Cherry Poppin' Daddies
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The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are an American swing and
ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
band established in
Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...
, in 1989. Formed by singer-songwriter
Steve Perry Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Journey during their most commercially successful periods from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He also wrote/co ...
and bassist
Dan Schmid Daniel Joseph Schmid (born November 22, 1962) is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist and co-founder of the ska-swing music, swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Schmid was also part of the rock duo the Visible Men, and has w ...
, the band has experienced numerous personnel changes over the course of its 30-year history, with only Perry, Schmid and trumpeter
Dana Heitman Dana Conrad Heitman (born January 18, 1966) is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the Eugene, Oregon ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's formation. Biography Heit ...
currently remaining from the original founding lineup. The Daddies' music is primarily a mix of swing and
ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
, contrastingly encompassing both traditional
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
-influenced variations of the genres as well as contemporary rock and
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
hybrids, characterized by a prominent
horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...
and Perry's acerbic and
innuendo An innuendo is a hint, insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion ...
-laced lyricism often concerning dark or political subject matter. While the band's earliest releases were mostly grounded in punk and
funk rock Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer stat ...
, their later studio albums have since incorporated elements from many diverse genres of
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
and
Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
into their sound, including
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
,
rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
,
soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
and world music. Initially drawing both acclaim and controversy as a preeminent regional band, the Daddies gained wider recognition touring nationally within the American ska scene before ultimately breaking into the musical mainstream with their 1997 swing compilation '' Zoot Suit Riot''. Released at the onset of the late 1990s swing revival, ''Zoot Suit Riot'' sold over two million copies in the United States while its eponymous single became a radio hit, launching the Daddies to the forefront of the neo-swing movement. By the end of the decade, however, interest in the swing revival had swiftly declined, along with the band's commercial popularity. The resultant failure of their subsequent album ''
Soul Caddy ''Soul Caddy'' is the fourth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records. Written and recorded after the multi-platinum success of their 1997 compilation '' Zoot Suit Riot'', ''Soul Caddy ...
'' contributed to an abrupt hiatus in 2000. The Daddies officially regrouped in 2002 to resume part-time touring, eventually returning to recording with the independently released '' Susquehanna'' in 2008. Their eleventh album, the punk and ska-influenced ''
Bigger Life ''Bigger Life'' is the ninth studio album and eleventh album overall by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, independently released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records on June 14, 2019. Following three successive swing and jazz alb ...
'', was released in June 2019.


History


Formation

Following his high school graduation in 1981,
Steve Perry Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Journey during their most commercially successful periods from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He also wrote/co ...
left his hometown of
Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...
, for
Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...
, to pursue
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
and a
chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
degree at the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
. A punk rock devotee since adolescence, Perry soon became engrossed in Eugene's underground music scene, where he eventually met and befriended musician and fellow University student
Dan Schmid Daniel Joseph Schmid (born November 22, 1962) is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist and co-founder of the ska-swing music, swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Schmid was also part of the rock duo the Visible Men, and has w ...
. Sharing similar musical ambitions and a mutual disinterest in school, the pair agreed to drop out of college together and start a band, forming the punk trio The Jazz Greats in 1983, which evolved into the Paisley Underground-styled
garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
group Saint Huck, which lasted from 1984 to 1987. As the rise of
grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...
began to phase punk and hardcore out of the Northwest underground by the late 1980s, Perry set out to start a band that stood in defiant contrast to the shoegazing attitude of
alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
, showcasing high energy dance music and Zappa-esque theatricality in an attempt to create something that an audience would react to viscerally instead of passively. Recruiting a
horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...
led by alto saxophonist Brooks Brown, Perry and Schmid formed their latest band Mr. Wiggles – named so after a
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
song – in November 1988, playing their first show in Springfield as part of a
benefit concert A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...
for workers of the Nicolai door manufacturing plant, who were then engaged in a union strike. "My conception of punk", Perry told '' The Rocket'', "was doing whatever the hell you wanted as long as it had vitality and wasn't overly stupid ... something exploratory and experimental", citing influence from genre-bending bands such as
The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
and the
Meat Puppets Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood (guitar/vocals), his brother Cris Kirkwood (bass guitar/vocals), and Derrick Bostrom (drums). The Kirkwood brothe ...
. In their earliest incarnation, Mr. Wiggles played punk-inflected funk and
soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
, though Perry's songwriting soon grew to draw heavily from a newfound interest in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, swing and
rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
, combining punk rock and jazz arrangements in what Perry described was a desire to contemporize American roots music by infusing it with punk energy and using modernist, socially aware lyricism.


Early years (1989–1993)

In 1989, the title of Mr. Wiggles was retired when the band switched to a new name, " Cherry Poppin' Daddies", derived from jive slang the members had overheard on a vintage
race record Race records were 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising various Af ...
. The band played their first show as the Cherry Poppin' Daddies at the W.O.W. Hall in Eugene on March 31. The Daddies sought to differentiate themselves from other Northwest rock bands of the era by having a horn section, featuring outlandish stage theatrics, and encouraging their audiences to dance. As Perry spoke of the Daddies' ideology, "It was our way of saying 'screw you' o alternative rock 'phoniness'... we wanted to have fun, outrageously have a good blast without even thinking about it". Nonetheless, by the end of 1989, the Daddies had built a strong and loyal following within Eugene's
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
, frequently selling out show and gathering critical acclaim." The Daddies recorded their first
demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
''4 From On High'' in July 1989, which included four tracks of
funk rock Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer stat ...
and punk-influenced swing. The cassette sold over 1,000 copies in the Eugene and Portland areas, enabling the band to self-produce their debut LP '' Ferociously Stoned'', released the following year. Fusing punk rock and jazz horns with funk grooves, ''Ferociously Stoned'' drew favorable critical comparisons to contemporaries Faith No More and the
Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk ...
while also becoming a regional best seller. The album set a record for advance sales in Eugene's record stores and remained for over a year on '' The Rockets Northwest Top Twenty list. The album helped expand the Daddies' Northwestern touring reach to as far as Alaska and Los Angeles by 1992.


