What is the origin of Veggie Tales' Pizza Angel song?

June 21, 2007 3:48 PM

Veggie Tales has a Silly Song with Larry called Pizza Angel that sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. The closest song I've found is Last Kiss, originally written by Wayne Cochran and later sung by Pearl Jam, but they aren't all that close. Some of the comments on the YouTube video suggested it was a parody of Johnny Angel or Teen Angel, but neither of the versions I found sounded like the origin of Pizza Angel. It’s quite possible this is an original composition, but it sounds so familiar. Does anyone know of a song that could have been the inspiration for Pizza Angel?
posted by jaden to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I think you're right. Just listening to the guitar, I think it sounds like Last Kiss as well.
posted by spec80 at 4:03 PM on June 21, 2007

Best answer: I think it's just a conglomeration of them all, this page credits "Words and Music by Kurt Heinecke and Tim Hodge", the guys behind most of the VeggieTales stuff. It sounds familiar because they intended it to, but it's kept different enough so that there's no royalties or credit due to anyone else.
posted by pupdog at 4:03 PM on June 21, 2007

Best answer: Just listened to the DVD commentary, and the various head-honchos say that the song is supposed to be "very 50s", and was inspired by the "teen tragedy" songs, among which they mention Teen Angel. Nothing they say, however, suggests that anything besides the whole 50s style was the inspiration.

...and then they talk about how the root beer bottle wasn't designed to be moved, so the soda behaves like jelly since they had Larry hold it anyway.
posted by niles at 4:07 PM on June 21, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the quick responses. Their effort to make it sound familiar succeeded beyond their wildest dreams!
posted by jaden at 4:34 PM on June 21, 2007