I listen mostly to Destination Doo-wop for oldies radio, and on their program Gary’s Oldies Vault you’ll hear mixed in with the other oldies a fair number of novelty songs that you may never have heard of. Here’s some that I first learned about there:
“Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. (There are a number of interesting videos of this song out there.)
Then there’s “Surfin’ Bird” by the Trashmen, but I think that might get more airplay. (This clip, from American Bandstand, is certainly one of the stranger musical segments of early-60s pop… the vocalist, sans band or anyone else, lip-synching the entire song.)
Let’s see, Top 40 music of the era that would bring me back to my childhood or early years when I couldn’t avoid hearing them a gazillion times, yet never hear on the “oldies” radio station today…
The disco version of the theme to Star Wars
“Pac-Man Fever” by … ?
“Pop Musik” by M
“Jam On It” by Newcleus
For a couple of weeks in 1972, you couldn’t turn on a radio without hearing “Convention '72” by The Delegates. For a couple of months in 1975, you couldn’t turn on a radio without hearing “Mister Jaws”.
I was heartily sick of them at the time, but now I kind of miss them. I haven’t heard either since they dropped off the charts.
As an added bonus, the former included the “Gotta Find a Woman” chant from the funk single “Troglodyte (Cave Man)”, and I can’t remember the last time I heard it, either.
This song immediately came to mind when I read the OP. I’m not sure how much airplay it got when it was new, but I’ve only heard it on the radio once and I immediately loved it (it was on a mainstream oldies station in Austin, TX about 10 years ago). I don’t know if this is the original (I doubt it) but it’s the version I heard: Fendermen - Muleskinner Blues (“Send that buck-buck-bucket on down!”)