Controversies and censorship

Cherry Poppin' Daddies' early performances often included flamboyant costumes,
go-go dancers Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...
, phallic stage scenery, prop-heavy skits, or choreographed dance numbers. Perry—then performing under his
mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...
stage persona of "MC Large Drink"—would regularly engage in absurdist shock rock stunts, such as mock
crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
and
flag burning Flag desecration is the desecration of a flag, violation of flag protocol, or various acts that intentionally destroy, damage, or mutilate a flag in public. In the case of a national flag, such action is often intended to make a political poin ...
. One of the band's stage props was known as the "Dildorado" or "The Dildozer", a riding lawnmower modified to look like a human penis that mimicked
ejaculation Ejaculation is the discharge of semen (the ''ejaculate''; normally containing sperm) from the male reproductory tract as a result of an orgasm. It is the final stage and natural objective of male sexual stimulation, and an essential componen ...
by shooting colorful fluids from its tip. The band attracted controversy from
Feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
groups, who condemned the band's performances as pornographic, citing their name and sexually charged lyricism as a promotion of
sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
and
misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
. Perry disputed such claims, defending the controversial elements as misinterpreted satire. In what ''Eugene Weekly'' called "the most hotly discussed topic in the local music scene" and "the Eugene flash point for the growing national debate on
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
nd
free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
", the Daddies experienced controversy which nearly ended their burgeoning career. Vigilante protest groups habitually tore down or defaced the band's posters and sought
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
s against venues that would book the group and even newspapers which gave them a positive review. The Daddies' concerts routinely became sites of organized picketing and, on one occasion, a
bomb threat A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists. History Bomb threat ...
. The band members themselves were frequent recipients of
hate mail Hate mail (as electronic, posted, or otherwise) is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient. Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwise ...
, threats and physical harassment: once, Perry claimed, an irate protester threw a cup of hot coffee in his face as he was walking down the street. The Daddies initially refused to change their name on the grounds of
artistic freedom Artistic freedom (or freedom of artistic expression) can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Gener ...
, but a number of venues refused to book them due to the negative publicity. The band was temporarily banned from the W.O.W. Hall, where they had previously served as
house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...
. The group later bowed to community pressure, and performed under the name "The Daddies", "The Bad Daddies," and similar variations within Eugene, but performed under their original name while touring elsewhere. As the Daddies retired the theatrical elements from their later live shows, the controversies surrounding the band waned and they returned to using their full name everywhere. Some minor complaints resurfaced during their mainstream success in the late 1990s.


National touring and independent success (1994–1996)

Throughout the early 1990s, the Daddies continued to remain a reliably popular and profitable draw in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California club circuit. Despite earning critical accolades from the local music press, including winning ''
SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
''s title of "Best Unsigned Band" in 1994, the Daddies struggled to achieve wider recognition and distribution. Following a number of changes in their member and managerial lineups, the group embarked on their first national tour in the fall of 1994, which was highlighted by a set at the
CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
festival and convention in New York City. Upon returning to Eugene without any advantageous deals, the Daddies instead bought and constructed their own independent
record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
and recording studio, Space Age Bachelor Pad Records, where they self-produced and self-recorded their second studio album, ''
Rapid City Muscle Car ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' is the second studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1994 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records. Overview ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' was structured around the Daddies' desire to create a styli ...
'', which was released in December 1994. Described by Perry as "an idea album" and "very psychedelic", ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' was a distinct departure from the upbeat dance music vibe of ''Ferociously Stoned'', showcasing a diverse range of disparate genres including
ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. (sometimes spelled skacore) is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 tone and ska with hardc ...
,
psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
,
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
,
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
,
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
,
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
and
lounge Lounge may refer to: Architecture * Lounge, the living room of a dwelling * Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby * Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar * Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...
. While Perry has retrospectively cited ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' as his personal favorite Daddies album, he revealed in a 1995 interview with the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' that the album sold "okay" but ultimately didn't surpass sales of ''Ferociously Stoned''. The Daddies began dedicating themselves to full-time touring in 1995, playing over 200 shows across two or three national tours per year, including spots at prominent music festivals such as
South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
. As the band gradually built fanbases and markets around the country, they began attracting interest from several high-profile record labels, among which reportedly included
Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...
and producers including
Roy Thomas Baker Roy Thomas Baker (born 10 November 1946) is an English record producer, songwriter and arranger, who has produced rock and pop and songs since the 1970s. Career Baker began his career at Decca Records at the age of 14 and later worked as an a ...
and
Terry Ellis Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albritton (1955–2005), A ...
. However, when the suggestion or stipulation was made that the Daddies stick to one genre, Perry invariably rejected these offers, not wanting any outside influences controlling the band's sound. In a similar mindset, not wishing to be pigeon-holed into any specific scene or genre, Perry at first refused to tour with ska bands, though after a highly successful and well-received tour with
Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
ska band
Let's Go Bowling Let's Go Bowling is an American third wave ska band hailing from Fresno, California. Since the band's inception in the year 1986, the band's traditional ska style, barbershop harmonies, wisely crafted instrumentals, and its frantic live performa ...
, he acquiesced, and the Daddies eventually carved out a lucrative niche within the national ska scene, forming regular touring partnerships with the likes of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones,
Reel Big Fish Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Orange County, California. The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold-certified album ''Turn the Radio Off''. Soon af ...
and Less Than Jake. While the mainstream's growing focus on punk and ska by the mid-1990s presented the Daddies with further commercial opportunities, Perry still insisted foremost on maintaining complete creative control of the band. In February 1996, the Daddies released their third self-produced studio album on Space Age Bachelor Pad, '' Kids on the Street''. Another musical departure from their previous record, ''Kids on the Street'' was mostly a reflection of the band's growing punk and ska influences, eschewing the Daddies' trademark brassy funk and swing in favor of guitar-driven rock, punk and ska, as well as stylistic detours into jazz and country. Distributed by noted indie label
Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. ...
, ''Kids on the Street'' wound up becoming the Daddies' most successful release at the time, staying on '' The Rocket''s Retail Sales Top Twenty for over seven months and even working its way onto ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s Alternative Charts.


''Zoot Suit Riot'' and major label years (1997–1999)

