Dorset and Colin Earl had previously been members of The Good Earth. Soon after recruiting Paul King and Mike Cole, they made their national debut at the Hollywood Festival at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire in May 1970, the week their first single, "In the Summertime" was released. They stole the show and the record topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks, made number one in almost every other country around the world, and to date has sold around 23 million copies. After John Godfrey replaced Cole, their second single "Baby Jump" also topped the UK chart in March 1971. A third hit, "Lady Rose" (also in 1971), gave the group the image as a band for producing summertime based hits.
In time Dorset found the group's good-time blues and jug band repertoire a little restricting, and in 1972 he released a solo album Cold Blue Excursion, with his songs backed by strings and brass and, in one instance, a jazz band. His intention to broaden the group's appeal by recruiting a drummer led to King and Earl trying to sack him, but the management, regarding Dorset as inseparable in the public eye from Mungo Jerry, fired them both instead. Dorset and Godfrey, the bassist, recruited new members and presented a new sound, heard on the fourth album Boot Power. King and Earl went on to form the King Earl Boogie Band.
Mungo Jerry's hits continued through to 1976 with "Open Up" (Top Twenty in Europe and number one in Brazil); "Alright Alright Alright" (a rewrite of an old French hit for Jacques Dutronc, and again a major hit worldwide reaching the Top 3 in the UK); "Wild Love"; "Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black"; "Hello Nadine" (European hit and Top Five in Canada); and "It's a Secret" (European hit).
In 1975 Earl, who had played piano with Foghat in between, returned to play keyboards, and percussion player Joe Rush, part-time member of the band in earlier days, also came back for a while.
The group's line-up has changed constantly over the years. Among those who have played with them are bassist Bob Daisley, drummers Dave Bidwell, Paul Hancox and Boris Williams, guitarist Dick Middleton and keyboard/accordion player Steve Jones. They have remained particularly popular throughout Europe. Mungo Jerry was the first western band who had live TV gigs, in all countries behind the Iron Curtain. Their famous "Golden Orpheus" gig in Bulgaria, also gave them a lot of new fans.
In 1980 another Dorset song, "Feels Like I'm in Love", originally written for Elvis Presley, and recorded by the band as a B side of a single, became a British number one hit for Kelly Marie. They remained successful with overseas hits like "On A Night Like This", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Sunshine Reggae" (British version by Mungo Jerry & Horizon). But Dorset had to wait until 1995 for a real comeback, when "In the Summertime" was recorded by reggae vocalist Shaggy, who topped the charts worldwide. The last UK chart entry for Mungo Jerry was "Toon Army", a song for Newcastle United F.C. in 1999.
In 1983 "Mungo Jerry" Ray Dorset was part of the blues supergroup Katmandu, which recorded A Case For The Blues, with guitarist Peter Green, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, and keyboard player Vincent Crane, formerly of Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
In 2003, with German musicians, Dorset recorded Adults Only album under the name Mungo Jerry Blues Band, widely acclaimed as one of the best of his career. 2005 saw him performing with three Mungo Jerry line-ups: The British Mungo Jerry Band (pop/rock), the German Mungo Jerry Blues Band (blues/rock) and Mungo Jerry & the Goodtime Gamblers (jug/blues/skiffle).
Also in June 2005, Ray Dorset had a gig again as a duo with Mike Cole - the original double bass player from the early Mungo days - as a highlight of the "35 Years Of Mungo Jerry" event in both Newcastle and Stoke.
In March 2006 Mungo Jerry released their new single "Mr Midnight" from Phantom of the Opera on Ice (http://www.plazarecords.co.uk); produced by Roberto Danova - who had mixed in the past the old continental Mungo Jerry hits "Lana" and "It's a Secret" - and is well-known for his work with rock and pop music, in combination with big orchestras.
Baby Let's Play House
Mungo Jerry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well You may go to college, You may got to school
You may have a pink Cadillac, but don't you be nobody's fool
Chorus:
Well baby come back baby come back baby come back
Come back baby I want to play house with you
Well there is one thing baby, that I want you to know
Come on back to me little girl, so we can act like we did before
Chorus
Well listen to me baby, what Im talking about
Come on back to me little girl, so we can play some house
Chorus
The lyrics to Mungo Jerry's "Baby Let's Play House" are a plea from the singer to his lover to come back to him so that they can "play house" again. The song opens by acknowledging that his lover may be educated or have material possessions, but he still wants her to come back to him. This shows that he values emotional connection over material possessions. The chorus is a repetition of his plea for her to come back to him so that they can "play house." This can be interpreted as them engaging in the innocent, childlike activities that couples do when they are newly in love.
The second verse is a more direct and personal appeal to his lover. He says there is one thing that he wants her to know, which is that he wants to be with her again so they can act like they did before. The use of the phrase "act like we did before" implies that they were once happy together, and he wants to relive those moments again. The final verse is a reiteration of his plea for her to return to him so that they can "play some house" again.
Overall, the lyrics to "Baby Let's Play House" are a simple yet effective portrayal of the desire to reconnect with a lost love. It shows that even in the midst of material possessions and success, emotional connection and love are what truly matter.
Line by Line Meaning
Well You may go to college, You may got to school
You may have received higher education, but that doesn't mean you have all the answers.
You may have a pink Cadillac, but don't you be nobody's fool
You may have material possessions, but don't let them make you gullible.
Well there is one thing baby, that I want you to know
There's something important I want to tell you.
Come on back to me little girl, so we can act like we did before
Let's reignite the passion we once had.
Well listen to me baby, what Im talking about
Pay attention to what I'm saying.
Come on back to me little girl, so we can play some house
Let's relive the fun times we had playing house together.
Chorus
The repeated refrain expresses the desire to reunite and play house.
Contributed by Jake Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.