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Whip It
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"Whip It" is the title of a 1980 single by the American synthpop band Devo. It appears on the album Freedom of Choice. There were two 7" single releases of "Whip It", one backed with a remix of the track "Snowball" (which appears on "Freedom of Choice") and one backed with "Turn Around" (a song later covered by Nirvana). "Whip It" was Devo's biggest hit, and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at #3 in Canada in 1980.
funded the music video for "Whip It" with $15,000 USD of their own money.
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Encyclopedia
"Whip It" is the title of a 1980 single by the American synthpop band Devo. It appears on the album Freedom of Choice. There were two 7" single releases of "Whip It", one backed with a remix of the track "Snowball" (which appears on "Freedom of Choice") and one backed with "Turn Around" (a song later covered by Nirvana). "Whip It" was Devo's biggest hit, and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at #3 in Canada in 1980.
Music video
Devo funded the music video for "Whip It" with $15,000 USD of their own money. The main visual of the video, Mark Mothersbaugh whipping the clothes off a woman (Annerose Bücklers), was inspired by an article in a 1962 issue of "Dude" magazine. In an interview for Song Facts, Casale explains "There was a feature article on a guy who had been an actor and fell on hard times, he wasn't getting parts anymore. He moved with his wife to Arizona, opened a dude ranch and charged people money to come hang out at the ranch. Every day at noon in the corral, for entertainment, he'd whip his wife's clothes off with a 12-foot bullwhip. She sewed the costumes and put them together with Velcro. The story was in the magazine about how good he was and how he never hurt her. We had such a big laugh about it, we said, 'OK, that's the basis for the video. We'll have these cowboys drinking beer and cheering Mark on as he's in the barnyard whipping this pioneer woman's clothes off while the band plays in the corral.'"
In the video, Devo wears black, sleeveless turtlenecks, and their famous Energy Dome headgear. When the video begins, all the members, except for Mark Mothersbaugh, wear the turtlenecks pulled over their faces. During the performance, each member lowers the turtleneck. Robert Casale (Bob 2) plays a red Rheem Key Bass, and Alan Myers plays a set of Synare electronic drum pads.
Unsurprisingly, the S&M overtones of the video caused controversy. Devo was forced to abandon a television appearance after the host deemed the video offensive to women. Despite this, "Whip It" received heavy rotation on MTV and Channel (V).
Chart positions
Notes:
- 1 - With "Gates of Steel and "Freedom of Choice."
In the media
A * denotes a cover version being used for that occurrence.
- Used in an early 1980s promo re-recorded by Devo in the Los Angeles KMET (FM) studios: "Crank that dial . . . to the Mighty Met!"
- Played in a mid-1990s commercial for Twix candy bars.
- Played in the 1995 crime film Casino as backing music.
- Covered in the 1995 sci fi series Sliders in the series 1 episode The King Is Back (Sliders).
- Played in a 1999 Pringles commerical.
- Played in the 2003 movie Dumb and Dumberer.*
- Played in the 2004 movie Raising Helen.
- Playable in the 2004 video game Donkey Konga.*
- Played in the 2005 Swiffer Commercial, but with lyric alterations from "You Must Whip It" to "You Need Swiffer."
- The song, as well as the music video, is featured on Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 3 released in 2005.
- Played in a 2006 commercial for the VH1 music video channel. The song is played without vocals and sounds like an early home computer with a one-voice audio chip. The video for the song appears on a monochrome 1980s-vintage monitor and appears to be rendered with aalib.
- The 2006 Game Boy Advance release of Final Fantasy V features a weapon called the whip, whose item description is "Best used when problems come along," a reference to a lyric from the song.
- In a 2007 Jeep commercial, a clip of the music video for "Whip It" is shown with an 80's era Jeep is driving in the background.
- Played in the 2007 series pilot of The Riches
- The Simpsons: Smithers is head of the "Waylon Smithers Dancers" on "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour." He performs a slightly-altered version of Devo's "Whip It" (referring to a "Liquorice Whip") while wearing a pair of very revealing chaps. In a later episode, Homer sings "When you have a rib-eye steak, You must floss it", while flossing his teeth.
- The opening "Crack that whip!" lyric and sound effect is played at the end of a 2007 Taco Bell commercial.
- The Ultimate Bumblebee toy from the Transformers movie toy line plays a sample of "Whip It."
- Beavis and Butt-Head: The title characters watch the video, giving it a positive review. They also mistake singer Mark Mothersbaugh for businessman Ross Perot, with Beavis imitating the latter while quoting the song.
- In the Hannah Montana episode Yet Another Side Of Me, when Oliver suggests for Miley to take up a techno style look for Hannah, she thinks of herself singing a version of Whip It, with alternate lyrics.
- Los Prisioneros made a Spanish cover of Whip It called "Azota" (Whip It in Spanish).
- The song was parodied in an episode of Brand Spanking New Doug by the AV Nerds, who were dressed in similar costumes as the band in the original video.
- An Identical guitar riff was used in an episode of All Grown Up!, a show which Mark Mothersbaugh had contributed music to.
- The Yogman Twins from Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? also dress in a similar fashion to the band in the video.
- A fast-tempo version of "Whip It" was heard in a two-part episode of The Fairly Oddparents.
- On the cartoon website, Homestar Runner, one of the characters, Strong Sad, is dressed as a Devo member as seen in the video as his Halloween costume in 2005. He quotes the song, as though waxing philosophical.
- In the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Dr. Evil does his routine of telling his son, Scott, to shut up in various and twisted ways. Here, he is telling him to "Zip It", and at one point sings the line "When a problem comes along, you must Zip It! *cracks whip* Zip it good!"
External links
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