Ram Jam - Black Betty

Here at Rock Song of the Week, we don’t tend to see songs as one hit wonders. From the super-talented and simply unlucky to be overshadowed by a pedigree in the same category to the lovable, if a little rough around the edges earworms, there are plenty of dogs that have their day. Sometimes, that’s all she wrote. Way of the road, right?

With that said, Black Betty by Ram Jam is the most one-hit-wonder-est one hit wonder that ever wondered. You can keep your Crazy Town (seriously, please keep them, we don’t want them) and your Wheatus; Ram Jam made them look like they’d been etched into the Great Pyramids in terms of permanence. But for a band that only spanned the gap between 1977 and 1978 like a piece of floss spans the gap between your teeth, they didn’t half go down swinging. The New York City five piece took Lead Belly’s work song in Black Betty and reworked it in a way that made the hair on the neck of a thousand rock radio station DJs stand up simultaneously. The song is iconic for both its stripped back, old school rock and roll style as it is the many, many new and inventive interpretations of it’s lyrics. For as long as “ram a gran” stays new and inventive after the thousandth time, anyway.

We know you know it, you know we know you know it, so let’s not beat about the bush any longer. We cordially invite you to row that hair out for the purposes of letting it down, then enjoying this week’s pick to the fullest. Try not to get into too much trouble with your boss/significant other/the officer conducting your interview because you’re slamming your hands down on the desk in front of you all the way through.