My Boomerang Won't Come Back
"My Boomerang Won't Come Back" is a novelty record by British comedian Charlie Drake which became a hit in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1961.
Background
The tune concerns a young Aboriginal lad cast out by his tribe due to his inability to toss a boomerang. After months of isolation, the local witch doctor takes pity on the lad and tells him, "If you want your boomerang to come back/Well, first you've got to throw it!" He does, and proceeds to bring down an aeroplane, which crashes with a loud boom. "Oh, my Gawd," the lad says in horror, "I've hit The Flying Doctor!" The lad and the witch doctor argue over payment as the record fades out.The record was produced by George Martin, who went on to even more enduring fame by producing the Beatles. Martin used studio tricks to approximate the sound of Aboriginal instruments.
Controversy
"My Boomerang" is not exactly a paragon of political correctness, even by 1961 standards. In the song an Aboriginal meeting is described as a "pow-wow"—something more appropriate for Native Americans—while their chanting sounds more African than Aboriginal Most of all, Drake raised eyebrows with the chorus: "I've waved the thing all over the place/practised till I was black in the face/I'm a big disgrace to the Aborigine race/My boomerang won't come back!"After the BBC refused to play the tune, a new version was recorded, substituting "blue in the face"; this version entered the UK charts in October and eventually peaked at No. 14.
When the song was initially released in the US it contained the "black in the face" lyric which was shortly changed to "blue". British-born talk-show host Michael Jackson, then on KEWB in Oakland, thought this was silly; he claimed "black in the face" was an allusion to George Black, a British theatrical and television producer.
North American versions
United Artists released the record in America, and, not wanting to deal with complaints like the ones in Britain, issued a 45-only version that not only featured the line "blue in the face" but was considerably shorter than the UK version, clocking in at 2:44. The US version first hit the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1962 and peaked at No. 21, for what would be Drake's only American chart appearance.The K-Tel compilation entitled "Looney Tunes" contained the full 3:32 version, with "black in the face" included.
The record also did well in Canada, reaching No. 3 there.
Australian reaction
At the time of its release, despite its less-than-respectful treatment of Aboriginal people, Australian record-buyers apparently had no problem with the original "black in the face" version. Musicologist David Kent has calculated that the song reached No. 1 there in December 1961, and a copy of the record has been archived by Music Australia. Australian musician Horrie Dargie's quintet recorded a response song, "My Boomerang Did Come Back", co-written by Nat Kipner, Johnny Devlin and Clyde Collins, which peaked in the top 100.By 2015, however, times had changed, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation banned the song, after a listener complained that it was racist. The ABC apologized after its Hobart-based radio program, Weekends, played the song in September of that year, at the request of a listener. Following the complaint, the broadcaster said it has removed the track completely from its system and taken steps to ensure "this would not happen again". The ABC's Audience and Consumer Affairs Department released a statement that the error was due to staff "not being familiar with the track’s lyrics".