RC Cola and a Moon Pie
by NRBQ

Album: Workshop (1973)
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Songfacts®:

  • RC Cola, a soda drink, and Moon Pie, a pastry with a marshmallow filling, was a popular food combination in the American South in the 1950s. Their inexpensive prices combined with their generous portions meant the sodas and pastries were particularly favored by the working class, leading to RC Cola and Moon Pie being coined the "working man's lunch." In 1951, Big Bill Lister recorded an homage to the snack combination, "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moon Pie," and it was from this song that NRBQ lifted the retro arrangement for "RC Cola and a Moon Pie." NRBQ keyboardist, Terry Adams, told the Hartford Courant that he was an RC Cola enthusiast when he was younger: "Back then, I drank RCs, like two or three 16-ounce ones a day. I don't drink the stuff anymore. It's bad for you. I'd much rather have carrot juice."
  • There are two versions of this song - the original version, on the Workshop album, and a second, longer version, which was issued as a b-side to the single, "C'mon If You're Comin'," in 1973.
  • In 1976, NRBQ held their first ever Moon Pie Festival, a music festival in Hartford, Connecticut. The festival was held annually until 1980, before being revived again in 1993, when every attendee was given a free Moon Pie.
  • Workshop, NRBQ's third album, was originally titled Age of Aquarium. It was the first album to feature what many consider to be the "classic quartet" line up: Terry Adams (keyboard/coronet/trumpet), Joey Spampinato (bass/guitar/sax/vocals), Al Anderson (guitar/vocals), and Tom Staley (drums).

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