"The Wiggles" is the debut album of The Wiggles, released in August 1991[1][2][Note 1] by ABC Music. This is the only appearance of Phillip, who left the group shortly after the album's release. This album is dedicated to Paul Field's daughter, Bernadette.
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".
Phillip Wilcher mentioned that on a 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! (AKA Wake Up Jeff! Tour) in 1998.
The music from Dorothy the Dinosaur was adapted from Another Saturday Night written by John Field, set to lyrics by Murray Cook, after he observed that children have a fascination for dinosaurs.
Get Ready To Wiggle was adapted from the same unreleased song written for The Cockroaches. The Cockroaches version would've likely come out by 1992.
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.
A re-issue of this album with all 26 tracks was released by Phonogram and marketed by Polygram. Another re-issue of this album with all 26 tracks was released by ABC Records and distributed by EMI.
The booklet doesn't come with song lyrics and booklet doesn't have any photos. Instead, it only has black text on a white background (excluding the front and back cover).
The album's title is not to be confused with the band that made the album.
This is the only album where Greg's first full name "Gregory" is listed.
The booklet says that the chief Kabasa player is actually a person who plays the Brazilian percussion instrument, the Cabasa.
This was the first album to be manufactured and distributed by EMI Music Australia.
This was the first album to be engineered by Steve Pomfrett.
↑ 1.01.11.2The release date previously given on this wiki was July 11, 1991, but this has been disputed. No source can be found providing the supposed July 11 date until it was added to this very website by a fan in 2011. We can now only assume this information was falsely created by that user. Unfortunately, it has since been used elsewhere. It was eventually given as the release date on Wikipedia as well (again with no citation), and even was used by the social media teams of The Wiggles and ABC Music themselves to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary (in recent years, they have used false release dates created by Wigglepedia users before; for example, Cold Spaghetti Western on streaming services is incorrect, and the real release date has since been found and corrected here). It was at this point that some fans pointed out the sources listed above which directly refer to an August release, as well as other sources and anecdotes that further indicate it was indeed August (the exact date remains unknown). We apologize for allowing misinformation to spread for so long, and it reaching such a high level.
