Parry Gripp

Parry P. Gripp[1] (born September 22, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the pop punk band Nerf Herder from its formation in 1994. Gripp has written numerous novelty songs for children and has been featured on several Disney television shows.

Parry Gripp
Gripp in 2016
Background information
Born (1967-09-22) September 22, 1967
Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
GenresRock, children's music
Occupation(s)Musician
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • ukulele
  • keyboards
  • piano
  • bass
  • percussion
  • mixer
Years active1994–present
LabelsOglio
Associated acts
Websiteparrygripp.com

Early life

Gripp was born in Santa Barbara on September 22, 1967.[2] He and his sister Alice are co-owners of the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate where he grew up.[3][4] The estate was founded by Robert J. Chrisman in 1957 and was purchased in 1967 by his father Paul Gripp who helped establish it.[5][6] Paul Gripp ran the estate until his retirement in 1986.[5]

Style and works

False jingles and other novelty songs

As a songwriter, Gripp is known for fake jingles, as in his 2005 solo album For Those About to Shop, We Salute You - a 51-track concept album mimicking various musical styles as product commercials. It does not have one single concept; it goes through many various concept suites, such as trucks, beer, and insomnia. He also maintained a song-of-the-week website in December 2007 and a YouTube channel on August 12, 2006, in which he creates soundtracks to internet memes as well as music videos for his own novelty songs.[7] In January 2017, "It's Raining Tacos" was featured in an Amazon.com ad which began airing in early May 2017.

The Wawa and Hallmark connections

Along with his phony jingles, Gripp also has created some true advertising music, such as a series of Beatles-inspired tunes promoting the Wawa Food Markets' summertime Hoagiefests[8][9] and songs for the Hallmark Cards e-characters Hoops & Yoyo.

Television theme songs

Gripp also performs The Super Hero Squad Show, Ben 10: Omniverse, The 7D, and StoryBots Super Songs theme songs.[10]

Gripp also joined forces with MC Lars to perform some of the vocals, including the chorus to "Guitar Hero Hero (Beating Guitar Hero Doesn't Make You Slash)", a song commenting on the notion that video games like Guitar Hero take kids away from playing in bands and actually learning their instruments.

On July 9, 2009, Gripp debuted a new song called "The Girl at the Video Game Store" for the 1000th episode of the G4 TV program Attack of the Show! The video features the show's hosts Olivia Munn as the title character and Kevin Pereira on drums.[11]

In October 2016, Gripp performed and wrote the theme song for the Netflix children's show StoryBots Super Songs, a spin-off for Ask the StoryBots. He also started performing and writing songs for both shows.[9]

His 2011 released song "Space Unicorn" was featured in Daron Nefcy's Star vs. the Forces of Evil as a ringtone of character Marco Diaz's cellphone.

In July 2012, the National Geographic Kids website uploaded his video, "Spooky Spider."

In April 2013, Gripp recorded the song "Backyard Hodge Podge" for the episode of the same name for the children's television show Phineas and Ferb, and he also appeared in the episode in animated form.

Gripp has written songs for Vivienne Medrano's adult animated webseries Hazbin Hotel and its spinoff Helluva Boss,[12] as well as the song "Monster Fighting Time" for the "Bad Luck Jack" ZooPhobia short.[13]

Children's music

Gripp has written numerous songs for children, with over 100 songs appearing on his YouTube channel, with over 250 million views. Gripp has released 5 albums for children, Do You Like Waffles?, Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute, Vol. 1, Mega-Party, Jingle Burgers and For Kids About to Rock.

In July 2019, Gripp's "It's Raining Tacos" was used by the city of West Palm Beach to deter homeless people from congregating in some areas, along with the song "Baby Shark". Gripp requested they remove his title from their playlist and made donations to local homeless shelters.[14]

Awards and nominations
YearCategoryWorkResult
2015Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song - Main Title and Promo"7D Main Title Song"Nominated[15]
Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song"Jollywood Spa Song"Nominated[15]
2017Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song"I'm Not Very Nice"Won[15][16]

Discography
See also: Nerf Herder § Discography
  • For Those About to Shop, We Salute You (2005)
  • Do You Like Waffles? (2008)
  • Jingle Burgers - A Parry Gripp Christmas Album (2020)

References
  1. "Parry P Gripp, Born 09/22/1967 in California". California Birth Index. California Office of Health Information and Research. Retrieved March 15, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. "Family Tree Legends". Archived from the original on 2012-08-21. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  3. "Band With a Funny Bone, Nerf Herder Gets Last Laugh". Los Angeles Times. July 17, 1997.
  4. Verducci, Richard. "Interviews: Parry Gripp (Nerf Herder)". Punknews.org. Retrieved February 16, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Callahan, Brigette (November 13, 2015). "SB International Orchid Show honors renowned orchid-grower Paul Gripp". Santa Barbara International Orchid Show. Retrieved February 16, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. Stewart, Ethan (March 15, 2007). "The Big Orchid". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved February 16, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. Thomas, Owen (December 14, 2008). "Parry Gripp, the Weird Al Yankovic of YouTube". Gawker. BDG Media. Retrieved February 11, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. Craig, Daniel (June 25, 2016). "The top five Wawa Hoagiefest jingles". Philly Voice. WWB Holdings. Retrieved February 6, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. Griffiths, Emma (June 19, 2017). "Q&A with Parry Gripp: From Nerf Herder to YouTube sensation". Synchtank. Retrieved February 6, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. Lauden, S. W. (December 17, 2021). "Parry Gripp's Top 5 Favorite Weird Al Songs". The Big Takeover. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  11. Fahey, Mike (September 10, 2009). "The Girl At The Video Game Store". Kotaku. G/O Media. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  12. Vivienne Medrano [@VivziePop] (August 11, 2017). "The song @parrygripp is making for #HazbinHotel is absolutely a BLAST!! I can't express how excited I am for when everyone can hear it!! 💕🎶👍" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2021-03-16 – via Twitter.
  13. Short, Dan (October 5, 2020). "ZooPhobia: Bad Luck Jack". Animated Views. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  14. Palminteri, John (July 24, 2019). "Santa Barbara musician helps homeless after dispute with Florida city". KEYT-TV. NPG of California. Archived from the original on September 3, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  15. "Parry Gripp - Awards - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  16. "Parry Gripp Wins Daytime Emmy". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.