The first whiff of nihilism and anarchy I got as a very young kid came from The Banana Splits. They were an animal diversity band who bumped into each other a lot and had a TV show with a classy theme tune. Even now I whistle the Banana Splits theme tune in the shower.
What I didn’t remember about the programme until I looked today, was that there was a gang of girls involved. Maybe that’s another reason why it appealed to me. Sometimes dancing in miniskirts or singing, these 1960’s pre-teens must have been something I aspired to at the time. You can find more about them online:
The Sour Grapes Bunch is a group of human girl characters from the Banana Splits. One of the members of the club – Charley, usually played by Shirley Hillstrom – would bring a written note to the Splits. None of the Sour Grapes spoke in the entire series; however, they would also do a number with the Banana Splits. In the first-season episode on October 5, 1968, a song debuted entitled “Doin’ The Banana Split,” as all five girls appeared together with the Splits.
For me The Banana Splits will forever be linked with Punk Rock by The Dickies speedpunk cover version that was as much fun as Punk Rock ever got! I just saw them for the first time last month and they still rip through that song with gleeful abandon. In spite of the advanced years of their guitarist Stan Lee and vocalist Leonard Graves Philips. At 54 years of age, I tried to pogo along to that one in concert only to find that I could not pogo fast enough! Gravity was too slow/weak as I would have needed to move like a piston.