As the biggest kids’ band in the world, you might think you know what to expect from The Wiggles at this point. But the Aussie icons shattered expectations when they dropped into national broadcaster Triple J and laid out a hard-grooving, funky cover of Tame Impala’s “Elephant.” The six-piece then cheekily switched gears mid-song to mash it up with one of their own classics, “Fruit Salad.”
The Wiggles showed they had real staying power as a funk act, as the live mash-up drew 6.5 million views, becoming one of the most popular Triple J sessions ever. The Music Man loved to see that these iconic children’s entertainers are the real deal as musicians and that they had so much fun while doing it! This kind of creativity is what we like to see when it comes to covers on Triple J’s Like A Version format.
Fans found a lot to love in how The Wiggles approached the surprise cover. They added comments such as “The gentleman singing the beautiful bass parts with such a grin on his face the whole time makes me so happy!!” and “This was so FUNKY. Now all I need is Tame Impala covering ‘Fruit Salad’ and I’ll be set.”
Tame Impala main man Kevin Parker evidently liked where The Wiggles took his hit “Elephant.” Not long after The Wiggles covered his song, Kevin appeared live on stage with the kids’ entertainers to perform “Elephant,” in quite a change of pace for the indie star. The big smile on Kevin’s face made this a super cute moment – he was clearly so stoked to be up there with The Wiggles.
Tame Impala issued “Elephant” as the first single from their second album Lonerism. Frontman Kevin Parker produced the song himself and co-wrote it with multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson, who is a member of the band’s touring lineup. “Elephant” became the first Tame Impala song to chart. It hit numbers 77 and 131 on the Australian and UK charts, respectively. Kevin told Stereogum that “Elephant” is one of the oldest songs he wrote, that it was in “the vaults” for a long time before it got released. He recalled that the group was jamming on it at sound check one night and that “everyone in the band was like, ‘We should just put this on the album,’ and so we did.” The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that The Wiggles’ live cover of “Elephant” during their Triple J studio session became quite the fan favorite. It placed at number one on the 2021 Triple J Hottest 100 list, which is voted for by the public. The Hottest 100 is an Australian institution, so this achievement was quite the honor for The Wiggles.