Ween counts as a pretty “odd” band, but certainly not a novelty act. They only had two songs that charted. “Voodoo Lady” is a pretty straight classic rock kind of track, but “Push th’ Little Daisies” was straight up weird. It was also my first introduction to one of my favorite bands.
Also, I researched and was surprised to find out that Tiny Tim didn’t have any Billboard hits. Also, he didn’t write “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” like I thought. Bob Dylan said Tiny Tim had the most extensive knowledge of American music of anyone he knew.
The writer, Alan O’Day, would rework the concept three years later with his hit ‘Undercover Angel,’ only there, it’s a girl who appears in his bedroom out of nowhere, then disappears again.
That is one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite albums.
Steam’s “Na Na Na (Kiss him Goodbye)”. Originally meant to be a b side, so deejays would play the surefire hit of the four possible hit singles the songwriter and singer came up with. Interesting enough it was the record label who saw it as a hit.
There’s got to be at least an honorable mention for The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.
“The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” - spoken by Mike Douglas in the 60’s - we were in high school then and thought it was hilarious.
“Wives and Lovers” by Jack Jones - a light, breezy, jazzy ode to housewives making themselves purty for their husbands when they came home. Also hilarious! (I hear this and always think, 'didn’t work out so well for Betty Draper;.)
Brilliant, indeed. The paraphrase from the aria ‘O souverain’ (Massenet’s ‘Le Cid’) speaks to me. And “Here come the planes. They’re American planes” might be gallows-humor or chilling prescience.
The Shifting Whispering Sands - Jim Reeves
Telephone Man - Meri Wilson. I know this was originally a Beatles number but even they never put it out as a chart single
This was back in 1965–66, when it was still cool to be patriotic about the war.
“My Girl, Bill” (note the comma). :rolleyes:
That’s also the song I was going to mention. I can’t even figure out what the message is supposed to be: “Teens: listen to your parents or you’ll end up dead.” Or is it “Parents: go easier on your teens or they’ll end up dead.” Either way, it’s unclear whether the song is sincere in its message or if it’s supposed to be a satire of something.
I probably could have been clearer. I wasn’t throwing aspersions at patriotism. I got this Archie and Jughead stereotype in my head that nobody over the age of 25 buys records, and no one under 25 would buy a “square” record. Make any more sense? I didn’t think so. :smack:
For completeness’ sake, My Girl Bill does not have a comma in the title (it should). I have the Jim Stafford Song Book and the sheet music for MGB derived from the book and JS has not a clue what the proper comma usage is; I don’t think there is one correct instance in the lyric sheet or the score. I can think of two ways to not use a comma: if you have two dogs (one of each sex) and both are named Bill, you could introduce them as “my boy Bill” and “my girl Bill.” The other: if I sold you a Russian mail-order bride, what would you get, from me, in the mail? My girl bill. :o
I inserted the comma to match the true meaning of the song, which isn’t revealed until its very end. Listening to the song *without *reading the lyrics, the meaning is somewhat ambiguous (to say the least), which is what made it, uhm, “memorable.” :rolleyes:
Back in 5th grade, BTW, I thought “Ballad of the Green Berets” was AWESOME! (My favorite TV show was Combat!, and Tuesday nights at 6:30 were what made life worth living! :o )
“Tip-Toe Through the Tulips” reached #17.
One Night in Bangkok has to be the weirdest: A rap song about a chess match that hit #1?
On the other hand The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley (by the justly forgotten Terry Nelson and C-Company, celebrating the achievements of a soldier involved in one of the worst civilian massacres in U.S. military history) was a top 40 hit in 1971, when the Vietnam War wasn’t so “popular” anymore (it peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100).
Annie-Xmas writes:
> One Night in Bangkok has to be the weirdest: A rap song about a chess match that
> hit #1?
Um, sort of, but sort of not. Since your location says you live in New Jersey, it didn’t hit #1 where you live. It was only #3 in the U.S. and Canada and only #12 in the U.K. Only in seven countries where you don’t live did it hit #1. Calling it a rap song is strange, even if it does include talking and singing. I presume the writers (who were two Swedes and a Brit) didn’t think of it as a rap song in 1983 when they probably wrote it. It’s partly about a chess match, but it’s more about visiting Bangkok. It’s a chess master boasting about how he’s not tempted by the prostitutes in the city:
Timing. It hit #2 two months after Snoopy was trying to find The Red Baron in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!