Anybody else ready to take a trip down memory lane?

On Triple J for its “Like a Version” YouTube cover series, The Wiggles, timeless Australian children’s music group, covered the psychedelic multi-instrumental group Tame Impala’s song “Elephant” on March 4. 

This performance by the Aussia quartet is unlike anything they have recorded in their nearly 30 year history as a children’s music group. The quartet is best known for its shows and music videos available digitally and through local broadcast television channels. Their biggest hits include “The Wheels on the Bus,” “Hot Potato” and “Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga, Big Red Car.”

The song “Elephant” sets a listener adrift on a sonic voyage. You feel as though you are encapsulated on a pirate ship fit with talking parrots and you and the group are stowaways embarking on a trip to the Atlantic.

Or you could see it as a safari trip, since the song is about elephants.

“Well, he feels like an elephant,” sings Lachlan Gillespie, the purple Wiggle. “Shaking his big grey trunk for the hell of it. He knows that you’re dreaming’ about being loved by him.”

Before everyone goes all hands on deck, due to the use of “hell,” The Wiggles made sure to keep the rock song PG. 

I mean, you have Anthony Field, the blue Wiggle, whipped up in an elephant mask strumming on the bass carefree, lending the song a little more happy-go-lucky energy. 

The band even pays homage to one of their biggest crowd pleasers, “We’re All Fruit Salad,” following Simon Pryce’s adlib, “Fruit salad, yummy yummy.” 

And yes they did make an entire cover of the song in a separate “Like a Version,” performance that same day.

“This is peak ‘Like a Version,’” the video’s top commenter said. “Triple J can just finish now.”

No formal reason has been provided as to why the group chose to perform an adult-themed song. Nor is there a reason for why it took the group more than 30 years to release its first ever adult-themed cover. 

Since the band has not clarified why it chose to shed its innocent image, what is the song “Elephant” actually about?

It is actually about artists, analogized as “elephants,” who have lofty ambitions or goals for their future successes only to rationalize any flaws they may make. 

“He’s got friends, but they got the fear,” singer Kevin Parker sang. “Wouldn’t care too much if he just disappeared. Oh look, hey, there he is now coming down the stairs.”

Bandmates and friends simply keep their complaints about the elephant to themselves in order to keep confrontation at a minimum. And when said elephant finally slips up, the people around it ignore the situation. The elephant never actually humbles itself, and so the cycle remains.

“No one remembered a thing when they saw him again,” Parker sang. “That’s how it is till the end.”

People on Twitter were quick to congratulate The Wiggles on just how funky the salad-tossed indie rock tribute actually was.

ah yes, the wiggles. my favorite alternative rock band pic.twitter.com/OfYWwla81s

— julien ♡ (@jadexhxmmings) March 5, 2021

https://twitter.com/japanduran/status/1367613658084294657

https://twitter.com/DaveSchooner/status/1367631454721609734

Though some members move away from the band while others hop on board, the group has only seen nine total members since their inception in 1991. 

The Wiggles have seen four total iterations or “generations,” as fandom members call them. Surprisingly, this fandom is not dominated by kids. Despite the shifting tides of VHS to DVD and now digital streaming, Field, the blue Wiggle, remains as one of the band’s players. Even founding members Murray Cook, the red Wiggle, and Jeff Fatt, the purple Wiggle, hopped on for this old-meets-new crossover. 

“I was actually really thrilled when Anthony contacted me and said, ‘We’re doing this song for ‘Like a Version,’ and do you want to come play on it,’” Cook said in a later uploaded Triple J interview. 

“I mean we still have a lot of contact. We still see each other, but I don’t play with these guys so much,” he said.

Despite the mature themes of the song, Cook and members chose to leave the original lyrics of the song intact while still making the song “Wiggle-y,” enough to make it a true Wiggles cover.

“We wanted to keep it faithful to the original,” Cook said. “So the best way to keep it Wiggle-y is to stick in ‘Fruit Salad.’” 

The Tame Impala cover sits at nearly 350,000 just 15 hours after its upload.

Other artists to have entered Triple J’s studio as of recent include Ruel, HAIM and even Tame Impala themselves.

Joshua LeBerte is a sophomore studying news media. His column, “Josh’s View,” covers national pop culture items and runs regularly.