Every New Zealand #1 single…
1
Mississippi by Pussycat
Topped the NZ chart for 11 weeks from 19 March 1976
‘Mississippi’ is a country song by the Dutch band Pussycat. It pushed Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ off the top of the charts, and was the year’s most successful single. Unfortunately, it’s lame – it makes The Carpenters sound tough.
Pussycat
Toni, Betty, and Marianne were telephone operators in Limburg, the Netherlands. The AllMusicGuide claims their last name was Kowalczyk, while Wikipedia says Veldpaus. They became Zingende Zusjes (the Singing Sisters), singing German-language songs. They joined forces with the band Scum, as well as Toni’s husband Lou Willé on guitar. ‘Mississippi’ was released on their debut album.
Mississippi
Werner Theunissen played in a 1960s band named The Entertainers. He also gave the Kowalczyk sisters guitar lessons. He wrote ‘Mississippi’ to suit their voices in 1969. It was inspired by The Bee Gees’ Massachussetts’. He shelved it, thinking that country was going out of vogue, but it later surfaced on a demo tape and was chosen as the group’s first single in 1975.
It became a huge hit in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. I’d never heard ‘Mississippi’ before the randomiser chose it, surprising for such a large hit. But it sounds like a pale imitation of the cheesiest moments of early ABBA, the Bee Gees, and The Carpenters – it’s too cloying to listen to in one sitting.
The Aftermath
Pussycat enjoyed several more international hits. ‘My Broken Souvenir’ also topped the New Zealand charts. But after that, their appeal became more selective, and they only remained popular in Belgium and The Netherlands.
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This was something I would expect to see on a Saturday evening prime time TV show in the US back then.
It didn’t even chart in the US by the look of it – huge in Europe, Australia, and NZ.
Yeah, not a great song. And like Paper Lace’s “The Night Chicago Died”, it shows what happens when not-American groups/songwriters tried to write about specific US geographical features in the pre-Internet age. “Chicago” refers to the “East Side” which does not exist (there are north, south, and west sides though.) This Pussycat song talks about Greenville, which is in the state of Mississippi, but is not where the mighty river “rolls down to the sea”, as the mouth of said river is in Louisiana, just south of New Orleans. The region known as the “Mississippi Delta”, home of Delta blues, is actually considerably upriver, a broad alluvial plain where the Mississippi meets the Yazoo River. (The actual delta is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta, note the “River”.) I can see where a songwriter not from the area would get that confused!
That’s pretty funny – I don’t know enough about American geography to spot the faux pas, although it feels like the Chicago person was a bit unlucky….
Is it OK to say I enjoy the back story much more than the song? 😅
I gave the song a 1/10, so I think that’s OK to like the backstory better. The only other musical thing I know from Limbourg/Limburg is Brian Eno’s fat lady.
🤣
I covered this on my blog way back. I didn’t hate it, but thought it sounded three or four years too late. It would have fitted in better among cheese like Paper Lace and Tony Orlando in 72-73. In the UK it knocked ‘Dancing Queen’ off #1…
You’re right, it’s a few years too late. I really can’t stand it – it’s a professionally constructed song, but it just feels facile.
This is pretty funny. Not quite “Proud Mary.” And the pedal steel is closer to Nashville than Mississippi (or even the river).
Yes, I think Mississippi was chosen because it rolls off the tongue nicely. It feels pretty facile.
The biggest problem…there is no life to it at all! I’ve heard bad songs that were at least propped up by enthusiasm and I could see why people would like them. This has none…they have good voices but they don’t go anywhere.
It kind of has a school project vibe – write a song about an American location. Sometimes songs get by with a slacker vibe, but that’s clearly not the case here.
Thankfully, I’ve never heard this one. Hard to believe it was such a huge hit in New Zealand, especially given it’s about a state in America, rather than a location in New Zealand that would make it particularly appealing to that country.