested when their folks follow it with an unwelcome rendition of "Jimmy Crack Corn")

Rusty Griswold is correct in his assessment of "Mockingbird". No, not because every song is "made up" but due to the fact that it is highly contrived. The reworking of the beloved nursery rhyme "Hush Little Baby", it lacks the sweetness of its antecedent and fails to add anything of note to it. I suppose it's possible fans were impressed by the call-and-response of the Foxx siblings but it feels too much like doing so just for the sake of it. And what charm there was in their vocal double act is diminished considerably by it being so bloody repetitive.

It doesn't really sound like it now but many took "Mockingbird" as a novelty song at first. Perhaps it was simply the oddity of a song normally sung to babies being adapted into a pop hit that convinced them of such. Yet, it doesn't quite work on that level since there's nothing amusing about it once you get past the "oh, it's that kids song!" reaction. Had they meant to go the "Chipmunk Song"/"Purple People Eater" route, they could've added a lot more to it in terms of production tricks and/or vocal gimmicks. As such, I'm not convinced the Foxx siblings had cutting a novelty song in mind but this then begs the question, what prompted them to do such a trivial tune in the first place?

The photogenic Inez Foxx was initially credited as a solo artist but her brother Charlie contributed just as much. It is said that their record label Symbol wanted to mold her into a star but it is difficult to fathom what they had against a brother-sister tandem instead. That said, she's easily the best thing about "Mockingbird". He handles his side okay but she completely overshadows him with some pretty stellar singing. Scatting seemed to come naturally to her so it's easy to picture her making a gradual move towards jazz — which, sadly, she never really did. Beyond the fact that it's a tedious bore for the most part, what's especially frustrating about "Mockingbird" is that they were capable of a lot better. And maybe they did do stronger work later on but by then the majority of folk had already had their fill of them. You only get one chance to make an impression so it's best to make it count; hell, they might have even done something that Rusty and Audrey Griswold might have sung along with.

Score: 4

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Hey! Where's...?

Listed as 'Beachboys' on the CHUM Hit Parade (though that may be as much down to the limitations of space on their cramped listings than anything else), the California quintet — minus longtime member Al Jardine who had left the group to attend dental school; he'd be back before you could say "four out of five dentists" — were still in their early period of songs about surfing and hot rods but Brian Wilson's talent and angst was already beginning to seep their way into their material. "In My Room" is frequently cited as a sign of things to come but "Surfer Girl" is every bit as mature. The same cannot be said for flip side "Little Deuce Coupe" which is brief yet somehow still manages to overstay its welcome. The 'Beachboys' were always factional and this double A side gives an accurate assessment of how polarized they were, even at this early stage. This was a group whose artistic advances always seemed to take a backseat to commercial priorities so to have their brilliant but moody hit having to share space with a bit of filler is typical of any group who'd have a Mike Love in it.