You know, the more I work on this site the more I learn about things that exist. Sing Me A Story has probably been the most surprising to me of all the articles here at the Spotlight. I have learned things about old songs via research for this articles that I never would have before. How “Mack The Knife” has ties to an old opera, or “Ghost Riders In The Sky” was inspired by Norse mythology despite a Christian leaning. I found out that “Pass The Dutchie” was based on a drug song but not a drug song itself. I even reassessed “Same Old Lang Syne after learning the song’s origins. It’s a weird journey I have here, and here’s another leg on that trip.
While trying to re-embed videos for my article on the Royal Guardsmen series of songs where Snoopy went up against the Red Baron, YouTube informed me of something I didn’t know. Not only is the band still around, but they actually produced ANOTHER Snoopy song. This time the famed German pilot wasn’t his target, but Osama bin Laden! Charlie Brown I think is even referenced (though a song lyric page I checked out spelled it “Charley” who else would they reference?), which is a first for the Guardsmen trilogy plus two, or now three. I couldn’t find a video with lyrics but I gotta let you guys know this exists if you don’t already. And if you did…why did nobody tell ME?
And then I fall down the rabbit hole because while researching THIS song to make sure it’s the same group (this came out in 2006 after all) I find out two semi-related Snoopy songs were also made by the Royal Guardsmen. In the initial article I looked at the main trilogy, “Snoopy Vs The Red Baron”, “Return Of The Red Baron”, and “Snoopy’s Christmas”, plus the spinoffs “Down Behind The Lines” and “Snoopy For President”. Well apparently there were two more I missed in my research. From 1967, here’s “It’s Sopwith Camel Time”, only related by the Sopwith Camel being the model plane that Snoopy pretended to fly with his doghouse. The song doesn’t seem to be about Snoopy himself but a fan of the plane.
Meanwhile singer Barry Winslow decided to release a song on his own where Snoopy becomes an astronaut. From 1969 “The Smallest Astronaut” has Snoopy supposedly racing the Red Baron to the moon. Because why not at this point?
Oh you just think I’m out of material. I have one more addition to this insanity I would never had heard of if not for all this. Oh yes, this rabbit hole is so long Sasha Wood of Casually Comics couldn’t keep this pace. It turns out that when the Royal Guardsmen first released “Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron”, where this train started, they didn’t have the permission of Charles Schultz (and I doubt he did for the Osama song since he passed away by then), the Canadian arm of Laurie Records refused to release it. And so they had to tweak the song to be able to sell it there until they finally got Schultz’s okay. That led to “Squeaky Vs. The Black Knight”.
Are we done now? Did we get the Royal Guardsmen full interaction with that darn beagle? Or are the remaining members preparing to make me do this again?
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