Pepperoni Pizza

by John Riggio

One of the inspirations for this song was watching Karl Hitzemann (one of our writers and producers) warm up our singers in the recording studio. Every session Karl picks a different topic – could be movies, could be sports teams, could be candy bars, or anything at all – and our vocalists sing a warm-up to that topic. In the spirit of this concept, John thought it would be fun for kids to sing about pepperoni pizza. It's a bit of a tongue twister, even at a normal speech rate, but what if we start to accelerate the song, and what if we also modulate the key a couple of times? Starting in bar 23, it does just that! That being the case, you could use this either as a song for the pure joy of it, or as a warm-up, because it works that way, too.

As the descriptor for the music indicates, this is meant to be humorous. That said, our apologies to anyone who actually enjoys anchovies on a pizza, 'cause we do take a jab at those hairy-eyebrow-looking fish. Be sure to have your singers enunciate "You disgust me, tiny fish!," and perhaps make a face like they just swallowed some pickle juice. (On the music, we have provided an alternate line in case you prefer wording that is a little less blunt.)

If you're looking for an excuse to perform this song, September 20th is National Pepperoni Pizza Day, and October is National Pizza Month. And the composer didn't even know about National Pizza With The Works Except Anchovies Day (November 12th) prior to writing this song! See? It's not just us!

Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.