Rolf Harris was born in Perth Western Australia and was a champion swimmer and then went to Teachers College and for some strange reason he gave up teaching and went into showbiz!Rolf had so many hits here and in England that he was parodied by just about everyone. His persona was the basis of one of my favourite episodes of The Goodies TV Show. Because Rolf is such a talent he is still going strong some 50 years later. He is an Oz icon.
His brother Bruce Harris was also a showbiz personality. When I used to take students to Sydney to be in the Schools Variety Spectacular at the Sydney Entertainment Centre I would sometimes meet Bruce and his team including Mary Lopez and Kevin Jacobson. They would help students make the leap from school to the professional stage. It was all so many years ago now!
Rolf had a minor hit in 1971 with his version of "A Ram Sam Sam". This is a song I have used occasionally with the students I have taught because it easily converts from being a piece for a soloist or can be performed by a group and/or can be sung as a "round".
"A Ram Sam Sam" was reworded and used in a novelty kid's song called "The Fast Food Song" by The Fast Food Rockers. The song mentions by name Pizza Hut, KFC and Macca's. It managed to reach #2 in the UK charts in June 2003. It was produced by Mike Stock from the famous production team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
Rolf's original version of "A Ram Sam Sam" had a gap in the middle which for this download I have edited out. The start was also a little longer than my edited version. If you click the picture of the label you can see that Rolf used a well-known UK backing group on this track.
http://rapidshare.com/files/275077710/Rolf_Harris_-_A_Ram_Sam_Sam__Tom_Mix_Edit_.mp3
Rolf's Brother Bruce is also his Manager. Rolf was recently Sydney Radio where he indicated that Bruce Manages his career from Sydney.
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