The Thing (song)

"The Thing" is a hit novelty song by Charles Randolph Grean which received much airplay in 1950.

The most popular version of the song was recorded by Phil Harris on October 13, 1950 and released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-3968. The record first reached the "Billboard" charts on November 17, 1950. It lasted 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1. [cite book
last = Whitburn
first = Joel
authorlink = Joel Whitburn
title = Top Pop Records 1940-1955
publisher = Record Research
year = 1973 ]

Other versions were recorded by Danny Kaye, Ray Charles, Teresa Brewer and Australian orchestra leader Les Welch. The Danny Kaye recording was made on December 1, 1950 and released by Decca Records as catalog number 27350. The Ray Charles recording was made on July 13, 1963 and released by ABC-Paramount Records in the album "Have A Smile With Me", as catalog number ABC 495 (mono) / ABCS 495 (stereo). The Teresa Brewer recording was made in October 1950, and released by London Records as catalog number 873. The Les Welch recording was made in January 1951 and released by Pacific Records, an Australian company, as catalog number 10-0051.

tory

The lyrics take the form of a first-person narration, describing the discovery on a beach of a box with an unknown contents. Whatever is in the box is never revealed, nor is it called "The Thing" in the lyrics. When the lyrics call for The Thing to be named, the vocals simply pause for three percussive beats. For example, the first verse ends, "I discovered a ["three-beat pause"] , right before my eyes!" (The listener could "substitute" any three-syllable phrase his imagination might invent, such as "dog-gone thing".)

Initially, the narrator is overjoyed by his discovery and immediately goes to sell it. He is thrown out by a shopkeeper, who threatens to call the police. The narrator takes The Thing home but is thrown out by his wife as well. He attempts to give The Thing to a hobo, who runs away from it. As the years pass, the narrator fails to get rid of The Thing. He dies and arrives in Heaven with The Thing, but Saint Peter tells him to take it "down below" to Hell. In the final verse, the narrator warns the listener not to open boxes on the beach like he did.

Film

The song aired on radio concurrently with a series of teaser ads which ran weekly in "Collier's" promoting Howard Hawks' science fiction movie, "The Thing from Another World". The Hawks film was released April 6, 1951. While the song had no connection with the movie, some suspect it was a clever marketing tool to increase interest in seeing the film.

In Science Fiction

Edward G. Robles, Jr. wrote a short science fiction story partially based around the song. It involved several hobos who find an object like the one described in the song. In the story, the object is discovered to be an alien disguised as something nobody wants. It was originally copyrighted by Galaxy Publishing Corp. in 1954. [cite book
last = Robles
first = Edward
authorlink = Edward G. Robles, Jr.
editor = "Isaac Asimov", "Groff Conklin"
title = 50 Short Science Fiction Tales
publisher = Collier Books
year = 1971
pages = pp. 210-214 ]

References