I’ll probably think of more, but the first two that spring to mind are…
Uncle Bonsai They were a trio from Seattle in the 1980s; disbanded for a while, and then started doing a few reunion gigs per year. They released more material since reforming than they did in their heyday. I don’t know that I’d quite call them novelty. I’ve heard them compared to Flight of the Conchords; folksy, but with a wry cynicism instead of folk’s usual earnestness. And every now and then they can do something wonderfully sincere and touching. Not every song of theirs is online, but here’s a good start:
Here Come the Mummies Rumor is that they’re a bunch of session musicians under contract to different labels, and can only perform together incognito, so they wear mummy costumes. And they have a lot of sexual entendres in their lyrics. But you forget the gimmicks after about 30 seconds and then they’re just an awesome funk band. Their lineup has changed a bit since this video, so I don’t know if they’re still the powerhouse that they were.
Brian May of Queen used to watch a Japanese SciFi show for kids with his son. Then he had the idea of recording a version of the theme tune with Eddie Van Halen.
Robert Mitchum once recorded an album of calypso songs.
If you’re interested, the album was titled Calypso—Is Like So . . .
My favorite song was “From a Logical Point of View”,
which was a cover of “Ugly Woman”, by Roaring Lion.
You might be familiar with Jimmy Soul’s version, titled “If You Wanna be Happy.”
Reminded me of another that is just too good to be considered a novelty in my mind, but this is a good excuse to post it.
For the lazy…
And this one was recommended by YouTube for Dynamite Hack and it’s comedy, so maybe not novelty, and maybe not “good” musically, but I’ll be damned if it ain’t an earworm.
You could throw pretty much the entire Frank Zappa discography in here. The closest thing he ever had to a “hit” was Valley Girl, and I find that one of his weaker, musically.
Everyone knows “Don’t eat the yellow snow”, but many don’t know Montana
AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” isn’t per se a novelty song. But when it’s played by a mohawked Australian piper, with flamethrowers on the drones of his bagpipes, it is.
I have that same CD! Or at least, a similar one. Mine is a greatest hits album. Or maybe “compilation album” would be a better term–they didn’t really have enough hits to fill a whole album.
In addition to the Snoopy songs (I think “Snoopy’s Christmas” may be a bit more familiar than “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” just because it gets played during the holidays a fair amount), The Royal Guardsmen did a lot of covers, and a lot of songs about airplanes. They seemed to be obsessed with World War I aviation.
I found an LP in a used record store back in the Eighties. Nobody seems to know this particular album exists; I can’t find it anywhere among their online discographies. The ‘A’ side is 13 tracks of Guardsmen but the ‘B’ side is six Vince Guaraldi pieces from the specials plus “The Smallest Astronaut” by Barry Winslow.
I wore out that LP so now I have two double-album CDs.
It depends on where you are. Snoopy’s Christmas was a hit, and is still a perennial Christmas song in Australia and New Zealand, but almost completely unknown in the rest of the world.