By late 1996, ska had broken through into the American mainstream as one of the most popular forms of alternative music, catapulting such major label bands as Reel Big Fish and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones into the national spotlight. The Daddies, however, without the support of a record label, were ultimately left on the fringes of commercial visibility. Although ''Kids on the Street'' had sold well for an independent release, the band had continuing difficulty securing press and distribution outside of the Northwest, while the pressure of full-time touring was inevitably becoming both a personal and financial strain on the members. The Daddies experienced at least fifteen lineup changes from 1996 to 1997, including the departure of original keyboardist Chris Azorr and co-founder Dan Schmid, leaving only Perry and trumpeter
Dana Heitman Dana Conrad Heitman (born January 18, 1966) is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the Eugene, Oregon ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's formation. Biography Heit ...
as the sole remnants of the original lineup. Feeling they had finally hit a
glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Full ...
as an independent band, Perry said the Daddies were left with one of two options at this time: either sign to a label or break up. Despite primarily playing ska tours during this turbulent period of their career, the Daddies suddenly began attracting a sizable and enthusiastic audience for their swing music, owing heavily to the coincident public interest in the formerly underground swing revival movement due in part to the success of the 1996 film '' Swingers''. Although the Daddies had occasionally played shows with notable swing revival bands like
Royal Crown Revue Royal Crown Revue was a band formed in 1989 in Los Angeles, California. They have been credited with starting the swing revival movement. Career The band contained Mark and Adam Stern. Other members included Daniel Glass, Scott Steen, James Ac ...
, they were not largely associated with the scene or subculture; when fans regularly began approaching the band's merchandise table asking which of their albums contained the most swing songs, the Daddies realized they lacked an album fully representing their swing side, prompting the band's manager to convince them to compile all of their swing songs onto one CD until they could afford to make a new album, using their available finances to record several bonus tracks for inclusion. The result, '' Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies'', became an unexpectedly popular item as the band went on tour, reportedly selling as many as 4,000 copies a week through their Northwest distributors. While stopped in Los Angeles during another tour together, Reel Big Fish arranged a meeting between their label
Mojo Records Mojo Records was a California-based record label founded in 1995 by producer Jay Rifkin. It became a joint venture with Universal Records in 1996 and then sold to the Zomba Group in 2001, who placed it under their subsidiary Jive Records.
and the Daddies in the hopes of helping the band obtain a
distribution deal A distribution deal (also known as distribution contract or distribution agreement) is a legal agreement between one party and another, to handle distribution of a product. There are various forms of distribution deals. There are exclusive and no ...
for ''Zoot Suit Riot''. Following negotiations between Perry and Mojo, however, the label instead signed the Daddies to a two-album
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...
. ''Zoot Suit Riot'' was licensed and reissued by Mojo and given national distribution in July 1997, less than four months after its original release.


Mainstream breakthrough

As swing music steadily gained commercial momentum throughout 1997, sales of ''Zoot Suit Riot'' increased dramatically; by December, Mojo was moving 12,000 units per week. In January 1998, the label informed the Daddies of their decision to push the album's
title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title. Title track may a ...
as a major single and distribute it among mainstream radio stations. The Daddies, who were beginning work on their next studio album, ardently protested this move, believing that a swing song would never receive airplay and were concerned that the band would end up having to recoup the marketing costs. Mojo nevertheless persisted, and much to the band's surprise, "Zoot Suit Riot" soon found regular rotation on stations such as Los Angeles' influential KROQ-FM, helping establish swing music in the mainstream and leading to its eventual commercial breakthrough, with the Daddies at the forefront. By mid-1998, the Daddies had emerged as one of the most successful bands of the swing revival: after climbing to number one on ''Billboards
Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
, ''Zoot Suit Riot'' became the first album of the swing revival to crack the Top 40 on the ''Billboard'' 200, peaking at number 17 and spending an ultimate total of 53 weeks on the charts. In June 1998, the album had sold 500,000 copies in the United States, going on to surpass sales of 1.4 million by August.RIAA – Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved March 9, 2010
Suddenly finding themselves in hot demand, the Daddies immediately started touring again. Spending the majority of 1998 and 1999 on the road, the band were now playing close to 300 shows a year, carrying out both headlining and supporting tours of the United States while traveling internationally as one of the headliners on the 1998
Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...
beside Rancid, NOFX and
Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilitie ...
. By this time, the group's touring conditions had greatly improved, thus enticing Dan Schmid – who had originally left the band due to health concerns – to return as the Daddies' bassist at Perry's request. Although the Daddies were experiencing commercial success under the guise of swing revivalists, having been declared the "leaders" of the movement by ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', the band openly contested being labeled a
retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...
act at the exclusion of their dominant ska and punk influences and modernist lyricism. While still vocal supporters of both the swing revival and its bands, the Daddies adamantly tried to disassociate themselves from the swing scene and in particular its
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
-based mentality: Perry explained to '' Spin'' in July 1998, "it's not our mission to be a swing band. I'm not a guy from the '40s. That's why we play ska and use heavy guitars", noting elsewhere "I can't fully take us out of the retro classification, but we harp on the fact that we're contemporary music". Thusly, the Daddies avoided touring with swing bands, selecting
Latin rock Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...
group
Ozomatli Ozomatli is an American rock band, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and incorporating a wide array of musical styles – including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, hip hop, and others. The group ...
and ska/soul band
The Pietasters The Pietasters are an American eight-piece ska/soul band from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia. History In 1990, Stephen Jackson and Chris Watt met at Virginia Tech, through mutual friend Tal Bayer, who was ...
as support on their first headlining U.S. tour, and opening for Argentine rock band
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is an Argentine ska band from Buenos Aires. Background and style Formed in 1985, they released their first album, ''Bares y Fondas'' (Bars and Boardinghouses), in 1986 and have since released fourteen more albums. They ...
on their 1998 North American tour. At one point, the Daddies attempted to arrange a tour with Primus which never materialized; said Perry, "I know there are people who come to our shows who'd like nothing more than for us to play swing 24/7 ... there are plenty of bands who want to be swing bands and swing bands only. We're trying to find the audience who'll let us write songs and just be who we are". During the height of the Daddies' popularity, Perry found the band's mainstream notoriety was causing an alienating effect on his personal life, claiming it to have negatively changed his relationships with friends and even subjected him to occasional heckling from strangers who recognized him in public. He would later recall, "It's a total cliché, but
ame #REDIRECT AME {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
doesn't make you happy. There's a lot missing. Success has given people the right to yell at me on the street, but I don't really feel like it's given me any dignity". Already feeling burnt out from the Daddies' constant touring, Perry's frustration was only exacerbated by the media's persistent dismissal of the Daddies as a retro novelty act, though he later claimed to have felt pressured to maintain the image due to audience and media expectations. When the band began to face criticism and accusations of
selling out "Selling out", or "sold out" in the past tense, is a common expression for the compromising of a person's integrity, morality, authenticity, or principles by forgoing the long-term benefits of the collective or group in exchange for personal gai ...
from their Northwest fanbase, the Daddies fought to further push themselves away from their mainstream typecasting: in a 1999 interview, responding to their place in the swing scene, Perry retorted " e'llunapologetically play ska right in the face of people who want to hear swing". ''Zoot Suit Riot'' had sold over two million copies in the United States by the time the swing revival's mainstream popularity had declined, finally slipping off the charts in January 2000. With their touring schedule finally coming to a close, the Daddies commenced work on their next studio album.


