I’d Have $23

Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon passed away last Friday at age 89. When I worked on the oldies station, we’d play his music often. If you are unfamiliar with his music, he was nicknamed “Boom Boom” because of the driving bass drums in his songs. It wasn’t the bass drum that stood out for me, though. It was the annoying “woo” That seemed to happen after every line.

It stood out so much to me that I used to joke on the air, “If I had a dollar for every time he says ‘woo,’ I could probably buy the radio station!” Well, that got me to thinking. “Just how many times does he say that in his hits?” Well, I spent about 10 minutes and I listened to his four biggest hits and counted. Sadly, if I did have a dollar for every “woo,” I’d have $23!

Honestly, I was pretty surprised that the total was such a low number. To me, it always felt like he was “wooing” way more than that! One of the four hits, didn’t have one single “woo!” It breaks down like this:

Way Down Yonder in New Orleans – 3 woos

Palisades Park – 0 woos

Action – 8 woos

Tallahassee Lassie – 12 woos

Oh, and if you are wondering who to blame for the “wooing,” you can blame Dick Clark. Yep. He was part owner of Swan Records, Freddy’s label. He had heard the original version of Tallahassee Lassie and suggested that the song be re-edited and overdubbed to add excitement, by highlighting the pounding bass drum sound and adding hand claps and Freddy’s cries of “woo!”

$23! Unbelievable.