In 1974, Jim Stafford hit it big in the novelty song genre. His country-pop song “Spiders & Snakes” appeared on his self-titled album and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March of that year.
Stafford’s sense of humor was apparent during his many talk show guest spots. During an appearance on American Bandstand, he told host Dick Clark the cheeky inspiration for the song. “’Spiders & Snakes’ is a true story that I made up, and based on an incident that never occurred,” he cracked.
“I'm not really sure where that deep little hole is, and I don't know why I write songs like that. I just do," he shared. "I'm kind of a fan of my own stuff. I like ‘Spiders & Snakes’ and I like ‘Swamp Witch.’ Those songs are kind of different. They were certainly challenging to write. So, I'm glad that they kind of caught on and did okay. I have a grateful heart about that.”
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The ‘Spiders & Snakes’ idea was almost rejected
Howard Bellamy recalled to Classic Bands, “About three or four in the morning, what we call a rat snake or chicken snake got in the bed with me, and of course I ran out the door pretty fast and made quite a bit of noise, woke David up. …I think we really owe the credit and inspiration to the chicken snake. The next morning, he wrote that song, and it probably took a little over an hour.”
"We had shopped it around,” he recalled. “We got word that this producer who produced all of Stafford's stuff was from that area, and he also produced ‘Let Your Love Flow.’ We sent a demo to Stafford, and it was kind of thrown in the reject pile. The producer actually didn't care for it. Stafford saw the title on the cassette box there and just picked it out of the reject pile and listened to it. And he loved it immediately and went on to record it.”
“He was very successful with ‘Spiders & Snakes’ and bought a house in Hollywood,” Bellamy shared. “He was a comedian. That's what he was. He was one of the best guitar players ever. He was just incredible. Classical, any kind of guitar. He was just amazing. Did stand-up and sang. Did guitar solos. Just a one-man show. That's the way he was.”
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