''Soul Caddy'' and mainstream decline (2000)

In the fall of 1999, the Daddies returned to the studio to record their fourth album, ''
Soul Caddy ''Soul Caddy'' is the fourth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records. Written and recorded after the multi-platinum success of their 1997 compilation '' Zoot Suit Riot'', ''Soul Caddy ...
''. A loose concept album reflecting Perry's disillusionment over the cultural zeitgeist and his experience with fame - as he described it, a "bittersweet" record about "being alienated and hoping to connect" - ''Soul Caddy'' marked a continuation of the band's musically varied format, intended to introduce a truer perspective of the Daddies' sound and personality to both their swing-based fans and a wider audience. Drawing from the rock and pop of the 1960s and 1970s, ''Soul Caddy'' interwove swing and ska with
glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...
,
soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
,
psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...
,
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
and funk. Despite allowing the Daddies creative control over its production, Mojo's response to ''Soul Caddy'' was considered tepid at best. Claiming that the new material was not like "the Cherry Poppin' Daddies people know and love", the label did little to promote neither the album nor its glam-styled single " Diamond Light Boogie", at one point releasing the latter without the band's name on it, allegedly due to hesitancy over marketing a rock single from a band primarily known for swing music. With virtually no publicity behind it, ''Soul Caddy'' was quietly released in October 2000. Met by a public largely unaware of the Daddies' eclectic background, ''Soul Caddy'' was received negatively by both fans and critics, one of the more prevalent criticisms being its lack of swing tracks. Some reviewers chastised the band for what was being seen as an abandonment of their swing "roots" in favor of a trendier sound, while a few criticized the Daddies' entire musical aesthetic —
UGO Ugo is the Italian form of Hugh, a widely used name of Germanic origin. Its diminutive form is Ugolino. It is also a Nigerian Igbo first name. It may refer to: People * Vgo (stonemason), medieval stonemason * Ugo Bassi, a Roman Catholic prie ...
's ''Hip Online'' stated bluntly, "covering five or six genres on one album is just insane". The ''
Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media. The offices of the ''Dai ...
'' placed ''Soul Caddy'' on their list of the 10 worst albums of 2000, the reviewer wondering what made a swing band "think it could get away with an album of recycled psychedelic pop". Despite some moderate critical praise including a glowing review from
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, who called the album's "impressively surprising" array of sounds "refreshing coming from a band who was assumed to be generic retro swing", ''Soul Caddy'' failed to achieve the chart success or commercial attention of its predecessor. The Daddies' accompanying national tour fared just as poorly, showing a marked decline in attendance while audiences reacted unfavorably towards the band's decreased focus on playing swing music. Speaking retrospectively in a 2002 interview, Perry recalled "we went out on tour and most people saw us as a swing band because of the success of ''Zoot Suit Riot''...we felt this tension to be something we weren't". Facing low ticket sales and their own dissatisfaction over the tour's outcome, the Daddies brought their scheduled tour to an early close, reaching a mutual decision upon taking an indefinite hiatus in December 2000. "A lot of it was just fatigue", Perry explained, "We'd be on the road for a long time and we had no life outside of Cherry Poppin' Daddies. I think everybody was interested in doing other things". The Daddies were released from Mojo shortly thereafter, though guitarist Jason Moss would later comment that the band were kicked "to the curb" after ''Soul Caddy''s poor commercial performance.


Hiatus and limited touring (2001–2006)

With nearly a decade of full-time band activity come to a rest, the Daddies parted ways to pursue other musical endeavors, remaining active in various local bands. Most notably, Perry and Moss started the theatrical
glam punk Glam punk is a term used retrospectively to describe a short-lived trend for bands which produced a form of proto-punk that incorporated elements of glam rock, initially in the early to mid-1970s. History Glam punk has been seen as a backlash to ...
group White Hot Odyssey, releasing an album on
Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, an ...
in 2004 before disbanding the following year, while Schmid and keyboardist Dustin Lanker formed the piano rock trio
The Visible Men The Visible Men are an American pop band formed in 1999, consisting of Dustin Lanker (vocals, keyboards), Dan Schmid (bass guitar), Jordan Glenn (drums) and later Jimi Russel (guitar). Biography The Visible Men initially formed in the fall of ...
, recording two studio albums and touring extensively until their own disbandment in 2007. Around this time, Schmid also toured as bassist for
Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
frontman Black Francis band, recording on his 2007 album '' Bluefinger'' as well as recording on
Pete Yorn Peter Joseph Yorn (born July 27, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first gained international recognition after his debut record, '' Musicforthemorningafter'', was released to critical and commercial acclaim in 2001. He is ...
s Francis-produced self-titled album in 2010. Lanker later joined California ska punk band the
Mad Caddies The Mad Caddies (or the Caddies) are a ska punk band from Solvang, California, United States. The band formed in 1995 and has released seven full-length albums, one live album, and two EPs. To date, Mad Caddies have sold over 500,000 albums wo ...
as a touring member, eventually becoming a permanent member in 2013. Drummer Tim Donahue, after a stint with The Visible Men, worked as a
session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
, recording on albums for artists including
TobyMac Toby McKeehan (born Kevin Michael McKeehan; October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac or TOBYMAC), is an American contemporary Christian music singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He was first known f ...
and
Shawn McDonald Shawn Michael McDonald (born September 4, 1977) is a Contemporary Christian music (CCM) singer, songwriter and guitarist. Childhood As a child, McDonald lived with his grandparents because his parents could not take care of him. Not really un ...
and playing in
Yngwie Malmsteen Yngwie Johan Malmsteen ( ; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning ov ...
s band for his 2001 European tour. Over the next few years, all Daddies activity was put on further hold as the members returned to their family lives and full-time jobs, while Perry chose to resume his education at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2004 with a
B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in
molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
. In February 2002, after over a year without playing, the Daddies ended their hiatus by headlining at The Festival at Sandpoint in
Sandpoint, Idaho Sandpoint (Kutenai language: kamanqukuⱡ) is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho. Its population was 8,639 at the 2020 census. Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest products, light manufacturing, ...
, which was followed by a series of sporadic appearances at various music festivals throughout the Northwest. Despite the sudden resurgence of activity, the band resolutely announced no future plans for recording new material or undertaking any extensive tours. Favoring a change of pace from their formerly intensive touring habits, the Daddies began scheduling their performances entirely around the band members' desire and personal availability, playing as few as eight to ten shows a year and limiting their appearances largely to Northwest shows or commissions for one-off "swingin' hits" concerts at various festivals and venues across the United States.


