Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1963
The Snake (song)
Buy The Snake (song) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'The Snake'" is a song written and first recorded by civil-rights activist Oscar Brown in 1963, which became a hit single by American singer Al Wilson in 1968.
In the U.S., the hit version of "The Snake" was released in 1968, on Johnny Rivers' Soul City Records. (Rivers had released his own version of the song on his 1966 album '...And I Know You Wanna Dance'). Wilson's single made the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968, and due to exposure on the UK Northern Soul scene made the UK Singles Chart in August 1975 when reissued, reaching number 41 in September. The success of "The Snake" on the northern soul nightclub circuit has led to it being ranked 4 of 500 top northern soul singles and for it to appear on over 30 pop and northern soul compilation albums.
The song was re-released in 1989 as a B-side to a re-release of "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" by The Main Ingredient. Wilson's recording of "The Snake" was also featured in a Lambrini television advertisement in the UK.
Chart history
Use by Donald Trump
The song gained renewed attention during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump read its lyrics at several campaign rallies to illustrate his position on illegal immigration, claiming that the decision to allow people claiming refugee status to enter the United States would "come back to bite us", as happened to the woman who took in the snake in the song. The song has been characterized as "a celebration of black culture and a repudiation of racism", and suggestions have been made that the snake in the song refers to a white person.Rosenberg, Eli, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/24/the-snake-how-trump-appropriated-a-radical-black-singers-lyrics-for-refugee-fearmongering/ "The Snake: How Trump Appropriated a Radical Black Singers Lyrics for Immigration Fearmongering"], 'The Washington Post', February 24, 2018. Two of Brown's seven children asked Trump to stop using their late father's song, telling the media: "He's perversely using 'The Snake' to demonize immigrants" and that Brown "never had anything against immigrants." Despite a cease and desist letter, Trump has continued reciting the lyrics at rallies as recently as June 2021.
See also
* 'The Farmer and the Viper'
References
Buy The Snake (song) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1963