My first 45: Remembering “Shaddap You Face”

My spouse is the master of a thousand faces and voices. We were joking around in the kitchen today when she said in her best Italian accent, “Shaddap You face”.

I stopped in my tracks.

“You know that song?” I asked.

“What song?” she responded. She really had no idea what I was talking about.

“Shaddap You Face,” I replied.

She still had no idea what I was talking about.

When I was growing up, there was a novelty song my sister told me all about called, “Shaddap You Face”.

The interesting thing is, when I was growing up and heard that song, my spouse was three years old. She had never heard the song, so I told her all about it.

The song
It was 1980, and I really was not listening to music too much. My sister came to the farm and, at some point, I said something that prompted her to say, “Shaddap You face.”

I kind of laughed.

Then she told me about this song she heard on the radio. Playing the same role my spouse did 43 years ago, I said I had never heard of it.

So my sister started singing it. I still had never heard it, but I was intrigued.

Star on 45
Not too much later, I went to Lethbridge with my parents on their weekly Saturday shopping trip. I asked Mom if we could go to “Anglo’s Stereo and Photo”.

It was a store my brother went to a lot when I was growing up. It was loaded with records, and seemed to have pretty much everything – at least to this 10 year old. They even posted the weekly album and singles charts.

On this day, I was looking for this song my sister had sung to me, that sounded kind of interesting. So much so I wanted to hear it for myself, whenever I wanted.

I actually saw the singles chart on the wall, scanned it, and there was “Shaddap You Face”.

That is when I learned it was sung by an artist named Joe Dolce.

Back then, you could buy records called 45s. They were smaller records with one song on each side.

I found “Shaddap You Face” and bought it.

I think it was the first 45 I ever bought.

Spin that disc
My Mom had this old blue and white record player, that I had just begun to learn about. That's where I set about playing my first ever 45.

They were an odd record though. The 45 has a hole in the middle of it quite a bit larger than the hole in a regular album that fits nicely on the turn table. The hole in a 45 is about the diameter of a loonie or so. In order to play it, you need this thing that fits in that hole and reduces down to the size of the pin of the turn table.

The thing everyone used looked like a snow flake and was yellow. It fit perfectly in the middle of a 45 and allowed you to play it.

I had seen a couple of those yellow things around, but had no idea what they were.

Now, I was in search of one to play my first 45.

My Mom kept everything related to the turn table nearby, so I found one of those things, fitted it in and carefully placed the 45 on the turn table.

I pressed a button and the 45 dropped onto the turn table and the record needle dropped on the record.

It took a few seconds, but the music started.

I was finally going to hear that song.

“Shaddap You Face”
My sister did a pretty good job of singing “Shaddap You Face”. It is a novelty song, with a fair bit of talking with singing but it certainly is memorable.

I listened to it again – and again – and again.

You can do that when you own the 45.

“Shaddap You Face” was a bigger hit in Canada, where it peaked at number two, then the United States, where it peaked at number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Parting thoughts
There are a lot of novelty songs out there, such as “The Streak”, “The Monster Mash”, “The Purple People Eater”, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, and “Shaddap You Face”.

What sets “Shaddap You Face” apart, beyond its creativity, is that it was the first 45 that I ever bought.

Now it is also an inside joke between me and my spouse.

What more could you ask for?

(By the way, that yellow thing you put in the centre hole to play a 45 is called a 45 RPM vinyl record adaptor. It’s like the plastic thing on the end of a shoe lace, which is called an aglet.)