They were around during the mid-late 1970s. I remember a friend having several 45s and a few tapes with the same shtick. A reporter is ostensibly interviewing someone, and asking questions to a certain person. But the ‘answers’ given were really snippets of pop songs, with ‘wacky’ comedic results.
Example:
Reporter: We’re talking with a world-famous explorer live via satalitte. Where are you located at this precise moment?
‘Answer’: “I’m on top of the world, looking down on creation…”
Reporter: I see. And how did you get there?
‘Answer’: “Ooooooon the midnight trainnnnnn…”
Reporter: Interesting. And where may I ask do you intend to go from there?
‘Answer’: “Gonna flyyyy now! Up, up, to the sky nowwwww…”
Reporter: And how do you propose on getting up to sky?
‘Answer’: “In my beautiful, my beautiful ballooooooooooonnnnnn…”
You get the drift. Most of them were pretty stupid and juvenile. But occasionally some of them were kind of brilliant. I just wondered if anyone else remembered these, or what they were called for that matter.
I remember them, but offhand can’t recall any details about them. Dr. Demento used to play them occasionally. I’m sure there was one about aliens landing, and I think there was one with Batman.
AT my High School for homecoming we made of these. We called it the senior tape. A groupd of seniors would get together and make one and it included a joke for every member of the senior class. Small private school.
The one we made was banned because we used ‘Fartman’ from a National Lampoon record as part of a reply.
Actually the entire tape was about me. In the tape, I have received a note from a girl asking for the last slow dance, and ‘investigators’ were trying to find who had done this obvious hoax.
I heard a couple of these recently on a 70’s station and couldn’t get over how unfunny they were. I don’t recall them the first go around but they don’t even strike me as even the least bit creative. I did some as kid before I knew what I was copying from that I think we as good as the real ones. Maybe a ribald one would have been good, but then it probably wouldn’t have made AM radio.
The only one I really remember is “Mr Jaws,” because of fond memories of playing it over and over again on a jukebox at some pizza place with my brother when we were kids. I bought it from eMusic a while back mostly for nostalgia and I still think it’s kind of amusing. I emailed it to my brother with some chatter about how much fun we used to have playing it. He emailed back that he has no recollection of it.
This is the one I remember. I don’t recall the question asked, but it had an answer that was a snippet from “Love Will Keep Us Together,” singing “I will! I will! I will!..” more times than Toni Tenielle actually sang it.
I also have vague recollections of one that was done shortly after Nixon’s resignation, as an interview of him.
The first one I remember (and the funniest one I remember) was Convention '72. It seems, however, that that one wasn’t by Dickie Goodman, but 2 morning DJs known as The Delegates.
I’ll be digging through the old 45 collection tonight…
Interviewer: Captain, will you be able to catch this giant shark?
Quint: I will! I will! I will!
Interviewer: Thank you Captain…
Quint: I will! I will! I will!
Interviewer: Captain…? Captain!
And then the follow-up question: When you catch one of these sharks, what do you feel like?
During the final months of Nixon’s presidency (when it came out that Rosemary Woods had erased several minutes of Oval Office tape), there was one about Nixon’s troubles. Every time his character was asked to respond to a question, we’d hear Helen Reddy singing the Ruby Red Dress song (“Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone”). The flip side of one that had the reporter saying “Mr. President, the–”, followed by three minutes of silence.
I had suggested to some friends that we do an updated version of this in Flash this year. Everyone thought it was a great idea, but no one was willing to put time into it.
Yoinks, I forgot all about these things! First one I remember ever hearing was Batman and His Grandmother all the way back in 1966. Can’t find the lyrics (script?) anywhere. I do remember that it was extraordinarily dumb, though.
