| "The Snake" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byAl Wilson | ||||
| B-side | "Getting Ready for Tomorrow" (1968 release) "Willoughby Brook" (1975 UK release) | |||
| Released | August 1968 (U.S.) August 8, 1975 (U.K.) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:27 | |||
| Label | Soul City (1968 release) Bell (1975 UK release) | |||
| Songwriter | Oscar Brown | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Al Wilson singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"The Snake" is a song written and first recorded by civil-rights activistOscar Brown in 1963; it became a hit single for American singerAl Wilson in 1968.[2][3] The song tells a story similar toAesop's fableThe Farmer and the Viper and the African American folktale "Mr. Snake and the Farmer".[4]
The song gained renewed attention during the campaign for the2016 United States presidential election.
In the U.S., the hit version of "The Snake" was released in 1968, onJohnny Rivers'Soul City Records. (Rivers had released his own version of the song on his 1966 album...And I Know You Wanna Dance.) Wilson's single made theTop 30 on theBillboard Hot 100 in 1968 and, due to exposure on the UKNorthern soul scene, made theUK Singles Chart in August 1975 when reissued, reaching No. 41 in September.[5] The success of "The Snake" on the Northern soul nightclub circuit has led to it being ranked 4 of 500 top Northern soul singles and for it to appear on over 30 pop and Northern soulcompilation albums.[6][7][8] The song was re-released in 1989 as aB-side to a re-release of "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" byThe Main Ingredient.[2] Wilson's recording of "The Snake" was also featured in aLambrini television advertisement in the UK.[9]
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| CanadaRPM Top Singles[10] | 38 |
| U.S.BillboardHot 100[11] | 27 |
| U.S.Billboard R&B | 32 |
| U.S.Cash Box Top 100[12] | 32 |
| Chart (1975) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK[5] | 41 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[13] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
The song was featured in season 4, episode 25 of the television showNorthern Exposure, "Old Tree". It was sung byCynthia Geary in her role as the characterShelly Tambo. The episode originally aired on May 24, 1993.[14]
The song gained renewed attention during the campaign for the2016 United States presidential election.Republican candidateDonald Trump read its lyrics at several campaign rallies to illustrate his position onillegal immigration, claiming that the decision to allow people claiming refugee status to enter the United States would "come back to bite us", as happened to the woman who took in the snake in the song.[15] Oscar Brown's work has been described as "a celebration of black culture and a repudiation of racism".[16] Two of Brown's seven children asked Trump to stop using their late father's song, telling the media: "He's perversely using 'The Snake' to demonize immigrants" and that Brown "never had anything against immigrants".[17] Despite acease and desist letter, Trump has continued reciting the lyrics at rallies including in June 2021,[18] and in September[19] and December 2023.[20] At a rally in Ohio on March 16, 2024, Trump again read "The Snake", calling it "a very accurate metaphor, and it's about our border, it's about the people we have coming in, and don't be surprised when bad things happen, because bad things will happen."[21]
In 2024,The Lincoln Project, a Republican Trump opposition group, co-opted Trump's reading of the poem in an attack ad during the2024 Republican National Convention, positing Vance as the woman and Trump as the snake.[22]
... and it became a cult favorite on the Northern Soul scene, the pre-rave phenomenon where British kids would ... spend all night dancing to obscure R&B records.
