What is The Stripper Song?

Ever look at your “significant other” after a night out on the town, a few drinks and some merriment, and say seductively as they begin to undress, “take it off, take it all off!”?

Where did that come from?

And then he or she begins to laugh and prance around the bedroom, twirling garments, wrapping something around your neck, kicking off panties as if in a chorus line, imitating a trumpet or trombone (or maybe a kazoo!) to the tune of “The Stripper”?

Where did that come from?

We hardly remember where we get these pop culture cliches…but they all come from somewhere!

“The Stripper” is a very famous song written by a man by the name of David Rose, “a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, and orchestra leader.” —Wikipedia

He was married to actress Martha Raye and also to Judy Garland.

While David Rose is not famous, HIS SONG IS. And it was a #1 Billboard hit in 1962 by David Rose and His Orchestra.

“The Stripper” is performed de rigueur at bachelor and bachelorette parties, at strip clubs, at wedding receptions (when the groom removes the bride’s garter), and has been used in COUNTLESS television shows and films, including Slap Shot and The Full Monty.

But perhaps the most memorable performance of all came in a late 1960s Noxzema shaving cream commerical wherein beautiful Swedish model Gunilla Knutson demanded, “take it off, take it all off.”

(Later iterations included sports icons Carl Yaztremski — Boston Red Sox left fielder and triple-crown winner, for you baseball fans…and Joe Willie Namath, who was known for kinky commercials — “Ladies, want to see Joe Namath get creamed?”…Of course you did!)

What’s forgettable about that stuff? Nothing! So, back to business…take it off, take it all off…while you watch this nostalgic TV commercial and hear the 1962 #1 song, David Rose’s “The Stripper.”