''Susquehanna'' and return to independent label (2006–2009)

Following four years of relative inactivity as the band maintained their relaxed touring pace, Perry began writing material for a new Daddies album in early 2006, claiming to have come to the realization of a cathartic reliance on songwriting. In an April 2006 radio interview, he confirmed that the band was in preparation to record a new studio album, noting that the music would cover new territory for the Daddies, drawing heavily on
tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
elements. Throughout the fall of 2006, the band carried out several small tours throughout the United States, where much of this new material was debuted. Self-produced and recorded in Eugene during the summer of 2007, the Daddies' fifth album, '' Susquehanna'', was released via digital download exclusively through the band's website in February 2008, receiving a limited CD release several months later. Taking the shape of a narrative concept album which Perry detailed as a portrait of "various relationships in decay", ''Susquehanna'' featured prominent strains of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
-influenced music, incorporating flourishes of
flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
,
Latin rock Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...
and
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
into the band's traditional fare of swing and ska. While its low-profile
DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
release went mostly unnoticed by the mainstream media, response from internet-based publications ranged from mixed to positive, with reviewers once again polarized over the album's eclectic blend of genres. The Daddies embarked on another full-length tour in support of ''Susquehanna'' in mid-2008, followed by a headline tour of Europe, their first visit to the continent since 1998. In July 2009, the Daddies announced having signed to independent label
Rock Ridge Music Rock Ridge Music is an independent record label and artist management company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 2004, it has signed, managed, and/or promoted artists including Reel Big Fish, Sister Hazel, Rachel Platten, Matthew Perryman ...
for the release and national distribution of two albums, a re-issue of ''Susquehanna'' and '' Skaboy JFK: The Skankin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies'', a compilation of the band's ska material culled from their first five albums. Perry explained that fans had been suggesting the concept of a ska collection for years, and that such an album might help show a different side of the Daddies than the "swing band" persona they're generally recognized for. ''Skaboy JFK'' was released in September 2009 to a largely positive critical reception, followed by further touring into 2010, taking the Daddies back across Europe and the United States, as well as appearing alongside
Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the lat ...
and
The Black Seeds The Black Seeds are a reggae inspired musical group from Wellington, New Zealand.Campbell-Livingston, Cecelia (2013)The Black Seeds, rooted in reggae, '' Jamaica Observer'', 27 November 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013 Their rocksteady song "O ...
at the 11th Victoria Ska Fest in
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, where the band played the first all-ska set of their career.


''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'' (2010–2013)

Shortly after the release of ''Skaboy JFK'', Perry already began announcing plans for the Daddies' next studio album, revealing the band would be returning to swing music for their first all-swing album since ''Zoot Suit Riot''. Initial production on the album, titled '' White Teeth, Black Thoughts'', began in March 2011, though lasted infrequently throughout the year as the Daddies continued to carry out several more successful international tours, including two separate sold-out tours of Australia in 2011 and 2012. During this time, the band experienced major changes within their touring lineup after longtime keyboardist Dustin Lanker departed the group in 2012, prompting the Daddies to decide to continue touring without a live keyboardist. Several months later, trombonist Joe Freuen was added to the band, marking the first time the Daddies had ever included a full-time trombone player in their official lineup. In mid-2012, Perry finally elaborated on the production status of the new album, revealing that the band had written enough material to release ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'' as a
double album A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...
, consisting of the main all-swing album and a bonus disc of "
Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
"-influenced rock songs in styles including
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
,
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
, bluegrass and
western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...
, the latter disc featuring guest appearances from accordionist
Buckwheat Zydeco Stanley Dural Jr. (November 14, 1947 – September 24, 2016), better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music gro ...
on a
zydeco Zydeco ( or , french: Zarico) is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. Al ...
song and former
Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...
guitarist
Zoot Horn Rollo Bill Harkleroad (born January 8, 1949), known professionally as Zoot Horn Rollo, is an American guitarist. He is best known for his work with Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. In 2003, he was ranked No. 62 in a ''Rolling Stone'' magazi ...
on a
psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...
track. On June 20, 2012, the Daddies launched a
PledgeMusic PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...
campaign to help finance the final stages of the album's production, successfully reaching its target on August 14 and continuing to collect pledges into the following year, ultimately raising 133% of its goal. Preceded by the release of two singles and music videos for the songs " I Love American Music" and "The Babooch", ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'' was released independently on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records on July 16, 2013. Following the low-key DIY release and promotion of ''Susquehanna'' and ''Skaboy JFK'', the Daddies worked to heavily publicize ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'', receiving coverage by major news outlets including ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' and ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'', while the band later appeared on the
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
-owned
KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...
program ''
Good Day L.A. ''Good Day L.A.'' is an American morning television news and entertainment program airing on KTTV (channel 11), a Fox owned-and-operated television station in Los Angeles, California, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corpo ...
'' to perform "I Love American Music", their first major television appearance since the 1990s. Despite not experiencing any chart success, the album received generally positive critical reviews, and the Daddies carried out a brief fifteen-city tour of the United States during the summer. In January 2014, it was announced that the
Eugene Ballet Eugene Ballet is an American ballet company based in Eugene, Oregon. A resident company of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, it performs a repertoire of full-length classical ballets, and operates a ballet academy. For more than 20 years, ...
had collaborated with the Daddies for production entitled ''Zoot Suit Riot'', a dance show set to the music of and featuring live accompaniment from the band, featuring choreographed dance routines set to thirteen of the Daddies' songs, ranging from their biggest swing hits to their lesser-known rock, pop and psychedelic songs. ''Zoot Suit Riot'' played at Eugene's
Hult Center for the Performing Arts The Hult Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts venue in Eugene, Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. The Hult Center is located downtown on Willamette Street between 6th & 7th Avenues, adjacent to the AJ Capital Partners, Graduate Eugene (previou ...
on April 12 and 13, 2014.


Cover albums and ''Zoot Suit Riot: 20th Anniversary Edition'' (2014–2018)

