Are you thinking of “Why Does The Sun Shine”?
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas/A gigantic nuclear furnace/Where hydrogen is built into helium/At temperatures of millions of degrees
Another one that doesn’t quite qualify as a novelty song but is worthy of mention is “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the MAN song!”
The Sweater Song
I Kissed a Girl (Not the Katy Perry one)
You Klingon Bastard, You Killed My Son (Might be unknown outside the DC area)
My Girl’s Pussy (R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders; the song itself is unbelievably old, like 1929)
I don’t consider those novelty songs. (Weezer and Jill Sobule.)
Popular by Nada Surf
Tangerine Speedo by Caviar
The latter is questionable as a novelty song, but it has the elements of weird subject matter and blatantly tongue in cheek delivery. Then again, so did many of the songs by the similar postmoderner-than-thou band Dandy Warhols, and I don’t consider their songs to be novelty.
Not a novelty song.
Hey Justin Bailey:
How 'bout you suggest a song?
Or are you just here to poop all over everybody’s suggestions.
My suggestion: Tubthumping by Chumbawumba.
I’d say anything on Dr. Demento’s playlist qualifies.
Different “The Sweater” (Meryn Cadell). I misremembered the title, sorry.
1 hit wonder, not novelty song.
Quote:
#2 I Kissed A Girl - Jill Sobule
Sorry, I still wouldn’t consider that a novelty song. 
“Tarzan Boy” - Baltimora (1985)
“I Spent My Last $10 (On Birth Control And Beer)” - Two Nice Girls (1989)
“I’m Too Sexy” (1992)
Where are you getting your definition of “novelty song” from? Wikipedia? That’s not the only interpretation. The first non-Wikipedia entry when I googled “novelty song” was from Encyclopedia Britannica:
Under their definition, just about everything in this thread qualifies, though I personally think that it’s a bit too broad/inclusive. The OP will decide where to draw the line with regard to what he’ll include in his name-that-tune game, of course.
Ha. Yeah, it’s sort of a gray area. First off, it a party for my church group so some of these songs are right out on that accord. I can imagine the reaction if I played “My Girl’s Pussy”! (which I found very clever and fun BTW).
As far as what constitutes a “novelty song” vs. just a off-beat tune or one-hit wonder…I’ll just go with a gut feeling. For the purposes of my party, the song has to be recognizable to at least a few people, else the game won’t be any fun. Most of my playlist will be things that have stood the test of time, so the older songs will be heavily represented. Lot’s of Dr. Demento stuff.
But I do want to have some more recent items and this thread has given me some good ideas. Even if I don’t use them for the contest, I’ll enjoy listening to (most of) them. So, thanks!
The Bear and The Maiden Fair.
If that’s not a novelly song, I dunno what is.
Probably. I mean, I knew that Why Does the Sun Shine was but I also thought Istanbul was as well.
I was half right anyway, it was a cover of a 1953 song recorded by The Four Lads.
It also apparently reached #10 on the Billboard charts at the time and got The Four Lads their first gold record.
I’m actually not too familiar with novelty songs, and I popped in because I was curious what people came up with. However, this board has a tendency to pull out some really bizarre choices for stuff (Example… Q: “What’s the most underrated movie of the 70s?” A: “Star Wars”) and that started happening within less than an hour. So I decided to jump in and point out that slightly odd singles from massively popular bands aren’t really “novelty songs.”
divemaster, how about “Do the Bartman” by the Simpsons and Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”?