Nostalgia: 55 Years Ago Our Favourite Stripper Song Hit No. 1

Andrew Wright | July 7th, 2017

It was 55 years ago that everyone’s favourite striptease song hit No. 1 on the pop charts.

If you’ve ever seen a strip tease in film or television, you’ve likely heard a song called “The Stripper.” While it reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 1962, it was actually created four years prior to its release by David Rose, a prolific composer who scored a number of hit television shows between 1950 and 1980.

It was born on the set of Burlesque in 1958, when Rose was tasked with scoring a dressing-room scene. “I wrote eight measures of strip music and forgot about it,” Rose told Billboard magazine.

Later, Rose decided to have a little fun with the short piece. With some time to spare in a recording session, the composer decided to record a longer version of the song with the brass, clarinet and percussion section of his orchestra. Even with this polished version, Rose still considered the piece a joke, handing copies out to members of the orchestra as a novelty gift.

Four years later, someone at MGM Records discovered the piece in the archives and had it placed on side B of Rose’s string-orchestra version of Ebb Tide. From there, a Los Angeles disc jokey would find the humour in “The Stripper” as well, reportedly playing it non-stop for 45 minutes even when listeners had called in to request something else.

Since its No. 1 showing on the pop charts 55 years ago, its scored strip scenes in everything from Monty Python to Betty Boop.

Watch Monty Python’s Terry Jones awkwardly strip to the song here

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