The Wiggles (album)

"The Wiggles" is the debut album of The Wiggles which was released on July 11, 1991 by ABC Music. This is the only album that has Phillip. It is dedicated to Paul Field's daughter, Bernadette. The Wiggles was the first album. It featured Phillip who was named the fifth wiggle, but shortly after the album was released Wilcher was forced to quit the band.

Background and development
In 1991, while working with the early childhood music department at Macquarie University, Phillip Wilcher met musician and former member of the Australian rock group The Cockroaches, Anthony Field, who was studying child development. According to Wilcher, Field asked him to join The Wiggles, which would become "Australia's foremost children's entertainment act", and to help them produce the album. The album was dedicated to the memory of Paul Field's infant daughter, Bernadette, who had died of SIDS in 1988. Wilcher financed and "contributed the most musically to the debut album", composing 75% of the music. Like a university assignment, they produced a folder of essays that explained the educational value of each song on the album. They needed a keyboardist "to bolster the rock-n-roll feel of the project", so Field asked his old band mate Fatt, for his assistance in what they thought would be a temporary project. Recording sessions were held at Wilcher's home, and the album cost approximately A$4,000 to produce. The group reworked a few Cockroaches tunes to better fit the genre of children's music; for example, according to Field, a Cockroaches song he wrote, "Mr. Wiggles Back in Town" became "Get Ready to Wiggle" and inspired the band's name because they thought that wiggling described the way children dance. There was also a piece by Phillip Wilcher, "Summer Dance", that appeared on the album, as "Archie's Theme".

Tracklist

 * 1) "Get Ready to Wiggle" - (J Field*/M Cook/J Fatt/G Page) - 1:54
 * 2) "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" - (A Field/G Page) - 1:46
 * 3) "Dorothy the Dinosaur" - (M Cook/J Field*) - 2:21
 * 4) "Mischief the Monkey" - (P Wilcher) - 0:42
 * 5) "Lavenders Blue" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 1:29
 * 6) "Glub Glub Train (Spoken)" - (A Field) - 0:16
 * 7) "Archie's Theme" - (P Wilcher) - 0:19
 * 8) "Montezuma" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 0:29
 * 9) "Archie's Theme (Reprise)" - (P Wilcher) - 0:19
 * 10) "Ducky Ducky (Spoken)" - (G Page/A Field) - 0:13
 * 11) "A Froggy He Would A-Wooing Go" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 3:36
 * 12) "Maranoa Lullaby" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 2:02
 * 13) "Stars (Spoken)" - (A Field/P Wilcher) - 0:08
 * 14) "Star Lullaby" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 2:02
 * 15) "Okki Tokki Unga" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 1:53
 * 16) "O Epoe Tooki Tooki" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) 1:34
 * 17) "Vini Vini" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 0:58
 * 18) "Spot the Dalmatian" - (A Field/J Field*) - 2:22
 * 19) "Johnny Works With One Hammer" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 0:48
 * 20) "The Man On The Moon (Spoken)" - (P Wilcher) - 0:18
 * 21) "This Old Man" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 2:31
 * 22) "Suo Gan" - (Trad/Arr: The Wiggles) - 1:43
 * 23) "Wind (Spoken)" - (A Field) - 0:14
 * 24) "Joseph John's Lullaby" - (Brahms/P Wilcher/Arr: P Wilcher) - 1:14
 * 25) "Desert Dreaming (Spoken)" - (A Field/P Wilcher) - 1:49
 * 26) "Get Ready to Wiggle (Reprise)" - (J Field*/M Cook/J Fatt/G Page) - 1:54

Personnel

 * The Wiggles are...
 * Phillip Wilcher: Piano, vocals
 * Murray Cook: Guitar, bass guitar, vocals and water bubble sounds
 * Gregory Page: Lead vocals, guitar, hand claps
 * Jeff Fatt: Accordion, Emax, sequencing, Mischief's voice
 * Anthony Field: Tin whistle, didgeridoo, chief Kabasa player
 * Produced by Anthony Field
 * Engineered by Steve Promfrett
 * Recorded in February 1991 at Tracking Station Recording Studios, Sydney.

