'Long Tall Sally' is a song made famous by
Little Richard, who co-wrote it with
Enotris Johnson and
Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell; it was released in 1956 and was his second major hit (after 'Tutti Frutti'). Supposedly, after hearing it the 16-year-old
John Lennon cried, because he realised that there was someone better than
Elvis. The Beatles later played it as part of their set whilst making the rounds in
Hamburg. Supposedly, it's about a tryst between 'Uncle John' and an ageing
transvestite - contemporary media outlets didn't realise this, however, and it was never subjected to a ban.
Richard's version is in F Major. The lyrics, short and simple (for full effect, scream, and note that where it says 'yes baby' and 'woo baby' it doesn't really capture the effect):
Gonna tell aunt Mary, 'bout uncle John,
He claim he has the misery but he's havin' a lot of fun,
Oh baby, yes baby, woo baby,
havin' me some fun tonight.
Well, long tall Sally, she's built for speed,
She's got everything that uncle John need,
Oh baby, yes baby, woo baby,
havin' me some fun tonight.
Well, I saw uncle John with bald headed Sally,
He saw aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley,
Oh baby, yeah baby, woo baby,
havin' me some fun tonight.
We're gonna have some fun tonight,
We're gonna have some fun tonight,
Woo, have some fun tonight,
Everything's all right,
Have some fun, have me some fun tonight!
As a little trivia point, it appears at the beginning of the 1987 motion picture 'Predator', in a sequence where our heroes travel over some jungle in a helicopter.
Repeated viewings of a poor-quality VHS copy of this film led me to believe that the lyrics to one of the verses were:
One two squeezy boy,
Tennent's Pilsner guy,
everything an Ocelot needs, oh baby
yeah, baby
whoo, baby
a heavenly stop for the night.