When Greg Kihn’s “Jeopardy” came up, I immediately thought of Steve Miller’s “Jungle Love.” Haven’t heard that recently.
But my wife informs me that it is Not PC to play it. She tried to explain it to me, but I remained totally confused about a song written in 1975 that could have shown up as a Dave Mason track…but didn’t.
I’m old and easily confused.
Brand New Key by Melanie was a big hit in the early 70s. Mostly forgotten today.
Zappa’s Valley Girl was all over the radio for a short time in the 1980s. I’d be surprised if any station has played it since then.
Before that annoying little song was played over and over by Top 40 radio, Melanie Safka was actually taken quite seriously as a singer-songwriter. She performed at Woodstock! She even did a song about it, “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain”) backed by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, a gospel group. “Brand New Key” was intended as a kind-of silly album cut, but against her wishes, the record company released it as a single. She’s often said that song ruined her career, calling it the “bane of (her) existence.”
Having worked in radio for the better part of 50 years, I can verify I never played that song again since it was first released. It’s one of those songs that completely disappeared from radio station playlists as soon as its chart run was over.
Perhaps it doesn’t get much radio play today, but it’s certainly not forgotten.
I’m still groovin’ on
War Song, Neil Young, 1971
You’ll love (or hate) them for 1971’s “Signs” but 5 Man Electrical Band’s “I’m a Stranger Here” was big in 1973
Barry Greenfield, “New York Is Closed Tonight,” 1973
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it at least a couple times over the past few months on the classic rock stations here.
“Darling Be Home Soon” was on the charts in '68, but I don’t think anyone has heared it much. Enjoyed Slade’s cover.
IMHighlyEsteemedO the 70’s coolest hit instrumental, Billy Preston’s Outa Space, is also never heard these days.
A derail, but whenever I see creepo Joe Brooks mentioned, I gotta post this…attempting to seduce Shelly Hack by conducting an orchestra, despite looking more like a mentally handicapped swan. If such a thing exists.
Somehow I always knew that it was a Lovin’ Spoonful song, though I’ve only ever heard the Joe Cocker cover. Slade having covered it is news to me.
The Lovin’ Spoonful had a whole greatest hits album-worth of songs that hardly ever get played.
Donovan is another 60s’ star who falls in that category.
I still sometimes hear “Summer In The City” and “Daydream”.
My already mentioned favorite station WDR4 sometimes plays “Mellow Yellow”, and I always have to chuckle. It’s such a strange song of its time, and does anybody get today what it means?
Psychedelics-feuled drivel?
It was a joke song about how smoking banana peels supposedly got you high. (It doesn’t.)
If that’s the only Donovan song they play, it is odd it’s that one rather than “Sunshine Superman” which was his #1 hit, or “Hurdy Gurdy Man” or “Atlantis” which were both memorably featured in movies.
The smoking banana peels joke makes sense, but I’ve always thought the crucial part of the song was the “electrical banana”, which meant a vibrator. Yeah, it’s a silly song.
And they also sometimes play “Atlantis”. Man, that is an embarrassing and dated song.
O, Donovan! Where is the all-Donovan station in the interwebiverse? I want to move there.
“Electric whatever” was the phrase of the year at the time, so I’m doubtful about it meaning a vibrator. Especially in context. It was simply a callback to mellow yellow being the fad of smoking banana peels.
Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase
People also say that “I’m just mad about fourteen” is about pedophilia, and I don’t believe that either.
Wikipedia has this to say: According to The Rolling Stone Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll , he admitted later the song made reference to a vibrator; an “electrical banana” as mentioned in the lyrics.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellow_Yellow#cite_note-8) Donovan stated, “I was reading a newspaper and on the back there was an ad for a yellow dildo called the mellow yellow,” he said. “Really, you know the ‘electric banana’ was right in there and gave it away.”
Certainly possible, though I’m always leary of what writers say decades after the fact. Also certainly possible that it had any number of antecedents. The Electric Prunes formed in 1965. Everything was electric.
“Mellow Yellow,” interestingly, was a brand name of Chiquita Bananas. It was also used in dozens of other ways in 1965 and 1966, describing pears, steers, shoes, paint, dresses, and anything vaguely that color. James Joyce used the phrase to describe Molly Bloom’s ass. You won’t find that on Wikipedia.
Fair.
There was (is?) a soda pop called Mellow Yellow. (A clone of Mountain Dew.) Don’t remember when it came out, though.
I know i’m replying to a very old post, but I’m in agreement with you. I cannot recall ever hearing Hocus Pocus on any oldies stations in the 1980s and had no idea who Focus was. It wasn’t until sometime between 2003-2006 that I was driving home late at night when the song came on the radio. My immediate thought was, “Who and what the hell am I listening to?” So of course I ended up downloading the song off of iTunes. It wasn’t until the remake of Robocop that I heard the song again. Focus is a Dutch rock band, and I think here in the United States at least, Hocus Pocus is the type of song that really didn’t endure. It’s a good song, but kind of an oddball one, and I’ve never seen them make it on any list of great 70s rock songs.