"Quiet Village" is an orchestral pop

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...

that was written and originally performed by

Les Baxter Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica ...

in 1951 and an instrumental album from 1959 by

Martin Denny Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 – March 2, 2005) was an American pianist and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing up to 3 weeks prior to his death, he toured the world popularizing his brand of ...

. In the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the record sleeve, sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner n ...

to his album, ''

Ritual of the Savage ''Ritual of the Savage'' is an album by American composer Les Baxter, released in 1951 often cited as one of the most important exotica albums. The album featured lush orchestral arrangements along with tribal rhythms and offered such classics as ...

(Le sacre du sauvage)'', Baxter described the themes he was conveying in the work:

Martin Denny version

In the mid-1950s,

and his band performed at a restaurant in

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

, The Shell Bar, and frequently would play Baxter cover songs. One night, while his group was performing, Denny realized bullfrogs were croaking along to the music. As a joke, the band began incorporating frog sounds and birdcalls into the performance. Soon after, people began requesting "the song with the frogs." "They really enjoyed the frogs!" Denny observed. "And they thought we were making those croaking noises. So I understood that this was the way to go." The squawks and jungle sounds in the Martin Denny version of "Quiet Village" were performed by A. Purves Pullen, also known as Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath. In 1957, Denny and his group released a cover of the song featuring exotic instruments and sounds that made it to number four on the pop singles chart on June 1, 1959 and number eleven on the R&B chart. Denny also recorded a stereo version of the song in 1959, a

bossa nova Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...

version in 1964, and a version performed on a

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014 ...

in 1969. He released an album with a similar title (Quiet Village, the Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny) in 1959.

Other cover versions

*In 1955, organist George Wright recorded an arrangement of the song on the former Chicago Paradise five-manual Wurlitzer theatre organ then installed in the home studio of Richard Vaughn. The arrangement made use of real bird calls - actually a recording of a mockingbird slowed down to half-speed which was also used in at least one recording by Arthur Lyman. *In 1959, actress and singer

Darla Hood Darla Jean Hood (November 8, 1931 – June 13, 1979) was an American child actress, best known as the leading lady in the ''Our Gang'' series from 1935 to 1941. She was born in Leedey, Oklahoma, the only child of music teacher Elizabeth Da ...

recorded the first vocal version in the wake of the huge success that

had with his instrumental version. Released on Ray Note Records and credited to Darla Hood & Fabulous Modesto Orch, which was percussionist Modesto Duran's Orchestra. *In 1977,

The Ritchie Family The Ritchie Family are an American vocal group based in Philadelphia that achieved several hits during the disco era. They have reunited and continue to perform. Their latest single "Whatcha Got" was released in 2021. Background The three ori ...

recorded a disco version and added vocals. The single was included on their '' African Queens'' album. Along with the album's title track and "Summer Dance", "Quiet Village" hit number one for three weeks on the disco/dance chart in 1977. However, unlike the Martin Denny version, The Ritchie Family recording did not chart on the pop singles chart. It did peak at #68 on the R&B singles chart. *In 1986, composer

Mark Mothersbaugh Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (; born May 18, 1950) is an American composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, whose " Whip It" was a top 2 ...

incorporated the song and animal sounds into the prelude theme for the

children's television program Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

Pee-wee's Playhouse ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's ...

''. *Influential

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...

artist

Boyd Rice Boyd Blake Rice (born December 16, 1956) is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the ''Partridge Family Temple'' religious group, co-founder of ...

and writer/publisher

Adam Parfrey Adam Parfrey (April 12, 1957 – May 10, 2018) was an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centered on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge. A 2010 ''Se ...

released a comedic version of the song entitled "Quiet Village Idiot" under the moniker "The Tards" in 1993. *In 1991 Guitarist

Danny Gatton Daniel Wood Gatton Jr. (September 4, 1945 – October 4, 1994) was an American virtuoso guitarist who combined blues, rockabilly, jazz, and country to create a musical style he called "redneck jazz". Career Daniel Wood Gatton Jr. was born in ...

recorded a version on the album "88 Elmira Street". This version introduced Les Baxter and Martin Denny's music to a new generation of listeners/musicians.

References

1951 singles 1958 singles 1977 singles The Ritchie Family songs Exotica 1950s instrumentals Pop instrumentals Song recordings produced by Jacques Morali 1951 songs Liberty Records singles {{1950s-pop-song-stub