S.O.D. "Spiders and Snakes" by Jim Stafford

1/16/2016     Yes it's very true the girls do not like spiders and snakes, the majority of them anyway. Trying to impress them with such creatures is not very wise unless you intentionally want to scare them away. The guy in this song wanted to keep his girl around for a while so after showing her a frog in grade school, upon which she quickly departed, when they saw each other in high school she let him know that she does not like spiders and snakes.  At that point he began to use other means to win her affection.  The 1973 tune  was a pretty big hit, charting at #3 in the US and took the #1 spot in Canada.  

     Stafford got started in Winterhaven, Florida in 1974.  Aside from being a singer- songwriter and multi instrumentalist, he had a tremendous comedic mind and is still remembered as the supervising writer for the 1975 TV show, the Smothers Brothers.  He wrote songs for movie soundtracks, appeared as a guest star on different shows and had his own short-lived summer variety show in 1975.  

     Making just three studio albums from which 14 singles were born, you can hear some of his instrumental work.  He is self taught on piano, organ, fiddle, guitar, banjo and harmonica.