The Wiggles are 30 years old and boy, do I feel old. The veteran children’s group from Down Under have released a collection of 40 of their songs, dubbed We’re All Fruit Salad! If you don’t find yourself singing along within the first couple of tracks, you’re full of apples and bananas.
There are musical acts on my bucket list who I still have not seen in person. But I can brag that I’ve seen the Wiggles – who traveled to America from Australia – four different times with three children (my two sons and one of their cousins). The first time that the Wiggles danced down the aisle at Westbury Music Fair (or whatever they call it now), my son Matt studied them like the Zapruder film (google it). There they were, in the flesh (except for Dorothy and Wags, who were in the cloth).
Matt watched the Wiggles 2.0, consisting of Anthony with three new members – Emmy, Lachy, and Simon. But the OGs (original guys) – Jeff, Murray, and Greg – still make appearances from time to time. In fact, the only former Wiggle who remains persona non grata is Sam Moran, dubbed “the salaried Wiggle” ostracized from Wiggle Nation in 2011 in a nasty split after he requested full membership and was replaced by Greg, who returned from a six-year health-related absence.
We’re All Fruit Salad! traces the evolution of the four-person human group (plus larger ensemble that includes Captain Feathersword and a number of costumed creations) over three decades. From the relatively simple “Fruit Salad” and “Toot-Toot, Chugga-Chugga Big Red Car” to the more complex “I’ve Got My Glasses On” and the title track, an effusive anthem about inclusion that uses the band’s eponymous original song as a stepping-off point:
We’re all fruit salad
We’re all in the same bowl
All the colors of the rainbow and the bowl is the world
It takes all kinds of fruit to make the perfect bowl
Both of my sons (nine years apart) became enthralled by the Wiggles. The band is now gearing up for an anniversary tour of Australia and New Zealand (which seem to have virtually conquered COVID). For us stateside, it will take a while longer until we can rockabye our bears with the colorful quartet from the other side of the planet. But it remains a simple fact, whether it contains kiwi or not, we’re all in the same bowl.
We’re All Fruit Salad! is available from the Wiggles’ website, Spotify, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Music.
Here is the new video for the song, “We’re All Fruit Salad”:
