IMHO the best novelty song todate was/is
"Hello Muddah Hello Faddah. I mean once you hear the thing the only way to quit humming it is to put a bullet through your skull. Plus it tells a nice story of a kid at camp who was writing to his mom and dad because he was homesick but at the end of the song he sees kids swimming,sailing etc and changes his mind.
The worst??
Purple People Eater!!
It had an annoying organ part that was suppose to represent a UFO or something but was not unlike an ice pick between the eyes. plus it had almost no melody. Still it probably sold 20 million copies.
please tell me your best and worst or just the best and worst silly song.
here i am at camp granada…la la la
“I think it speaks to the duality of man sir.”
(private Joker in Full Metal Jacket)
FYI: The song was sung by Allan Sherman. There is a musical revue at the Appollo Theater in Chicago right now called “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” based on that song and other songs by Sherman.
Does anyone recall a song from circa 1982 called “Whatsa Matta You”? I have no idea who sang it, but he did so any a very strong mock Italian accent. The only lines I recall are:
“Whatsa Matta You?
Hey! Gotta no respect…”
Anyone? Anyone?
Never let them teach you to think, Lance. It’s the curse of the world.
Al Sherman rocks! I actually have a CD of his with Hello Muddah Hello Fadduh.
Anything by Weird Al rocks. But are those novelties or just parodies?
My brother and I used to entertain guests by singing that Shaddupayouface song. We’d have permanent marker mustaches, aprons and handtowels over our arms… like Italian waiters, I guess. We’d have ‘em rollin’ in the aisles.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
Omigod, don’t get me started on novelty songs, or I’ll tell you about the time Ukelele Ike serenaded me with “Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars” (it will always be Our Song . . ).
Other favorite titles include:
• Rebecca’s Back from Mecca
• Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty
• My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle
• Lovin’ Sam, The Sheik of Alabam’
• I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana
• When Father Laid the Carpet On the Stairs
And I can sing 'em all . . . Oh, I could go on and on, and just ask Ike if you don’t believe me . . .
I’ve always been partial to “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Ha” - great for singalongs in the car. Our morning DJ used to play something years ago that was pretty vile, “Boobs A Lot” (?)
I don’t know if it counts as novelty but that f***ing song “Blue” by Eiffel 55 (?) I hate it, I hate it, I HATE it. The bar I used to work at sent it out especially to me, it drives me batty. What a stupid song.
Bloat On - Cheech and Chong! I had the '45 when I was about 6 or 7, had no idea that it was about the munchies. I just loved the (what sounded like a) fat guy going, “Cheeeeese-buga”.
Anybody ever heard “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island” (“Gilligan’s Island theme” to the tune of “Stairway to Heaven”)? It’s got to be my all-time favorite novelty song, and I only heard it once, over 20 years ago: the DC deejay Cerphe did a show of novelty songs, ca. 1979. This was one of them.
Other things I remember from that show, besides “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha”, which led off the show, are “A Day in the Life of Green Acres” (GA theme to the tune of…) and - I swear I’m not making this up - a parody of the flip side of “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha”. Yes, a parody of a song played backwards.
“Cocktails for Two” – Spike Jones and his City Slickers
“The Intro and the Outro” – Bonzo Dog Doodah Band
“Ali Baba’s Camel” – Bonzo Dog Band
“Driving Test” – (I’ve forgotten her name alas – billed as “The Original Sarah Jackman” so some Alan Sherman fan might be able to identify.)
“Alive and Well in Argentina” – Zal Yanovsky
“All by Myself in the Moonlight” – Roger Ruskin Spear
“Mother’s Lament” – Cream
“Cobwebs and Strange” – The Who
“Deuling Tubas” – Martin Mull
“Mabel” – Procul Harum
Worst:
“Neanderthal Man” – Hotlegs (10cc)
Anything by that poseur “Weird” Al. He’s about as wierd as Wonder Bread and less clever than the worst Mad Magazine song lyrics.
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
My perenniel shower-time classic… C’MON EVERYBODY!:
It’s that time of year
Now that spring is in the air
That those two wet gits
With their girly-curly hair
Write another song
For moronic holidays
That nauseate-ate-ate
In a million different ways
From the shores of Spain
To the coast of southern France
No matter where you hide
You just can’t escape this dance…
Dee da dee da dee dee do do / Dee ba ditty doh / Deedle dooby doo ba dee um bee ooby / Be doodle oodle doodle dee dohhttp://members.xoom.com/labradorian/
Well, there’s a bunch that come to mind, most of them standards on the Dr. Demento radio program when I was in high school. Several were mentioned in the thread on “Fish Heads”, by Barnes & Barnes.
Best
[ul][li]“Existential Blues”, by Tom “T-Bone” Stankus (not sure of the spelling of “Stankus”).[/li][li]“Like a Dribbling Fram” – I’m blanking on the artist, but it was a Bob Dylan parody done in the style of Edward Kennedy, IIRC.[/li][li]“Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?”, Bonzo Dog Doodah Band[/li][li]The entire Snuff Rock EP, credited to “Alberto y los Trios Paranoias” (working from memory, people, so if I muffed the “Paranoias” bit don’t flame me – it’s been 20 years, after all), released on Stiff Records in the late ‘70s as a sort of punk parody (though one of the four tracks, "Snuffin’ in a Babylon" was in fact reggae), featuring the talents of Nick Lowe, among others. “Kill”, the track I remember best, began: “I don’t give a damn I don’t fucking care, I wanna kill me mum and dad and pull out me hair, I’m fed up with the dole and the human race, Wanna cut me liver out and pin it on me” followed by a word I never did succeed in deciphering.[/li][li]I don’t know if most people would consider them novelty songs per se, but I’m quite fond of many of the songs from the Animaniacs TV series.[/li][li]Almost forgot “Deteriorata”, a “Desiderata” parody from the early days of the National Lampoon Radio Hour.[/li][li]“Pull the Tregroes”, also from the National Lampoon Radio Hour[/ul][/li] Worst
[ul][li]“Telephone Man”, Merry Wilson.[/li][li]“Bra Size 45”, a sort of parody of “Stars on 45”, British in origin, but by whom I don’t recall.[/ul][/li]
Seem to have blocked most of the really bad ones out. I’m sure more will come rushing horribly back when I can least cope with it.
Iver Bigguns was the artist, and yeah, it really sucks.
Ones I like:
“Polka Dot Undies”
“Disney On Ice”
“Wolf Crick Pass”
“Life In The Slaw Lane”
“Wet Dreams In The Gulf Stream”
“Rock Me Jerry Lewis”
Anything by Tom Leher
Has anyone else ever heard “Stan Freeberg Presents The United States Of America”? Great record!
Whatever happened to that “Sunscreen” song? It just appeared (unlike dragons, which apparently “sppeared” in my other post) one day on every single radio station - from the teeny bopper one to the the classic rock and “Alternative” stations. Every blabbering idiot went on and on about how “it really makes you think”. Then it just went away (thankfully).
