# "Odd" songs by seemingly "normal" artists
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 12, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787 "2004-07-12T22:17:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/1 "2004-07-12T22:17:45Z")
Now, I’m not talkin’ about groups like They Might Be Giants or Devo or soloists like Weird Al who make their living with screwy tunes. No, I’m talking about mainstream performers who “experiment”. They come up with a song that upon hearing it, you say, “What the hell were they thinking?” or, “No way. That isn’t (insert name here)”.
Some examples:
“Rapture” - Blondie. I didn’t believe it was them until I saw the album.
“Tusk” - Fleetwood Mac. Couldn’t understand the lyrics for the longest time. Lyndsey, you’re a nut, man!
_Trans_ - Neil Young. I understand Neil likes to try new things, but it sounds like he’d listened to too much ELO (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Neil went to do an album of rockabilly music, but it doesn’t seem to be as odd.
“King Kong Song” & “My Mama Said” - ABBA. A song about a famous ape is weird even for them. The other has ABBA-like lyrics, but the music has an odd jazz feel to it.
What can you think of?
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### Author:  [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/2 "2004-07-12T22:51:43Z")
Is the opposite scenario allowed, as well? Cos the first time I heard the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’ I thought it was the Beatles; in fact WIOQ in Philadelphia, in the late 70s, used to kick off a show called ‘Breakfast with the Beatles’ with this song, and people would ring in all the time asking on which Beatles’ album could it be found…it’s a wee bit different than the other songs on _The Velvet Underground and Nico_ which mum bought me on the strength of ‘Sunday Morning’ :eek:
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/3 "2004-07-12T22:52:11Z")
“Temporary Secretary” by Paul McCartney. I totally dig this track, but it’s a schizophrenic attempt at experimental electronic music, with some of the oddest and most inane Paul McCartney lyrics: “She can be a neurosurgeon/if she’s doin’ nothing’ urgent…” It really is a train wreck of a song, but something about it makes it just endearing enough to like.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/4 "2004-07-13T00:35:18Z")
I used to do a radio show featuring this sort of thing. Some include:
**Cream** – “Mother’s Lament” (“Oh, your baby has gone down the plughole.”)
**Procul Harum** – “Mabel” (“Don’t eat green meat, it ain’t good for you./Killed your mother, killed your sister, too.”)
**The Who** – “Cobwebs and Strange” (instrumental) and “Boris the Spider”
**Jefferson Airplane** – “A Small Package of Value will Come to You, Shortly.” (“No man is an island. He’s a peninsula.”)
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### Author:  [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/5 "2004-07-13T01:58:39Z")
Do Covers Count? Prong does a cover of The Music Machine’s “Talk Talk”. Prong would be the last band on earth I’d expect to cover that nugget.
The funny thing is, as heavy as Prong is, the original version is still way more intense than Prong’s version.
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/6 "2004-07-13T02:14:11Z")
The group “ **Bread** ” which was the embodiment of soft rock (like cotton wadding soft) actually did a true rock song and had a minor hit with it - “Let Your Love Go”. Granted, it is not some tear the plaster off the walls, “hope I die before I get old” type of anthem but it’s worth a listen just because it was a departure for Bread.
\*\*Jerry Samuels \*\* wrote the song “Shelter of Your Arms” for Sammy Davis Jr. Jerry Samuels was also the Napoleon XIV who did "They’re Coming To Take Me Away Hah-hah !!
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/7 "2004-07-13T02:16:09Z")
**The Beatles** - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
and **pulykamell** , if you think “Temporary Secretary” is strange, you should hear the whole other album of material that got cut from _McCartney II_. Some of those songs are so reviled among fans and critics that no one ever mentions them - except in a disparaging way. None of them would have helped his reputation.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/8 "2004-07-13T02:29:00Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#):
>
> **The Beatles** - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
Bizarre to say the least. The story more or less goes like this (I have the book it’s from, but can’t recall the title right off hand):
John: “Paul, I’ve got this idea for a song.”
Paul: “How’s it go?”
John: “You know my name, look up the number.”
Paul: “What are the lyrics?”
John: “That’s it.”
Paul: “Cool.”
It took two years (off and on) to record and sat on the shelf for a year before being released as the B-side of “Let It Be”.
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### Author:  [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/9 "2004-07-13T03:24:31Z")
John Denver’s first album has a very silly tune called “My Heart,” better known as “You Done Stomped on My Heart,” a **very** tongue-in-cheek country tune. (Sample lyric: “You just sorta/stomped on my aorta.”) I heard it years ago on the Dr. Demento show; the good Doc commented, “And it was all downhill from there.”
