A Little Bit of Soap
| "A Little Bit of Soap" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by The Jarmels | |
| Released |
1961 (Jarmels) 1966 (Exciters) 1970 (Davis) 1978 (Showaddywaddy) 1979 (Olsson) |
| Recorded |
1961 (Jarmels) 1966 (Exciters) 1970 (Davis) 1978 (Showaddywaddy) 1979 (Olsson) |
| Genre | Soul, blues |
| Length | 2:13 |
| Label |
Laurie (Jarmels) Bang (Davis, Olsson) Arista (Showaddywaddy) |
"A Little Bit of Soap", written by Bert Berns (aka Bert Russell), was a song, first sung in a bluesy soul style by The Jarmels, who reached #12 with it in September 1961 and #7 on the R&B charts.[1]
Covers
The song has been covered many times since. The Exciters' version charted at #58 on Billboard Hot 100 in February 1966. Paul Davis's rendition reached #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1970, while Nigel Olsson's version hit #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the adult contemporary chart in June 1979.[2] Both Davis and Olsson used ballad arrangements. The song was a great success in Britain in the 1978 version by Showaddywaddy, peaking at #5 in UK Singles Chart in July 1978.
Reception
- While the song was a minor hit in the United States all three times it was released, it reached the Top Ten on the Canadian charts, and Top Twenty in Australia in 1970 for Davis.[3] It was his first charting single release.
- "A Little Bit of Soap" was a huge hit in southeast Asia when the Hong Kong-based group Cliff Foenander and The Fabulous Echoes released it as a single. It spent 25 weeks at number 1 in top ten charts in 1963 in southeast Asia.[4] Foenander and The Fabulous Echoes also sang the hit in Las Vegas USA in 1964. It made Cliff Foenander a household name in South Asia: Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia, played the number one hit across the Indian subcontinent.[4]
- Daniel Johnston also covered it, while De La Soul sampled it for a different song with the same name.
References
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel, The Billboard Book of TOP 40 R&B and Hip Hop Hits, Billboard Books, New York 2006
- ↑ Nigel Olsson, "Little Bit of Soap" chart position Retrieved June 19, 2016.
- ↑ Go-Set Australian charts - 22 August 1970
- 1 2 "Remembering Cliff Foenander of the Fabulous Echoes". worldmusiccentral.org. November 10, 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-09-21.
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