Tina Peel – "Fifi Goes Pop" (1978)

I used to blow-dry Fifi

But Fifi got split ends

Put her in the microwave

Blew up my doggy friend!

“Fifi Goes Pop” is a cautionary tale about a pet owner in a big hurry who puts his poodle in a microwave after bathing her to dry her fur.

That turned out not to be such a good idea:

Fifi goes pop

At setting number two

Cooked from the inside out

In a Fifi barbecue

It sucked to be Fifi, huh?

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In 1976, the 24-year-old Rudi Protrudi – that can’t be his real name, can it? – was living in an efficiency apartment in Harrisburg, PA, where he listened to New York Dolls and Ramones records and fantasized about moving to Greenwich Village and becoming a punk-rock star.

Rudi Protrudi

A few months later, he drove to New York City to see the Dictators perform at CBGB.  The opening act that night was the Dead Boys, a brand-new punk band from Cleveland.

Rudi had never heard of them, but was blown away by their performance.  In 2002, he wrote about what happened when he met them after that show:

They didn't have a bassist, so I offered my services.  [Dead Boys frontman] Stiv Bators invited me to audition the next week.  I hitched a ride to NYC and passed the audition.  They invited me to play with them that night.  We prepared for the show in Joey Ramone's apartment, as they informed me that the show was a benefit for Punk magazine.  We were playing on the same bill as David Johansen, Blondie, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and Suicide!  Our set was a screaming success and the Dead Boys made it official.  I was in the band.  Debbie Harry came up close and whispered congratulations. . . . I returned to Harrisburg, packed my belongings and waited for further instructions. 

Two weeks later, Dead Boys guitarist Jimmy Zero called Rudi and told him they’d decided to invite a different bass player to join the band.

It sucked to be Rudi Protrudi, huh?

*     *     *     *     *

But Rudi’s story – unlike Fifi’s – has a happy ending.  

Rudi and his girlfriend – who performed under the moniker “Deb O’Nair” – formed Tina Peel.  (The bands other members included “Jim Nastix” and “Rick O’Shea.”)  Their first gig was at the Washington Punk Art Festival in Washington, DC, where Kim Kane (founder of the Slickee Boys) and the late Skip Groff (a local music producer and the owner of the legendary Yesterday and Today Records store) heard them.

“I loved [Tina Peel] right away because they were cool and had a sixties style that I grew up with,” Kane later said. “I freaked and ran around to find Skip Groff, to see if we could pool our money and put something out by them.  I remember the band being shocked when I asked them to do it.”

Rudi, Deb, and their drummer eventually moved to the East Village and started auditioning for New York City gigs.  Kane and Groff teamed up to release a Tina Peel EP, which got enough radio airplay to get them hired to play at CBGB, the Mudd Club, and other happenin’ venues.

The "Fifi Goes Pop" 45 sleeve

After releasing “Fifi Goes Pop,” the group got a regular gig at the popular Upper West Side “rock disco,” Hurrah.  Deb got a job with music promoter Ian Copeland (the brother of the Police’s drummer, Stewart Copeland), and he arranged for them to open for touring new-wave and power-pop bands like XTC, the Stranglers, and Split Enz.  

Eventually Rudi and Deb formed the Fuzztones, which opened for Tina Peel at Hurrah one night.  To their surprise, the audience liked them as the Fuzztones better than they liked them as Tina Peel, so they decided to perform as the Fuzztones going forward.

*     *     *     *     *

Steven Lorber played “Fifi Goes Pop” on the very first “Mystic Eyes” show I ever recorded.  That was on March 15, 1980 – forty years ago today. 

Click here to listen to “Fifi Goes Pop.”