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/10 "2004-07-13T03:43:22Z")
“Be The One” by Hootie and The Blowfish sounds nothing like any of their other songs. (at least on the first two cds. I haven’t been subjected to the others.)
In the truly weird-for-this-artist-catogory, I nominate **Dishwalla** ’s untitled bonus track on _Pet your friends_ and **Incubus** ’s " Magic Medicine".
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/11 "2004-07-13T04:18:34Z")
The Beach Boys had a few of these, like “She’s Goin’ Bald” or “I’m Bugged At My Old Man.” Oh, that wacky Brian!
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### Author:  [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/12 "2004-07-13T05:41:39Z")
The Beatles - The Inner Light
(But really, what’s normal about the Beatles?:D)
Or on the flip side, Enter Sandman - Pat Boone.
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/13 "2004-07-13T05:53:20Z")
I think the award in this category goes to Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-A-Ling”.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/14 "2004-07-13T05:59:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I used to do a radio show featuring this sort of thing. Some include:
>
> **Cream** – “Mother’s Lament” (“Oh, your baby has gone down the plughole.”)
Cream’s first single, Wrapping Paper, also sounds nothing like they normally did.
Flanders - I mean, Pat Boone - did an entire album of metal songs, of which Enter Sandman is only one. So you could count all the songs on there, or you could say they’re all in character for that album… or something…
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/15 "2004-07-13T06:11:09Z")
David Bowie’s first single. Forgotten the title, fortunately, but the song consists of an extended series of puns about gnomes. Musta been desperate.
And I’ve always thought the Stones’ early hit “Mother’s Little Helper” was out of keeping with the rest of their, er, oeuvre.
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### Author:  [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/16 "2004-07-13T10:19:56Z")
**The Carpenters** recorded a song whose title I can’t remember in which the first line is “Calling occupants of interplanetary craft”. Later in the song, the alien contributes a guest vocal.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/17 "2004-07-13T10:28:40Z")
Dr. Demento, purveyor of odd music, did a show a few months back featuring this exact topic. The title was “What were they thinking?” so I immediately thought about it when reading almost that exact phrase in the OP.
His playlist for that hour was as follows (including some of what has already been mentioned):
> [@](#):
>
> **Ito Eats** - Elvis Presley
> **Dominic (excerpt)** - Elvis Presley
> **Old MacDonald (edit)** - Elvis Presley
> **Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport** - Rolf Harris w/ The Beatles
> **Cobwebs And Strange** - The Who
> **Mother’s Lament (minus count-off)** - Cream
>
> **She’s Goin’ Bald** - The Beach Boys
> **Big Ten Inch Record** - Aerosmith
> **Old Ben Lucas** - Kinky Friedman (w/ Eric Clapton)
> **No Anchovies, Please** - The J. Geils Band
>
> **Friends** - The Police
> **Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)** - Van Halen
> **Bugs** - Pearl Jam
> **You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (stereo edit)** - The Beatles
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### Author:  [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/18 "2004-07-13T10:42:07Z")
_Where the wild roses grow_ by Nick Cave (makes perfect sense) and Kylie Minogue (previously known for such deep searching ballads as The Locomotion and I Should be So Lucky and that La La La thing since. A bit out of character.)
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### Author:  [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/19 "2004-07-13T14:14:19Z")
> [@threeorange](#):
>
> **The Carpenters** recorded a song whose title I can’t remember in which the first line is “Calling occupants of interplanetary craft”. Later in the song, the alien contributes a guest vocal.
Perhaps you’re whooshing us - but,if not - the title of that song is **Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft** - originally done by my favorite Canadian group **Klaatu**.
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-songs-by-seemingly-normal-artists/254787/20 "2004-07-13T14:41:03Z")
> [@Garfield226](#):
>
> Dr. Demento, purveyor of odd music, did a show a few months back featuring this exact topic. The title was “What were they thinking?” so I immediately thought about it when reading almost that exact phrase in the OP.
>
> His playlist for that hour was as follows (including some of what has already been mentioned):
>
> …
>
> No Anchovies, Please - The J. Geils Band
>
> …
>
> Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) - Van Halen
Glad to see the two above mentioned.
If Dr. D was gonna go with a Pearl Jam song, he might as well have gone with “Last Kiss” – even if it was a big hit. “Last Kiss” fits the criteria quite well, IMHO.
Other songs along these lines:
Wayne Newton performs Collective Soul’s “December” in concert sometimes. I don’t know if he’s ever put it to CD, though.
In retrospect, Kiss’s “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” seems to me like a naked, out-of-place ode to the disco era.
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