Purple Toupee (EP)
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EP by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| First released | Scheduled for release c. 1989 Release details / collectors: Show | Hide |
Tracks | 4 | |||
| Label | Bar/None / Restless | Length | 9:13 | |||
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Purple Toupee was a four-song EP planned for 12" vinyl, CD and cassette, promoted as an upcoming release in 1989, but ultimately canceled. Its intended tracks appeared on the 1989 Don't Let's Start LP compilation in Europe, and two years later in the US on Miscellaneous T.
An advertisement from Bar/None and Restless suggests that it was planned for a release on those labels. The Then: The Earlier Years booklet states that the EP was "recorded virtually simultaneously" with Flood. "Hey, Mr. DJ" was recorded at Skyline Studios where Flood was recorded, while "Lady Is A Tramp" and "Birds Fly" were recorded at Hello Studio, John Flansburgh's home studio.
Track listing[edit]
| # | Title | Length | Lyrics | Guitar Tab |
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| 1 | Purple Toupee | 2:40
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| 2 | Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal | 3:48
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| 3 | Lady Is A Tramp | 1:20
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| 4 | Birds Fly | 1:25
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US Promo[edit]
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Single by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| First released | 1989 Release details / collectors: Show | Hide |
Tracks | 1 | |||
| Label | Bar/None / Restless <EPRO-190> | Length | 2:40 | |||
A one-song promotional single CD containing just "Purple Toupee" was released in the US in 1989.
Track listing[edit]
| # | Title | Length | Lyrics | Guitar Tab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purple Toupee | 2:40
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Gallery[edit]
CD
Back cover
Promotional 8-Track[edit]
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Single by They Might Be Giants | |||||
| First released | 1989 Release details / collectors: Show | Hide |
Tracks | N/A | |||
| Label | Bar/None / Restless | Length | N/A | |||
Purple Toupee was "released" on 8-track tape in 1989 as a promotional stunt, with the band putting custom labels on existing tapes that contained other music.
Purchase[edit]
| Seller | Format | Price | Link |
Description[edit]
John Flansburgh once mentioned that the tapes were purchased in bulk from Motown Records. By the time that the cartridge was released in 1989, 8-tracks had been widely phased out for several years, and this "release" was simply a promotional stunt. Due to the random nature of the tapes, several different shell colours are known to exist, including black, white, yellow, and purple. Similarly varied are the contents: the music contained within includes Cheech & Chong's Let's Make a New Dope Deal, a Stevie Wonder anthology, and Marvin Gaye.
Chicago Tribune, July 21, 1989:
To call attention to the single "Purple Toupee," by They Might Be Giants, Bar/None Records recently mailed out promotional copies-on 8-track tapes, which are about as likely to get played these days as cylinder records. Actually the format didn't matter all that much because the tapes didn't really contain "Purple Toupee" anyway, being instead old, remaindered 8-tracks to which Bar/None applied They Might Be Giants labels. The mailing, says a Bar None staffer, was a tongue-in-cheek response to the declining fortunes of the vinyl single: if the vinyl single is disappearing, you simply find another format. (The label did send out CD singles of "Purple Toupee" to radio stations.)
A blurb about the Purple Toupee 8-track was featured as a "Did You Know" article on Wikipedia on July 12, 2013[1]:
Did you know... that in a 1989 promotional stunt, Bar/None distributed deprecated, irrelevant 8-track tapes with labels advertising They Might Be Giants' single "Purple Toupee"?
