Our final musician this week is one Domingo Zamudio...better known as Sam the Sham of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Born in Dallas, Texas (1937), Sam took on his trademark loungey robe and turban and named his band the Pharaohs after Yul Brynner's character in The Ten Commandments. In '65, the band had it's biggest hit with "Wooly Bully", which managed to climb the charts in an otherwise British Invasion dominated period. And while "Wooly" remains a bar song classic, it was their other hit, "Li'l Red Riding Hood" that first captured my imagination. On one hand, it's a sort of cute song full of innuendo...but on the other, Sam's method of growling out the lyrics (he adopted the moniker "Sham" as indicative of his vocal ability) along that fat bass line turns it in something creepy and almost otherworldly.
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