During the initial writing and recording period of ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'', the Daddies began playing select shows billed as "The Cherry Poppin' Daddies Salute the Music of the Rat Pack", playing an equal mix of the band's own swing songs as well as covers of songs popularized by the "Rat Pack" of
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
,
Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...
and Sammy Davis, Jr. In a July 2013 interview with ''Billboard'' magazine, Perry revealed that the band had concurrently recorded a
tribute album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...
featuring these songs and would be releasing it after touring behind ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts''. '' Please Return the Evening — the Cherry Poppin' Daddies Salute the Music of the Rat Pack!'' was released on July 29, 2014, promoted by music videos for the album's covers of the Sinatra staples " Come Fly with Me" and "
Fly Me to the Moon "Fly Me to the Moon", originally titled "In Other Words", is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions ...
". The following December, Perry expressed plans on the Daddies' official
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page to further explore the band's swing and jazz influences with another cover album, this time centered on the hot jazz of the
Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...
era of the 1920s and 1930s. Production on what would eventually be entitled ''
The Boop-A-Doo ''The Boop-A-Doo'' is the eighth studio album and tenth album overall by American ska- swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on January 22, 2016 by Space Age Bachelor Pad Records. The second in a planned trilogy of cover albums intende ...
'' began in Spring 2015 in Eugene, utilizing vintage recording techniques as well as the use of pre-1940s instruments to achieve an authentic jazz-era sound. ''The Boop-A-Doo'' was released on January 22, 2016, promoted by a music video for the 1930
Eubie Blake James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote '' Shuffle Along'', one of the first B ...
/ Andy Razaf song "That Lindy Hop", directed by Perry. Initially, the Daddies announced that ''Please Return the Evening'' and ''The Boop-A-Doo'' would comprise two parts of a planned trilogy of cover albums designed to showcase the band's swing and jazz influences. Although Perry revealed in a November 2016 interview that the Daddies' third volume of cover songs would focus on either
western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...
or a Babs Gonzales/"
beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...
"-style
bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
, as of March 2019, there have been no further updates on the status of this album. During this period, Perry was also occupied with the task of remixing and remastering the Daddies' ''Zoot Suit Riot'' compilation, having re-obtained the rights from Jive Records in 2014. Speaking on the project, he lamented that production of ''Zoot Suit Riot'' had been rushed and that only first takes had been used, noting that there could have been "2 or 3 more" takes of the songs "if we had known the future back in 1996", noting "after 25 years f the band I would like to make the record sound a little better". ''Zoot Suit Riot: The 20th Anniversary Edition'' was released on CD and vinyl on January 13, 2017, featuring five bonus live tracks recorded during the band's 1998 tours. In promotion of the album's re-release, the Daddies played select dates throughout the country, performing the album in its entirety.


''Bigger Life'' (2019–present)

While the Daddies dedicated most of the 2010s to playing and recording swing and jazz music, Perry first revealed in a 2014 interview with ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' that he had started writing new non-swing songs for the next original Daddies album, describing his ambitions of making a "
psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...
/ Zappa/'' American Idiot''/ R. Crumb type record that paints a picture of the American socio political scene", emphasizing his desire to experiment with rockabilly and
roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...
. Over the next four years, Perry gave sporadic updates on Twitter and in interviews on the development of this new album of originals, describing it in 2016 as "a little like ''Ferociously Stoned 2''", featuring a primary emphasis on rock and funk, and then later in 2017 as "swing-ska-rockabilly-psychobilly". Production on the album began in late 2017, and on May 8, 2018, Perry announced on Twitter that the mixing process had begun on the finished product, now titled ''
Bigger Life ''Bigger Life'' is the ninth studio album and eleventh album overall by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, independently released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records on June 14, 2019. Following three successive swing and jazz alb ...
''. On March 12, 2019, the Daddies premiered the first single and music video from ''Bigger Life'' on their YouTube channel, a ska punk song entitled "Gym Rat", later followed by two additional singles and music videos for the songs "Diesel PunX", a rockabilly-styled song influenced by the science fiction sub-genre of dieselpunk, and the Celtic punk/ folk punk-influenced "Yankee Pride". ''Bigger Life'' was released on CD and vinyl on June 14, which was celebrated with a show at Eugene's W.O.W. Hall the same day, where the Daddies debuted a new stage show focusing exclusively on the band's repertoire of ska and ska-punk songs, a set they continued to perform at select shows and festivals, including the 2019 Victoria Ska Fest. The Daddies had been scheduled to perform as part of the Supernova International Ska Festival located in Virginia in June 2020, though the festival was ultimately canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. On January 31, 2020, the Daddies released the standalone single "Faux Nice, Mock Fancy", a glam rock-styled song recorded during the ''Bigger Life'' sessions. In a Facebook post announcing the single, Perry detailed that he planned to release various unreleased songs as singles throughout the year as he started work on new material. This started with the single and video release of "Platform Shoes", another glam rock-styled song from the deluxe edition of ''White Teeth, Black Thoughts'', in mid-March and a cover of Canadian rock band
The Kings The Kings are a Canadian rock band formed in 1977 in Oakville, Ontario. They are best known for their 1980 song "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide", which was a hit in the United States and Canada. Recording history The Kings were formed in ...
1980 hit "Switchin' to Glide" in mid-May. In an October 2022 interview, Perry revealed that he had spent much of the pandemic writing three albums worth of original material, including an all-swing album, a ska-pop-funk album and a psychobilly album.


Musical style and lyricism

The Daddies are generally classified as a swing and/or
ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
band by the media, and their music is largely composed of various interpretations of both genres, ranging from traditional jazz and
big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
-influenced forms to modernized rock and punk
fusions Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nuc ...
. During their commercial breakthrough in the 1990s, critics conceived terms such as "punk swing", "power swing" and "big band punk rock" to describe the Daddies' unique approach to these fusions, mixing "the propulsion of swing beats and rabbit-punch bursts of brass with grimy rebel-rock guitars to give the jumpin' jive sound a much-needed facelift". ''
The Pacific Northwest Inlander ''Inlander'', officially ''The Pacific Northwest Inlander'', is a free weekly newspaper published in Spokane, Washington, and circulated throughout the Inland Northwest, covering local news and culture. It is published in print and online every T ...
'' wrote of this style in 1994, "atop the swing of the band's jazz you can hear strains of
Parliament-Funkadelic Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive fu ...
, crumbs of barrelhouse rhythm and blues, snippets of ska, and huge whiffs of in-your-face punk rock", likening the Daddies to "
Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...
-meets-
Johnny Rotten John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and aga ...
, or the
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
Orchestra pumped up on steroids and caffeine". The Daddies themselves used to facetiously classify their music as "swing-core", exemplified by the fast
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
s and frequent use of
guitar distortion Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...
in their swing material, as well as " third wave swing", owing to their prominent ska influence. In recent years, however, Perry has dismissed attempts to apply labels to the Daddies' music, often casually describing them in vaguer terms as "a rock band with horns" or "a dance band that uses jazz a bit". Perry has compared the Daddies' style of musical eclecticism with that of
Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1979, that plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the lat ...
,
Mink DeVille Mink DeVille was a rock band founded in 1974, known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York's CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985, afte ...
and
Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and written material for in the ye ...
, while also citing major influence from
The Specials The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English Two-tone (music genre), 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall (singer), Terr ...
and
Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera ...
, as well as from Fletcher Henderson,
Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, Mi ...
and Duke Ellington on his composing and arrangements. Alongside the constants of swing, ska, and on earlier recordings, funk, each of the Daddies' studio albums feature a collective assortment of varied and often diametrically opposed genres of music. Some of the musical styles the band has experimented with include
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
,
disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
,
Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...
,
flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
,
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
,
glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...
,
hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...
,
jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...
,
lounge Lounge may refer to: Architecture * Lounge, the living room of a dwelling * Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby * Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar * Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...
,
psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...
,
rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
,
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
,
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
, soca,
soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
,
western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...
and
zydeco Zydeco ( or , french: Zarico) is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. Al ...
. As opposed to playing fusions, the Daddies perform each genre separately, contrasting one style against another so that the album's musical texture continually changes. Perry has explained that the group's " detournement" of using vastly different genres is both a means for band experimentation and evolution beyond their typically swing and ska-oriented live shows, as well as an artistic choice, lending each song a distinctive musical personality and using certain genres to effectively fit – or ironically contradict – the tone of the lyrics.


