“Rock Lobster” by the B-52s is the weirdest popular song ever. It’s not even a close call.
Taco’s 1982 version of “Puttin On The Ritz” always seemed really random to me. Not like it was during the resurgence of swing music or anything, and it was 8 years after Young Frankenstein. Dude just decided he wanted to do a pop synth cover of an Irving Berlin song in the 80s and he did.
His real name is Taco by the way.
Not nearly as strange as some of these, but I always found it quite odd that one of Pearl Jam’s bigger hits was a cover of “Last Kiss”, one of the teenage death songs from the early 60s. The Pearl Jam version hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999, which at least according to Wikipedia is the band’s highest ranking on that chart.
I thought I had successfully blanked this: wasn’t there a, “Disco Lucy” - the theme song from, “l Love Lucy,” disco-ed up with a chorus singing the title at the end of each passage? Like, in case you forgot what the theme song sounded like even though it’s playing perpetually since 1951.
Can someone call 911 for me? I’m ODing on glurge…
I think Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto in 1961 should make the list. Sakamoto was a Japanese singer, and non-English acts typically don’t go very far here in the United States.
I don’t think most people remember that song. It wasn’t played on any of the oldiest stations I grew up with. There was a local station that used to play part of it, the “I am the god of hell fire!” part whenever there was a car on fire during the local traffic report, but I never heard the song in its entirety until fairly recently.
Well, now I understand what this classic Simpsons bit was referencing.
Yeesht. Want people to leave your business? Play THAT.
ISTR that it was the second remake where both songs hit #1, the first one being “The Loco-Motion” by Little Eva, and a decade or so later, by Grand Funk Railroad.
THIS showed up in my recommended feed on You Tube just a few days ago.
“Open the Door Richard”. This song was just before my time, but I was constantly reminded of the refrain, my name being Richard. I hope to piss on the writer’s grave before I die.
And of course Taste of Honey’s English version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVSUaz10v7w
My uncle, whose name was Mike, absolutely hated “Playground in My Mind” from 1972.
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yem_iEHiyJ0
And the MTV version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc6f_2nPSX8
“Ringo”, a spoken-word western ballad by Pa Cartright himself, made #1 on the Hot 100 in 1964, possibly because of teenyboppers who bought the single assuming it had something to do with Ringo Starr.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” deserves a place on this list. It’s become such an enduring classic that it’s hard to remember just how peculiar it is, even by the standards of progressive rock.
Enigma had multiple hits in the early 90s combining dance beats with Gregorian chanting and New Age music. Bizarre!
“Peek-A-Boo” by Siouxsie And The Banshees is pretty unusual.
There was, indeed – and I, too, had successfully blocked it from my mind until you dredged up that memory. 
It reached #24 on the Billboard chart in 1977.
Short People by Randy Newman peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s one of those songs that, when you first hear it, you can’t believe you’re hearing what you think you’re hearing.