Songwriting

 * Anthony's brother John co-wrote Get Ready to Wiggle, Dorothy the Dinosaur and Spot the Dalmatian.
 * Phillip Wilcher wrote Mischief the Monkey and Spoken Recordings (Stars, The Man on the Moon and Desert Dreaming). Also, the traditional songs which are credited to The Wiggles are principally arranged by him.
 * Anthony Field asked Phillip Wilcher to contribute more original material, so, in response, Phillip wrote Mischief the Monkey in front of him in about five minutes.
 * For the speaking recording sections, Anthony Field wrote Glub Glub Train, Ducky Ducky and Wind, and Philip Wilcher wrote Stars and The Man in the Moon. Both Anthony and Philip wrote Desert Dreaming.

Music

 * Get Ready to Wiggle was adapted from Mr. Wiggles Back in Town, originally by The Cockroaches.
 * The music from Dorothy the Dinosaur was adapted from It's Another Saturday Night written by John Field, set to lyrics by Murray Cook, after he observed that children have a fascination for dinosaurs.
 * The music from Archie's Theme was adapted from Summer Dance which was written by Phillip Wilcher.
 * John Field only provided the opening riff for Spot the Dalmatian, the rest of the song was written by Anthony Field.
 * Greg Page wrote in his autobiography that The Wiggles were moving away from the more traditional songs provided by Phillip Wilcher towards a more rock and roll sound that was solidified on the tracks that Phillip Wilcher did not perform. This is a possible reason for his dismissal.
 * Philip Wilcher adapted Brahms' Lullaby to Joseph John's Lullaby.

Musicians

 * Jeff Fatt was only involved in the album's first three tracks, on which he played keyboards and provided the MIDI drum tracks, except for providing Mischief's voice. Conversely, Phillip Wilcher was involved in all but those three tracks (excluding the reprise of Get Ready to Wiggle).
 * Phillip, Anthony and Murray sing Spot the Dalmatian and This Old Man.

Instruments

 * The Kabasa is a percussion instrument. The player twists a steel ball chain around a cylinder to create the sound.
 * Some of the songs such as Get Ready to Wiggle also use a instrument device called a MIDI for the drum tracks.
 * Vini Vini is the only song in this album that doesn't require instruments. Instead, it uses voices and hand claps.
 * Greg plays Acoustic Guitar, Murray plays Bass and Acoustic Guitar, Anthony plays Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Phillip plays Piano, Jeff plays Keyboards.

Song Credits

 * Greg is credited as Gregory Page.
 * Phillip Wilcher's credit, "piano" encompasses all keyboard sounds on tracks 4-25.
 * Despite Jeff Fatt is credited as playing the accordion on the album, it is unclear which track use it

Others

 * Phillip Wilcher mentioned that on his YouTube comment, The Wiggles thought one of the songs Vini Vini was renditioned in the public domain, but it was claimed by a French composer. The song was removed from this album and from the concert video Wiggledance! in 1998, although it was unclaimed in 2013.
 * Rock-a-Bye Your Bear was later re-recorded in 1996-1997 for The Wiggles Movie, and Get Ready to Wiggle and Dorothy the Dinosaur were also re-recorded around this time for live performances and their appearance on Wiggle Time. These three songs were also re-recorded in 1993 for the original video release of Wiggle Time.
 * Two songs Get Ready to Wiggle and Dorothy the Dinosaur were filmed for ABC For Kids Video Hits and ABC For Kids Video Hits Volume 2 videos.
 * In the liner notes, The Wiggles thank Meg, Russ and Jean Cook, Norma and Oscar Fatt, Kristy, Matthew and Sara, Leanne and Andrew, Joy and Les Wilcher, the Leuver Sisters, Elpis, Don Corlione, Franko and Mitzy, Terence and Janette Page, Odette, Amy, Emma, Luke, and Rebecca Wilcher, all the Fields, Joseph, Luke, Clare, Sofia, Anthony, Leonardo, Jeremy and all the Mental Management and Stella for quality control, Rosemary Harle and all at I.E.C.S., and Diana Manson, Meryl, Jenni, Lynette, Trish, and all at ABC Records.
 * EMI Music publishes all of The Wiggles' songs on this album.
 * All songs were written or arranged by different combinations of the five Wiggles, except "Get Ready to Wiggle", "Dorothy the Dinosaur", "Spot the Dalmatian", which were co-written by Anthony's brother John Field.
 * The Traditional songs on this album are Lavenders Blue, A Froggy He Would A-Wooing Go, Maranoa Lullaby, Star Lullaby, Okki Tokki Unga, O Epoe Tooki Tooki, Vini Vini, Johnny Works With One Hammer, This Old Man and Suo Gan.
 * Jeff voices Mischief on Mischief the Monkey.