Getting Strong! (partially found original version of Wiggles video; 2006)

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GettingStrong!WiggleandLearn.jpg

The DVD cover of the final version

Status: Partially Found

Getting Strong! is the twenty-seventh video released by the Australian children's group The Wiggles. It was released on May 16, 2007 in Australia (thirteen days after the album of the same name was released) and would reach the American and British markets over the next three years. The video mainly focuses around staying fit and is the first video to feature Sam Moran (who was previously a backup singer for the group) as the yellow wiggle after the departure of founding member Greg Page in November 2006. Production on the video began in early 2006 when Page was still in the group.

Background

The video was meant to be a tie-in with Series 6, which was revealed to be titled "Wiggle and Learn" in an April 2006 interview with Page[1]. The original version of Getting Strong was slightly different than what was released in May 2007. A lot of sets and backdrops were used instead of the green/blue screen backdrop that the final video would use. Instead of lip-syncing and miming to a pre-recorded track, the music was performed live and Greg sang all the vocals, making it the first time a Wiggles video (that's not a concert film) used live music and vocals[2]. Among the musicians that did the live music were John Field (Anthony Field's older brother), Dominic Lindsay (who previously did the trumpet for Bucket Of Dew from the Wake Up Jeff! album and video)[3], Tony Henry (the group's session and touring drummer from 1994 to 2007) and George Tseros (who would play bouzouki in future releases until 2014).

Greg Page's Departure

It's unknown how many songs were filmed as while the filming of Getting Strong! progressed, the group toured the United States[4] and would debut only one song from Getting Strong!, Hello, We're The Wiggles. Page's health would take a sharp decline, before the RI Ryan Center performance on August 22, 2006, Page collapse before the 2:30pm performance and was rushed to the hospital for dehydration and as a result, Sam Moran took over for the show and after fainting again before the 3:00pm and 6:30pm performances[5], Page left the tour and returned to Australia to recover and Moran took over for the rest of the tour[6]. After returning to Australia, Page would be diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance which caused the fainting spells before the shows[7]. With the release of the Racing to the Rainbow album on August 28th and video on September 7th, the Racing to the Rainbow Tour was announced in early July 2006[8]. On November 30, 2006, Page announced in a video his departure and announced that Moran would take his place[9][10]. With Page out, production on Getting Strong! was restarted and the debut of Series 6 was delayed from a previously announced early-2007 release[11] to Spring 2008[12]. Page would eventually recover from the condition and returned to the group for a short time in 2012.

Availability

Four songs are known to have been recorded, videos for Getting Strong! and Smell Your Way Through The Day would be release as a iTunes bonus for the Hits And Rarities compilation album that was released in October 2012. A version of Getting Strong! with Greg's vocals was included on the album, but while the instrumental was recorded in 2007, Greg's vocals was recorded in 2012.[13] In the digital booklet of the album, a picture from the video for A Frog Went A Walking was shown off. 62 seconds of a recording of the song that didn't make it into the final video called "We're All Friends" (which appeared on the group's second album Here Comes A Song) was included as a CD in the book of the same name (which would be released after Greg's departure). Although it never made it into the final version of the video, it's likely a video for this may've been recorded and the video's audio would've been used for the CD Book. When Greg was still with the group, they did a song for a commercial for ABC Kids, the song turned out to be an early version of Wiggle and Learn (the theme song for Series 6). The commercial with the song included can easily be found online. No audience recordings of the Hello, We're The Wiggles performance have appeared online. A song that made it onto the Getting Strong! album but not the video is Follow The Leader, the video for Follow The Leader would be part of the You Make Me Feel Like Dancing video. The instrumental track for Follow The Leader was created while Page was still in the group, making it very likely they recorded the song with Greg on vocals and after he left, they recycled the instrumental when they did the track with Sam.[14] No other footage from the original version of Getting Strong! has been released outside of the abovementioned.

In November 2020, Anthony Field revealed on Twitter that footage from Wiggle and Learn with Greg has been located in the group's archives[15][16]. It's possible that the original version of Getting Strong! is among the footage found as the video is a series tie-in. He has expressed interest in releasing the original version of Getting Strong! as part of the group's Unreleased NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN Specials series on YouTube.[17]

Gallery

Songs

Video for Getting Strong!

Video for Smell Your Way Through The Day

We're All Friends recording from Book CD

ABC Kids commercial with early version of Wiggle and Learn

Images

See Also

TV

Concerts

Videos

Music

Miscellaneous

References