BLUE, walking on two legs and donning a 1950s-style motorcycle cap, at first sight, you would not immediately take Crazy Frog for a frog.
He is the result of an accidental collaboration between a Swedish computer salesman, Daniel Malmedahl, and a graphic designer called Erik Wernquist - Malmedahl created the sound and Wernquist added the body later after he heard the sound on an internet site and decided to create an annoying body for an annoying sound.
The result is one of the most infamous ringtones ever created and it has taken the UK by storm.
Crazy Frog's ringtone - now playing on a train or bus near you - is the constipated phut of a badly serviced east European Trabant car driven by a boy racer who has just passed his test: "a ding ding ding dinga ding ding ..."
The fact that this makes anyone over the age of 18 want to stick their fist through the television screen and grab him has clearly not harmed his prospects.
This week, a CD version of the song produced by the German dance act Bass Bumpers, which splices the frog theme with Harold Faltermayer's Beverly Hills Cop theme tune, "Axel F", has been outselling Coldplay's new single by more than four to one and tomorrow, Britain will have its first ever ring tone-inspired number one.
"We are totally shocked but it would seem as though the constant television ads have paid off," said David McMurray, manager of HMV at Forestside in Belfast, attempting to explain the phenomenon.
"Coldplay have released the first single from their new album and you would expect them to do incredibly well but it just goes to show how successful these novelty singles are."
One person who is definitely not a fan of the single is Cool FM's Glen Pavis. He has branded the success of the Crazy Frog "the beginning of the end" of the music industry.
"What is the world coming to when a band like Coldplay are being beaten in the charts by a frog," he asks.
Source
He is the result of an accidental collaboration between a Swedish computer salesman, Daniel Malmedahl, and a graphic designer called Erik Wernquist - Malmedahl created the sound and Wernquist added the body later after he heard the sound on an internet site and decided to create an annoying body for an annoying sound.
The result is one of the most infamous ringtones ever created and it has taken the UK by storm.
Crazy Frog's ringtone - now playing on a train or bus near you - is the constipated phut of a badly serviced east European Trabant car driven by a boy racer who has just passed his test: "a ding ding ding dinga ding ding ..."
The fact that this makes anyone over the age of 18 want to stick their fist through the television screen and grab him has clearly not harmed his prospects.
This week, a CD version of the song produced by the German dance act Bass Bumpers, which splices the frog theme with Harold Faltermayer's Beverly Hills Cop theme tune, "Axel F", has been outselling Coldplay's new single by more than four to one and tomorrow, Britain will have its first ever ring tone-inspired number one.
"We are totally shocked but it would seem as though the constant television ads have paid off," said David McMurray, manager of HMV at Forestside in Belfast, attempting to explain the phenomenon.
"Coldplay have released the first single from their new album and you would expect them to do incredibly well but it just goes to show how successful these novelty singles are."
One person who is definitely not a fan of the single is Cool FM's Glen Pavis. He has branded the success of the Crazy Frog "the beginning of the end" of the music industry.
"What is the world coming to when a band like Coldplay are being beaten in the charts by a frog," he asks.
Source