Lyrical

Steve Perry is the Daddies' sole lyricist, and writes the majority of his songs in a fictional
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
format he credits as being influenced by
Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...
,
Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother Dave on lead guitar and backing voc ...
and
Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...
, often told about or through the unreliable perspective of downtrodden characters struggling against adversity. Recurring themes in the Daddies' lyrics include sex, death,
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
life,
class consciousness In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that a person holds regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests. According to Karl Marx, it is an awareness that is key to ...
,
alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
, family dysfunction,
loneliness Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...
and social alienation, frequently utilizing humor and
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
. Perry often incorporates commentary on contemporary American politics into his music, such as addressing issues relating to the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
on 2013's '' White Teeth, Black Thoughts'' and exploring themes of race and class during the
Donald Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory o ...
on 2019's ''
Bigger Life ''Bigger Life'' is the ninth studio album and eleventh album overall by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, independently released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records on June 14, 2019. Following three successive swing and jazz alb ...
''. ''
The Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...
'' has described Perry's lyrics as "ribald ndoften despairing", " robingthe underbelly of society, stabbing at oppressors such as ... the pressure to conform", while ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' has lauded them as "vivid poetry" containing "an inventiveness missing from most of the other swing bands' lyrics". The Daddies have often been criticized for their seeming juxtaposition of lurid subject matter and
profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
with jazz and swing music, though Perry has defended the band's predilection towards "darker" lyricism and visuals, calling to attention his interest in the era's
film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
and
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
artistic movements. A prominent example of this includes the two
music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
for the Daddies' hit single "Zoot Suit Riot", which – in addition to being written about the 1943 race riots – both featured pervasive
surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
imagery inspired by the films of
Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...
, specifically his 1929 short ''
Un Chien Andalou ''Un Chien Andalou'' (, ''An Andalusian Dog'') is a 1929 French silent short film directed by Luis Buñuel, and written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. Buñuel's first film, it was initially released in a limited capacity at Studio des Ursuline ...
''. "We wanted to be darker, weirder and stranger", Perry stated in a 2012 interview, "and unfortunately, with other
wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...
bands it was 'Back then everyone dressed nice and was nice'. That's not true. You don't know anything about that era at all". Most of the Daddies' studio albums are written to varying extents as
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
s, featuring either recurring lyrical themes or an abstract narrative. According to Perry, this lyrical interconnectedness is intended as means of providing an album with threads of thematic stability against wildly varying musical styles.


Reception, criticism and influence

In their native Oregon, the Daddies have been called "a Northwest institution", having been inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2009. ''
The Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...
'' has credited the band with shaping Eugene's alternative musical culture in the 1990s, while ''
Eugene Weekly ''Eugene Weekly'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon. The paper, published every Thursday, has a circulation of 39,850. It publishes an annual "Best of Eugene" list, a restaurant guide ("Chow!"), and special section ...
'' added likewise, "when some people think of the Northwest music scene, they think of
grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...
. If you're a Eugenean, however, you might think of swing, thanks to heCherry Poppin' Daddies". Seattle's '' The Rocket'' commented on the band's influence in 1997, stating " e Daddies were busting out the swing before the
Squirrel Nut Zippers Squirrel Nut Zippers is an American swing and jazz band formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by James "Jimbo" Mathus (vocals and guitar), Tom Maxwell (vocals and guitar), Katharine Whalen (vocals, banjo, ukulele), Chris Phillips (dru ...
, stirring cocktails before
Combustible Edison Combustible Edison was an American neo- lounge music group founded in the early 1990s in Providence, Rhode Island. They were one of several lounge acts that led a brief resurgence of interest in the genre during the mid-1990s. Unlike other bands ...
and skating the ska before Sublime ... the band shakes out an incredible variety of sounds with peerless verve and polish." Together with the controversies surrounding the early years of their career, the band have also attracted a fair amount of professional criticism in their home state. ''
The Portland Mercury ''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''. Contributors and staff Editor-in-chief: Wm. Steven ...
'' have been frequent detractors of the Daddies, deriding them as "at best, an edgeless recycle of a rather particular musical fashion movement; at worst, a self-conscious parody of the genre they purport to love", while the ''
Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history ''Willame ...
'', in an article detailing the band's polarizing reception, described the negative consensus of the Daddies as "an annoying white-boy funk rock band who, seeing the opportunity, milked the swing revival for all it was worth". Jazz critic and author
Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.Allmusic Biography/ref> Biography Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles an ...
vociferously criticized the band as the choice "whipping boy for the Retro Swing movement" in his 2000 book ''Swing!'', writing them off as "a punk rock band who has chosen to masquerade as Swing, at least until a better fad comes along", spotlighting the Daddies' "mediocre" rhythm section and profane lyricism as a case for making them "a band to avoid". The Daddies are more widely recognized, however, as one of the first bands to revive swing music in the musical mainstream, helping spearhead the swing revival of the late 1990s which paved the way for the larger successes of
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from Southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played at the Super Bowl XXXIII ha ...
and the
Brian Setzer Orchestra The Brian Setzer Orchestra (sometimes known by its initials BSO) is a swing and jump blues band formed in 1990 by Stray Cats frontman Brian Setzer. In 1998, for their breakout album '' The Dirty Boogie'', the group covered Louis Prima's " Jump, ...
. Although the Daddies have been cited as an influence on
ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. (sometimes spelled skacore) is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 tone and ska with hardc ...
bands the
Mad Caddies The Mad Caddies (or the Caddies) are a ska punk band from Solvang, California, United States. The band formed in 1995 and has released seven full-length albums, one live album, and two EPs. To date, Mad Caddies have sold over 500,000 albums wo ...
and Spring Heeled Jack U.S., ''
SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'' once claimed the group has "never gotten the accolades it deserves" for their eclectic funk-ska repertoire. The ''
Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue ...
'' expressed similar sentiments, listing the "woefully unsung" Daddies as among the bands that defined the Northwest's "alternative to
alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...
", " eliveringrock with more complexity than three-chord guitar riffs and social critique without heavy-handed cynicism". In a 2008 retrospective feature posted on RollingStone.coms The Capri Lounge, a blog run by the editors of ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine, the Daddies were declared as "one of the most misunderstood bands of the nineties".


