Morris Minor and the Majors was a British band from

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, England, formed by the comedians and writers

Tony Hawks Antony Gordon Hawksworth, MBE (born February 27, 1960), known professionally as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author. Early life Born in Brighton, Sussex, Hawks was educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Brighton ...

and Paul Boross. The group became famous with their 1987 song " Stutter Rap", an original song in the style of the then-popular

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

song "

No Sleep till Brooklyn "No Sleep till Brooklyn" is a song by the New York hip hop group the Beastie Boys, and the sixth single from their debut studio album, ''Licensed to Ill''. One of their signature songs, it describes an exhaustive tour and all the events that mak ...

" by the

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. The stage names of the group were 'Morris Minor', 'Rusty Wing' and 'Phil Errup' (real names Tony Hawks and Rotherham stars Paul Boross and Phil Judge). The song reached No. 4 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, No. 14 in Canada and was a No. 2 hit in Australia. It sold over 220,000 copies, but subsequent song releases never had the same popularity or sales, earning them the title

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

s in the United Kingdom; a title which would later inspire Hawks to seek another top 20 hit, albeit in Albania. On the 45 release, the record had a joke

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

titled "Another Boring B-side", the lyrics of which parody the actual creation of the song itself. In Australia, they had a second charting single with "This Is the Chorus" (No. 22), which parodied

Stock/Aitken/Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considered ...

. As a result of the popularity of the song, a television series was created in 1989, titled ''Morris Minor's Marvellous Motors'' and written by and starring Hawks. On the series, the fictional band-leader attempted to maintain his pop music career while running an automotive garage. It ran for just one series and aired on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

Discography

Singles

References

External links

Tony Hawks website
(archived) http://www.thepitchdoctor.tv/ Paul Boross website {{Authority control British pop music groups British comedy musicians British parodists Parody musicians British musical trios Music in Yorkshire Music in South Yorkshire