At one point in time, every wedding, bar mitzvah, and birthday party wasn’t complete with the very repetitive tune of ‘Ag-a-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree’ ringing out through some community hall. The dance moves, the lyrics, despite not listening to it on purpose, would become ingrained in your psyche. Information stored in the very membrane of your soul for ever more.<\/p>\n
But what ever happened to Black Lace? A new documentary explores the current life and career of Dene Michael, best known for fronting the novelty pop group and its sole surviving member.<\/p>\n
Still Pushing Pineapples, which premiered at Sheffield DocFest this month, follows Michael over a two-year period as he continues to perform under the Black Lace name at venues including holiday parks, pubs and care homes.<\/p>\n
Prior to Agadoo, the group had previously represented the UK at Eurovision in 1979 and later achieved commercial success with songs such as Superman, Do the Conga, and I Am the Music Man.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his career, Michael said: \u201cNot many people get to tell their life story in a movie. So, hard work but very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agadoo was released in 1984 and spent 30 weeks in the UK Top 75, peaking at number two. It was later voted \u201cworst song of all time\u201d in a 2003 Q magazine poll.<\/p>\n
Michael, who was not part of the band when the hit song was released, has said he remains conflicted about the track and he is still required to perform regularly.<\/p>\n
Having officially joined the group in 1986 after founding members Terry Dobson Gibb and Alan Barton took a step back, in 1991, he had walked away from the band amid \u201cpersonal and professional issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
After leaving, he agreed not to use the Black Lace name\u2014but that didn\u2019t last. He launched a short-lived band called Barracuda, then resurfaced in 2007 using the Black Lace name again, sparking a rift with former bandmates.<\/p>\n
At one point, he even performed under the moniker Mr Agadoo\u2014a nickname originally associated with Gibb\u2014despite having no connection to the track when it was first released.<\/p>\n