The Wacky Clackers –Crazy Balls/ How Will I Know –Poko Records NC-S-45-122 (1971 US)
Out of New Orleans, without a whiff of Allen Toussaint, comes this highly entertaining Bubblegum meisterwork to cash in on what was then a huge global phenomenon (Klackers, Click-Clacks, Clackers, Ker-Knockers etc...) Whatever they were called, they would surely be banned in school nowadays as offensive weapons!
The Wacky Clackers were in fact the Montalto Trio in disguise who consisted of brothers Lance -guitar (AND Clackers!), Richard - bass and Alfred Montalto on drums. Crazy Balls is beautifully dumb and catchy, and god...don’t those clackers cut through the mix? Enjoy! Me?...I’m off to clack my balls...
Hear a full version of Crazy Balls
PS: I have just updated my 45 collection, see the first link to download. Still a work in progress...
3 comments:
We called them ker-knockers, and they were huge when I was in high school. The craze didn't last long because they were soon deemed unsafe (much like lawn darts) in the USA. I love pop culture songs like this. Thanks for posting it!
The recording was done at Cosimo Matassa’s famous studio in New Orleans. Curiously, the master was sold to Stax records in Memphis, which re-released it on their Enterprise label - one of very few recordings on the label by a group that included no African-Americans. As the bassist for the group, I eventually completed a doctorate in composition, and I have been a Professor of Music since the 1980s.
R. Montalto
thanks Richard. Crazy Balls could be the basis of a thesis on maximizing the minimum...the key to delivering the hook!
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