100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 53. The Hippos: Heads Are Gonna Roll

53. The Hippos: Heads Are Gonna Roll

In 1999 A show debuted on Nickelodeon called 100 Deeds For Eddie McDowd. The show followed a bully (played by Seth Green) who is turned into a dog and will remain a dog until he performs 100 good deeds for people. The show was cancelled after 40 episodes so you can only assume that Eddie McDowd is now dead, but regardless, the opening theme was a ska song. By this point I was a full out Ska kid and I loved this song and had to find it.

To this day I still can’t find the specific song but in my digging I found out that it was performed by The Hippos. I immediately went online and purchased their only two albums Forget the World and Heads are Gonna Roll. While I adored Forget the World for it’s crazy upbeat ska sounds, Heads are Gonna Roll blew me away and quickly became my favorite album of all time (and despite being #53 on this list, still is my favorite album of all time).

For Heads are Gonna Roll The Hippos decided to blend their Ska sounds for Forget the World with a New wave-y synth-driven pop songs. Every song on this album has single potential. The hooks are infectious, the music can only be described as fun but sadly this was their last (real) album.

I remember the first time I heard Wasting My Life and just thought, these guys know how I feel. They’re love sick but humorous about it. They can’t stop doing things out of a strange love devotion. From the opening drum beat of Lost it to the final strum of Paulina (Reprise) the boys in The Hippos have bared their hopelessly romantic souls. 

If you’ve never heard The Hippos before in your life, I recommend you purchasing this album.