In 1963, a Swedish instrumental band called The Spotnicks, named of course for the Russian satellite Sputnik, charted in the United Kingdom with a song called “Hava Nagila.”
I’m serious.
It was the Spotnicks’ original drummer Jimmie Nicol who famously rescued the Beatles’ first world in 1964, playing 8 out of 13 shows for an ailing Ringo Starr, and then later filled in for Dave Clark of the DC5 and who, indeed, inspired the Beatles’ song “Getting Better.”
The Spotnicks wore spacesuit outfits on stage. They released 42 albums.
And, on the b-side of a record called “Diamonds,” they covered “Lumpy Gravy.”
Well, actually, they covered “Duodenum” and called it “Lumpy Gravy.” Whatever.