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"The Pied Piper"
Single by Crispian St. Peters
from the album Follow Me...
B-side	"Sweet Dawn My True Love"
Released	April 1966
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:30
Label	Decca 12359 (UK) Jamie 1320 (US) London 2512 (Canada)
Songwriter(s)	Steve Duboff, Artie Kornfeld
Producer(s)	David Nicolson
Crispian St. Peters singles chronology
"You Were on My Mind" (1965) "The Pied Piper" (1966) "Changes" (1966)

"The Pied Piper" is a pop song written by the American song-writing and performing duo The Changin' Times, consisting of Steve Duboff and Artie Kornfeld, who first recorded it in 1965. Their version reached #87 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, when British pop singer Crispian St. Peters recorded it, he scored a major hit during the summer of 1966. It went to #4 in the United States, #5 in the United Kingdom, and #1 in Canada.

The song's title refers to a fairy tale from German folklore, the titular character of which is The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Chart history

Later uses

An advertisement for the first-generation Toyota Echo in Australia and New Zealand.

The song has been used in three episodes of the HBO series Silicon Valley, where it is sung karaoke by Dinesh.

Other versions

• In Italy a well-known cover version was made, with the title "Bandiera gialla" ("Yellow Flag"), sung by Gianni Pettenati and becoming the theme song of a popular radio program of that era targeted to young people.
• Cher covered the song on her 1966 self-titled album.
• French singer Sheila covered the song in French, with the title "Le pipeau", in 1966.
• Rita Marley covered the song in 1967.
• Jamaican reggae duo Bob and Marcia had a Top 20 hit with their version, taking the song to UK #11 in July 1971.
• Yugoslav rock band S.T.R.A.H. released a Serbo-Croatian language garage rock cover entitled "Vođa" ("The Leader") on their 1988 EP Mesec (The Moon).

References

1. Rodriguez, Robert (2012). Revolver: How the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock 'n' Roll. Montclair: Backbeat Books. p. 242. ISBN 978-1-61713-009-0.
2. The Changin' Times, "Pied Piper" chart position Retrieved June 18, 2015.
3. Songs from the Year 1966
4. Library and Archives Canada. RPM 100 Week of July 18, 1966 Retrieved March 13, 2012.
5. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1966-08-01. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
6. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – The Pied Piper". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
7. Flavour of New Zealand, 15 July 1966
8. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 December 2018.
9. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
10. Cash Box Top 100 Singles, July 30, 1966
11. "Top 100 Hits of 1966/Top 100 Songs of 1966". musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
12. http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/1966YESP.html Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 24, 1966
13. "The Good Oil: Road safety in school". New Zealand Herald. 2000-06-30.
14. YouTube - Toyota Echo Australian TV ad (2000) - "Follow me, I'm the pied piper..."
15. Four Donkey Films - production company for the advertisement
16. L'almanacco di Radioscrigno Retrieved March 13, 2012.
17. Bob and Marcia, "Pied Piper" chart position Retrieved June 18, 2015.
18. Janjatović, Petar (2024). Ex YU rock enciklopedija 1960-2023. Belgrade: self-released. p. 288.

• 1965 songs
• 1965 singles
• 1966 singles
• 1971 singles
• Songs written by Artie Kornfeld
• Crispian St. Peters songs
• Del Shannon songs
• The Ventures songs
• London Records singles
• RPM Top Singles number-one singles
• Number-one singles in South Africa
• Decca Records singles
• Jamie Records singles
• Works based on Pied Piper of Hamelin