Band name

The Daddies have also retained a more ignominious recognition for their off-color band name which has persisted beyond the initial controversies which pegged the band's early years. The Daddies frequently appear on lists of the worst band names of all time, including those by ''
Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'', the ''
Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...
'', the ''
Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Pos ...
'', and VH1, the last of which called it "quite possibly the most offensive band name ever, made all the more ridiculous by the fact that these outwardly bragging virgin-sexers had a completely innocuous mainstream hit song". A 2009 issue of ''
Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...
'' magazine placed the Daddies in third place in a bracket chart of the worst band names, while in 2013, ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' included the Daddies on their list of "The Thirteen Dumbest Band Names in Rock History", noting that the
incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...
uous interpretation of the name is "the last thing anyone wants to visualize while listening to music". Steve Perry has expressed ambivalence about the name's controversy, conceding it's "probably the most heinous name in the history of rock" though also trying to contextualize it within the band's roots in the 1980's Pacific Northwest punk rock scene: in a 2020 interview, he explained "it's a lot harder to understand the name now that the counter-cultural mentality has faded, but in that time, the idea was you wanted to choose a band name that would attract other punk rock kids and keep others at bay". In a 2000 interview, he further detailed the contrast between the Daddies' name and their unexpected breakthrough into the wider cultural mainstream, saying "Pop culture is trying to offend no one. We didn't come out of that; we came from the loyal opposition. We came out of the punk movement. How can I deny that? I started this band a long time ago, and we just used
he name He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
We didn't know that in 10 years we'd turn into some sort of happy, peppy, feel-good things." Although Perry has occasionally voiced regret over not having changed the Daddies' name early in their career, he has more recently come to embrace the controversy around the name as his "
Holden Caulfield Holden Caulfield (identified as "Holden Morrisey Caulfield" in the story "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" , and "Holden V. Caulfield" in ''The Catcher In The Rye'') is a fictional character in the works of author J. D. Salinger. He's most famous ...
red hunting hat - a badge of honor", dismissing critics who choose to demonize the name based on literal interpretation than the jazz-era jive slang it drew from as "outrage addicts".


Discography

Studio albums * '' Ferociously Stoned'' (1990) * ''
Rapid City Muscle Car ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' is the second studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released in 1994 on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records. Overview ''Rapid City Muscle Car'' was structured around the Daddies' desire to create a styli ...
'' (1994) * '' Kids on the Street'' (1996) * ''
Soul Caddy ''Soul Caddy'' is the fourth studio album by American band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on October 3, 2000 by Mojo Records. Written and recorded after the multi-platinum success of their 1997 compilation '' Zoot Suit Riot'', ''Soul Caddy ...
'' (2000) * '' Susquehanna'' (2008) * '' White Teeth, Black Thoughts'' (2013) * ''
Please Return the Evening ''Please Return the Evening — the Cherry Poppin' Daddies Salute the Music of the Rat Pack'' is a tribute album and seventh studio (ninth overall) album by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on July 29, 2014 by Space Age ...
'' (2014) * ''
The Boop-A-Doo ''The Boop-A-Doo'' is the eighth studio album and tenth album overall by American ska- swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, released on January 22, 2016 by Space Age Bachelor Pad Records. The second in a planned trilogy of cover albums intende ...
'' (2016) * ''
Bigger Life ''Bigger Life'' is the ninth studio album and eleventh album overall by American ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, independently released on Space Age Bachelor Pad Records on June 14, 2019. Following three successive swing and jazz alb ...
'' (2019) Compilations * '' Zoot Suit Riot: The Swingin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies'' (1997) * '' Skaboy JFK: The Skankin' Hits of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies'' (2009)


Band members

Current members *
Steve Perry Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Journey during their most commercially successful periods from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He also wrote/co ...
(MC Large Drink) –
lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
,
rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...
(1989–present) *
Dan Schmid Daniel Joseph Schmid (born November 22, 1962) is an American musician, known for his work as the bassist and co-founder of the ska-swing music, swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Schmid was also part of the rock duo the Visible Men, and has w ...
(Dang Oulette) – bass (1989–1996, 1998–present) *
Dana Heitman Dana Conrad Heitman (born January 18, 1966) is an American musician, known for his work as the trumpeter for the Eugene, Oregon ska-swing band the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, of which he has been a member since the band's formation. Biography Heit ...
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
(1989–present) * Willie Matheis –
tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...
, bari saxophone (2010–present) * Zak Johnson –
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
,
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...
(2015–present) * Josh Hettwer –
alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...
(2016–present) * Matt Hettwer –
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
,
keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...
(2019–present) Former members * Tim Arnold – drums (1989-1990) * James Gossard – lead guitar (1989–1990) * John Fohl – lead guitar (1990–1992) * James Phillips – tenor saxophone (1989–1992, 1996) (deceased, 1961–2011) * Brooks Brown – alto saxophone (1989–1994) * Adrian P. Baxter – tenor saxophone (1993–1996) * Adam Glogauer – drums (1996) * Sean Oldham – drums (1996) * Jason Palmer – drums (1996) (2009 – studio recordings) * Brian West – drums (1990–1996) (deceased, 1966 – 2018) * Chris Azorr –
keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...
(1990–1997) * Rex Trimm – alto saxophone (1996–1997) * Hans Wagner – drums (1996–1997) * Naiya Cominos – bass (1995–1996) * Darren Cassidy – bass (1996–1998) * Johnny Goetchius – keyboards (1998–2000) * Ian Early – alto saxophone (1997–2006) * Tim Donahue – drums (1997–2008) * Sean Flannery – tenor saxophone (1996–2008) * Jesse Cloninger – tenor saxophone (2008–2010) * Jason Moss – guitar (1992–2010) * Dustin Lanker – keyboards, backing vocals (1997–1998, 2000–2012) * Kevin Congleton – drums (2008–2013) * Joe Manis – alto and baritone saxophones (2006–2013) * William Seiji Marsh – lead guitar, backing vocals (2010–2014) * Chris Ward – lead guitar, banjo, backing vocals (2014–2015) * Paul Owen – drums (2013–2017) * Andy Page – alto saxophone, clarinet (2013–2019) * Joe Freuen – trombone (2012–2019) * Oscar Watson III- drums


Timeline


References


External links


The Official Cherry Poppin' Daddies website

Cherry Poppin' Daddies
at
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1989 American ska musical groups American ska punk musical groups American swing musical groups Funk rock musical groups Rock music groups from Oregon Swing revival ensembles Third-wave ska groups Musical groups from Eugene, Oregon 1989 establishments in Oregon 2000 disestablishments in Oregon Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2002 Obscenity controversies in music Rock Ridge Music artists Naming controversies